Barbarian (2022) * *

Directed by: Zach Cregger

Starring:  Georgina Thompson, Bill Skarsgard, Justin Long

The initial scenes of Barbarian inspire appropriate creepy dread.   Tess (Thompson) arrives at a house in a run-down, abandoned Detroit suburb she reserved on Airbnb only to find it double booked with a young man named Keith (Skarsgard) who seems understanding, caring, and friendly enough for Tess to feel comfortable enough to share the same place with until morning.   Because Keith is played by Bill Skarsgard, who was Pennywise in IT, we are never fully convinced that he is this nice of a guy, which I'm sure is the intent.   

Instead of a horror version of The Goodbye Girl, Barbarian devolves into typical gruesome business involving long dark hallways under the house which house disgusting secrets.   There are so many rooms, halls, and caverns below that you wonder how they were built without anyone knowing and certainly no construction permits.   Other than to be discovered later on and to provide enough darkness for someone to jump out at you and kill you or take you prisoner, why are these hallways even necessary?  

No matter.  Barbarian soon features a third character in the form of actor AJ Gilbride (Long), who is enjoying the good life in sunny California until he is accused of raping a former co-star and his career screeches to a halt.   Desperate to roust up cash for his legal defense, AJ returns to Detroit to stay in the very house where Tess and Keith once occupied.   He owns the place, you see, and discovers that all of the halls and space below equals more square footage which then equals more money when he sells the place.   AJ has such tunnel vision he doesn't see all of these unlit, cavernous halls as horrifying, but as dollars and cents when he cheerfully uses a tape measure and calculate the profits in his head.   

I won't reveal who or what lurks below the house except to say it is unworthy of the effective buildup to it.  Thompson and Skarsgard give us grounded characters caught in a terrifying nightmare, while Long teeters on the edge between selfishness and, gulp, morals with a character whose only purpose is to discover what happened to Tess and Keith.   Elements of #MeToo are introduced when Tess briefly escapes from the house only to find the local police don't believe her story of the murderous goings-on from which she fled.

The final act is an elongated chase scene featuring the standard Unkillable Killer and a backstory which makes you cringe.   When you take into account the quiet eeriness of the opening scenes, you come to realize Barbarian is two movies fighting for the same screen.