Film review: Barbarian goes far beyond a jump-scare once in a while

Writer-director Zach Cregger deserves huge credit for delivering a bravura dark fantasy that will burrow its way into the darker corners of your mind

Georgina Campbell and Bill Skarsgård work well together in Barbarian.

★★★★☆

A double-booked Airbnb is the opening hook to Barbarian (18s), when film researcher Tess (Georgina Campbell) arrives to her accommodation in a desolate Detroit suburb to find Keith (Bill Skarsgård) already in situ. Keith seems a little awkward, and maybe even odd, but is keen to assist Tess in making the best of a bad situation. Is he a little too keen?

Stop yawning down the back — Barbarian might open up with a standard slash-‘n’-scream gambit, but writer-director Zach Cregger’s ambitions extend far beyond jolting the audience with a jump-scare once in a while.

The scope of the horror broadens out once Tess manages to lock herself in the basement and makes a terrifying discovery, although to say any more would be to ruin the plot — suffice to say that Barbarian, once its main characters are established, rips up the screenwriting rulebook and embarks on a fantastically implausible but riveting metaphor for how cities like Detroit can be abandoned, gutted and thrown back on its most primitive resources (that desolate street outside, with its ruined houses and burnt-out cars, is as important a presence as any of the flesh-and-blood characters).

Georgina Campbell and Bill Skarsgård work well together, and Justin Long is hilariously narcissistic as the LA-based actor AJ when he belatedly makes his appearance, but the real star of Barbarian is the script. You may not believe the story — you may not want to believe it — but Zach Cregger deserves huge credit for delivering a bravura dark fantasy that will burrow its way into the darker corners of your mind.

(cinema release)