Barbarian (2022)
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A woman staying in a double-booked rental home uncovers a terrifying secret hidden beneath the surface.
The story
On the night before a job interview, Tess Marshall arrives at a house she has booked on Airbnb in Brightmoor, Detroit. However, the house has been double-booked and is occupied by a man named Keith. Initially unnerved, Tess warms to Keith and stays while he sleeps on the couch. She awakens in the night to find her bedroom door open, but Keith assures her he did not open it. At her job interview, the interviewer warns Tess that she is staying in a dangerous neighborhood. As she returns to the house, a homeless stranger runs towards her, urging her to leave, and she hurries inside.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Tess Marshall finds herself in a double-booked Airbnb in Detroit. After a stranger warns her to flee, she enters the house and finds herself locked in a basement containing a hidden room with a bloody handprint. She eventually finds a subterranean tunnel where she encounters Keith, who is attacked by a deformed woman. The house's owner, AJ, is also in the tunnel; he is a disgraced actor who traveled to Detroit to inspect the property. The two are trapped in a pit where the woman attempts to treat them like infants. Tess eventually escapes with the help of a homeless man named Andre, while AJ finds a room containing the body of the original owner, Frank, who had been abducting and raping women for years. After a series of tense encounters and a misunderstanding involving a firearm, Tess and AJ are forced to confront the woman. In the final confrontation, the woman is killed, and Tess and AJ are left to deal with the aftermath of the ordeal.
- First release year
- 2022
- Runtime (minutes)
- 103
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Zach Cregger
- Writers
- Zach Cregger · writer
- Cast and characters
- Georgina Campbell; Bill Skarsgård; Justin Long · AJ
- Genres
- horror; thriller
- Themes
- sexual abuse; incest; trauma; misogyny
- Tone and mood
- horror; suspenseful
- Premise and plot tags
- kidnapping; rape; pedophilia
- Source material / true-story basis
- The Gift of Fear
- Reception
- The film received positive reviews from critics and was well-received in test screenings.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 78 · scale: 100 · review count: 38; CinemaScore · score: C+ · scale: A+ to F; PostTrak · score: 70% · scale: percent
- Production trivia
- The title 'Barbarian' was originally a placeholder during the writing process.; The film was originally intended to star Zac Efron as the character AJ.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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