Cast:
Georgina Campbell (Tess Marshall), Bill Skarsgård (Keith Toshko), Justin Long (AJ Gilbride), Matthew Patrick Davis (The Mother), Richard Brake (Frank), and Kurt Braunohler (Doug) Written and Directed by Zach Cregger.
Review:
"As long as I have no long plan, then no one could know what’s coming.”
Well, there is always time to do horror movies, modern era or not. This is the second feature film for Cregger, who directed exactly one other mainstream feature film in Miss March (2009); he was one of the founding members of the comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U' Know. Truly I suppose this is the time for people known for comedies trying to play their hand in horror in the same way you would see comedians attempt to play serious roles. Cregger had his inspiration when he read the book The Gift of Fear, as written by Gavin de Becker. Specifically, he was inspired by the chapter giving advice to women to pay attention to the little red flags men can give off in day-to-day situations (such as doing a favor when you didn't ask for it). It spiraled from writing a scene with all of these little red flags that somehow spiraled into a film, complete with a rule that if he was surprising himself, then he would have to surprise the audience. So yes, that is how one gets a movie where a double-booked Airbnb (in Detroit, the gate place for some scary thoughts) leads to a variety of events, all that come from a director who went from turning a scene into a horror movie that has gotten some appreciation from audiences.
Maybe the movie is an elaborate joke on critics who think it is really, really good for being "unpredictable" and something about the nature of gender politics in ways that reminded me of the overrated The Invisible Man (2020) or debatably average films such as Hereditary (2018). Oh sure, I thought it was decent as a mild take on the "person goes to the dark basement and finds something down there", but to call it some sort of new kind of twisted classic is just begging for mockery (Pearl, a movie made for a 1/4th of Barbarian's $4 million budget, is better in every single way). The thought that was going down in my head when watching it was the idea that this seemed more apt for a television movie rather than a whole feature. One can only keep the surprise for so long in a 107-minute movie, particularly when one of its lead characters doesn't appear until forty minutes have passed and you could basically separate the film into three parts: the Airbnb parts where something is totally not right about things (because hey, awkward dialogue is fun to hear for 20 minutes), the parts that see Long step into the fray and finds the thing best not spoiled here....and the endgame result that comes from a horror film. Go figure that the best part of the movie for me is the last of these segments. I'm here to watch a weird and grisly time that may or may not have interesting characters in it. Campbell is at the very least interesting enough to hold the film together in patience and composure, rolling with what the (potential) dangers that come with seeing fresh faces and handling it well. Skarsgård is meant to play a nice guy for what is meant to be drained out of a "hey, look at how weird it can be with little red flags", which, okay, sure (you can play story-time for your first half, just don't make one want to twiddle their thumbs). Your time will be spent better with Long, who manages to make a suitable semi-heel caricature (his character may or may not be a pervert, get it?) when he finally shows up when compared to all of the other things of the film, so take that for what it is worth when contributing mild humor to a movie that rides the dark humor trail for fair results. Brake comes in by the hour and is there to do exactly one or two quiet scenes. The handling of the creature is far more interesting in the grotesque, and this is done without much lighting to show much of it (hey, a horror trope worth going for) until the climax that actually does have a few chuckles to it in execution. The final shot does sell itself pretty well, for what it is worth, fitting in trying to throw the audience for one more loop without treating them like complete idiots. As a whole, when it is actually on the game of horror with grimy patience rather than sneering belief that it is ahead of things, it makes for a fine movie. The simplest things are sometimes the best, and that means that while it is at least a semi-useful way to spend one's time for the horror season...however many horror films one ends up seeing.
Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.
SURPRISE! A double-header to start off a new October of Horror enjoyment. Enjoy the show, folks.
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