Barbarian
The script started out after Zach Cregger read the Gavin de Becker's book "The Gift of Fear," which encourages women to trust their intuition when confronted by obviously dangerous men. He used it as a writing exercise and began crafting a thirty-minute short that consisted entirely of a conversation in which a woman continues to ignore a mounting series of red flags. He liked it well enough that he knew he had the makings of a longer film and began conceptualizing a broader story for the characters.,One of the characters drives an electric Nissan Leaf, bizarrely it has engine and ignition sounds dubbed over its movement.,Tess: Nope.,SPOILER: There are three mini-scenes after the initial smash cut to "Written & Directed by Zach Cregger" credit, showing Tess sitting up in the street, walking away from the bodies, and limping away from the water tower as dawn breaks.,Featured in Chris Stuckmann Movie Reviews: Barbarian (2022),Lonely at the Bar
Written & Performed by Benny Reid
Courtesy of Seven Seas Music,For most I think this is one of those either you love it or you hate it movies. After viewing a couple of days ago I still am having issues deciding on which side of that divide I fall. For me, the opening act was exceptional. Skarsgård was fantastic in his role and Campbell also played her part excellently ( for the entire film really), but the two together had a perfect horror chemistry for me. I really was craving more screen time with both of them.

The movie then tries to combine a couple different backstories and attach them all together. I would say this was done with moderate success. The exposure of the character flaws was achieved through these backstories that helped the movie display the themes it set out to, however I felt a lot of time was wasted on irrelevant scenes. I suppose this was an attempt to keep you on your toes, but after knowing how the story ends I would have liked other areas of the story to be explored in a little more detail. Specifically, focusing a little bit more on "the mothers" history could have been quite powerful and informing. Instead, the audience is tasked with having to sort of use its imagination to envision exactly how "the mother" became what she is.

Overall, it was fine, loved some parts and hated others. However, I definitely don't see how this would ever be elevated to the level of a "classic".,