'BARBARIAN'.....BY ALL MEANS, LET'S EXPLORE THE DARK, CREEPY BASEMENT....(YOU FIRST).

Barbarian (2022)     Is it just me or does it seem like there's ten new horror movies every week of the year?

               Getting hard to tell them apart, except for the ....uh so called 'elevated horror' ones. You know, the ones that aspire to lofty, artistic, film festival culture-vulture ambitions......

                Not "Barbarian" though. This one revels in all the down and dirty stuff.....gore, jump scares and sudden 180 degree hairpin turns in its plotting.  Even better, it's unashamed to make a deep dive into that ancient horror movie trope.....the creepy basement.

               Now there's the first thing to love.......the modest little Detroit house in this film features a basement with more tunnels, nooks and crannies than the New York City subway system.  No sane person, upon seeing it, would want to go in there.....

               Which unfortunately brings me to the dumb part of the movie, a tiresome standard for horror outings......characters who, instead of muttering, "Oh hell no, f*** this" plunge into the ultra-creepy basement.  And encounter.....well, the essential reason for watching a movie like this....heh, heh, heh....

               And here's where 'Barbarian' shines.......the horror, the horror. Photographed and staged in such a way to promise you bad dreams for weeks to come. (We'll not say anymore about it....so don't worry about spoilers....)

                We start out with two attractive personable twenty-somethings Tess and Keith (Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgard).  Finding themselves mistakenly double-booked into the same AirBnB, they move from uneasy nervousness and embarrassment to something approaching a tentative ease with each other......enough for Tess to decide Keith's not a murderous psycho and agree to stay the night. 

               (Not that anyone blames her reticence.....after all, this guy does look like the actor who played Pennywise the killer clown in the two "It" films.....oh, wait a sec...he is that actor. Kind of a clever casting decision, right?)

                But enough about Tess and Keith...they've run into big troubles of their own. . Let's suddenly zip right over (as does the film) to typically hip, self absorbed TV actor AJ (perfectly played by Justin Long). Within minutes, a rape accusation has cancelled out his career. Now instantly penniless and unemployable, the only asset left to him some crumbling real estate he owns in Detroit.......

               Uh oh.....need I even bother to mention which particular property that is?

               This leads the film to its climactic third act, the part where, as Stephen King so aptly put it, horror filmmakers gotta stop messin' around and go fully 'Booga Booga!!"  And this 'Barbarian' accomplishes with enough splattery, outrageous abandon to make us forget its characters constantly make stupid choices and seem to possess unheard of physical resilience (all standard, worn out horror tropes.)

                For all horror buffs who dutifully wade through the piles of  junk in this genre released every week, "Barbarian" offers a gruesome good time that stands out among the rest. So don't pass up checking in to the seedy little AirBnB in the worst neighborhood ever......it's almost as much fun as a stay at the Bates Motel......3 stars (***).