Hello again, Gorehounds.
3FMC back with you for yet another set of reviews for you on a crappy, rainy weekend. We had a bunch of reviews coming your way. I just hope that we have the motivation to do them all.
Synopsis: Today, we are going to review Director Zach Gregger’s 2022 debut film, Barbarian. Our film revolves around a young lady by the name of Tess, who goes to Detroit for a job interview, and while in the city (and she had to pick the worst neighborhood to go to. Made Escape from New York look like the Hamptons) she rents an AirBNB, which unfortunately is occupied by someone else when she gets there. The person in question is Keith, who is something of a local celebrity (and fails to tell her that he was known for playing Pennywise in the remake of IT), but he too thought that he was renting the house by himself. The two agree to cohabitate until one of them accidentally finds a secret addition to the home in the basement, courtesy of a secret passage that leads to a room with just a bed, a bucket, and a camera. Then things really get weird.
Summary: For a debut film, this director did extremely well. The film got good reviews overall and it definitely was a thumbs up. But any debut film is not without its flaws. This one had a few that were not bad, although there was one that cost them in my opinion. The film’s look was good, the pacing was fine, plot was good, however, with many a horror film, endings are the hardest part to do. This one started to unravel at the end and it turned into a “Ok, that was a total cliche.” Also, we don’t know why this happens, but movie makers seem to be insistent on giving a non-demonic or satanic-cult-related character quasi-immortality or regeneration against things that would end any normal person in a second. No matter how bad they batter, burn, crush, or shoot a killer in the film, the killer always comes back for one more scare at the end. I’m sorry, but that is so tired now. The other huge problem we saw with this film, was the misuse of the actor, Richard Brake. We were absolutely enthralled to see him in the film (as his name was not in the credits), and we know that whenever Richard shows up in a horror film, sh-t has just gotten a whole other level of terrifying. Brake commands the screen when he is on, and can absolutely capture the roles that he is in. Unfortunately, this one went nowhere. He is a neighbor that goes to the store, buys some baby supplies, stalks a woman, goes to her home, unlocks a window, goes home, opens a door where there is someone screaming, and that’s it. Unless we missed something. What a slap in the face to that great actor.
Rating: Not bad at all for a debut, and would have given the film 3.5, but for what you did to Richard, 3 stars.
3 out of 5
3rd Floor Movie Club 