''Barbarian'' is a 2022 American horror

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

written and directed by

Zach Cregger Zachary Michael Cregger (born March 1, 1981) is an American actor, comedian, writer, director, producer, and Twitch (service), Twitch streamer. He first came to prominence as one of the three founding members, alongside Trevor Moore (comedian), ...

in his solo screen writing and directorial debut. It is produced by

Arnon Milchan Arnon Milchan ( he, ארנון מילצ'ן; December 6, 1944) is an Israeli businessman, film producer and spy. He has been involved in over 130 full-length motion pictures and is the founder of production company Regency Enterprises. Regency's f ...

Roy Lee Roy Lee (born March 23, 1969) is an American film producer. Lee's production company, Vertigo Entertainment, has a first-look deal with Warner Bros. Early life Lee was born in 1969 at Wyckoff Heights Hospital, in Brooklyn, New York, to Korean p ...

, Raphael Margules, and J.D. Lifshitz. The film stars

Georgina Campbell Georgina Alice Campbell (born 12 June 1992) is an English actress and model. She won the 2015 British Academy Television Award for Best Actress, BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for ''Murdered by My Boyfriend'' (2014). Her other television credit ...

Bill Skarsgård Bill Istvan Günther Skarsgård (; born 9 August 1990) is a Swedish actor, producer, director, writer, voice actor, and model. He is best known for portraying Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the supernatural horror films '' It'' (2017) and ''It C ...

, and

Justin Long Justin Jacob Long (born June 2, 1978) is an American actor, comedian, director and screenwriter. Long is known for his film roles, notably appearing in '' Jeepers Creepers'' (2001), ''Dodgeball'' (2004), ''Accepted'' (2006), ''Idiocracy'' (20 ...

. The plot sees a woman find out that the rental home she reserved has been accidentally double-booked by a man, not knowing of a dark secret within the dwelling. ''Barbarian'' premiered at

San Diego Comic-Con San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is co ...

on July 22, 2022, and was theatrically released in the United States on September 9, 2022, by

20th Century Studios 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...

. The film received largely positive reviews, with praise for Cregger's screenplay and direction as well as the cast performances. The film grossed $45 million worldwide on a production budget of $4–4.5 million.

Plot

Tess Marshall arrives at a rental house in the rundown Detroit neighborhood of

Brightmoor Brightmoor is a roughly neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan, near the northwest border of the city.

was inspired by the non-fiction book ''

The Gift of Fear ''The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence'' is a nonfiction self-help book (Dell Publishing 1997, republished with new epilogue 1998) written by Gavin de Becker. The book demonstrates how every individual should learn to ...

'', citing a section that encourages women to trust their

intuition Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without recourse to conscious reasoning. Different fields use the word "intuition" in very different ways, including but not limited to: direct access to unconscious knowledge; unconscious cognition; ...

and not ignore the subconscious red flags that arise in their day-to-day interactions with men. He sat down to write a single thirty-page scene that would incorporate as many of these red flags as possible. Cregger settled on a woman showing up to an

Airbnb Airbnb, Inc. ( ), based in San Francisco, California, operates an online marketplace focused on short-term homestays and experiences. The company acts as a broker and charges a commission from each booking. The company was founded in 2008 b ...

late at night, only to find that it had been double booked, as the ideal set-up for this exercise. He stuck to the rule that if he was surprising himself with his writing, then he has to be surprising his audience. “As long as I have no long plan, then no one could know what’s coming.” He became frustrated during the writing process, fearing the direction of the story was too predictable. So Cregger, with no forethought, decided to introduce a twist that would "flip

he scene He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

on its head." While writing the screenplay, Cregger named the film ''Barbarian'' as a placeholder. As the story progressed, the name eventually became the title of the film. Early in pre-production, Cregger reportedly reached out to multiple financiers and distributors, including

A24 A24 is an American independent entertainment company that specializes in film and television production, as well as film distribution. It is based in New York City. A24 was founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges. Pr ...

and

Neon Neon is a chemical element with the symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is a noble gas. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with about two-thirds the density of air. It was discovered (along with krypton ...

, but was rejected. J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules agreed to produce the film through their

BoulderLight Pictures J.D. Lifshitz (born October 13, 1992) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and occasional actor. Biography He is co-founder of the independent Production company BoulderLight Pictures Inc. In 2009 he began to work on his dire ...

banner, and were later joined by

Vertigo Entertainment Vertigo Entertainment is an American film and television production company based in Los Angeles, founded in 2001 by Roy Lee and Doug Davison. History In 2001, after leaving BenderSpink, Roy Lee started Vertigo Entertainment with partner Doug ...

, after Lifshitz and Margules reached out to Vertigo's

who had served as an early mentor to the duo. In mid-2020, Lifshitz and Margules accrued a $3.5 million budget for the film, largely through foreign financing, most of it from the French production company Logical Pictures.

Zac Efron Zachary David Alexander Efron (; born October 18, 1987) is an American actor. He began acting professionally in the early 2000s and rose to prominence in the late 2000s for his leading role as Troy Bolton in the ''High School Musical'' trilo ...

was the first choice to play AJ, whom Cregger had envisioned as a "

beefcake Beefcake is a performance or a form of glamour photography depicting a large and muscular male body. Beefcake is also a publication genre. A role a person plays in a performance may be called ''beefcake''. The term was believed to be first used ...

kind of

himbo Himbo, a portmanteau of the words ''him'' and ''bimbo'', is a slang term for an attractive but vacuous man. The first known use dates back to 1988.

." However, when Efron turned down the role, Cregger decided to take the character's image in a different direction and cast

for his "warm and disarming and charming, lovable presence onscreen" which he thought would make AJ more engaging to audiences. That same year, Lee brought in

, who had previously worked with Lee in '' It'' (2017) and ''

It Chapter Two ''It Chapter Two'' is a 2019 American supernatural horror film directed by Andy Muschietti, with a screenplay by Gary Dauberman. A follow-up to '' It'' (2017), it is the second of a two-part adaptation of the 1986 novel '' It'' by Stephen King, ...

'' (2019), to co-star and serve as an executive producer. ''Barbarian'' began

principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

in early 2021 in Bulgaria. The film was shot in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

, while exterior neighborhood shots beyond the house's block were filmed in the

Brightmoor Brightmoor is a roughly neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan, near the northwest border of the city.New Regency Regency Enterprises (commonly referred to as Regency onscreen and copyrighting as Regency Entertainment (USA), Inc. in the U.S. and Monarchy Enterprises S.á.r.l. overseas) is an American entertainment company formed by Arnon Milchan. It was foun ...

who increased the budget to $4.5 million, and as a result,

became the film's distributor, stemming from a prior distribution deal between Regency and The Walt Disney Studios, 20th Century's parent division.

Themes and interpretations

''Barbarian'' has been characterized as having themes related to

sexual abuse Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assa ...

and

trauma Trauma most often refers to: * Major trauma, in physical medicine, severe physical injury caused by an external source * Psychological trauma, a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a severely distressing event *Traumatic i ...

. Writing for

Film School Rejects Film School Rejects is an American blog devoted to movie reviews, interviews, film industry news, and feature commentary. It was founded by Neil Miller in February 2006. The site was nominated for Best News Blog by ''Total Film'' magazine and na ...

, Aurora Amidon asserted that the film is essentially about "the ripple effects of abuse", concerning the characters of AJ and Frank—who, in the habit of harming women for their own pleasure, are cut from the same cloth. In a piece for ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'', Dani Di Placido drew similarities between the film's main antagonist The Mother (who is a product of violent, incessant sexual abuse) and

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ex ...

, both "being a misshapen creature brought into the world through an unnatural process, unloved, isolated, and ultimately, sympathetic".

Release

''Barbarian'' was originally scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States by

on August 12, 2022, before being rescheduled to be released on August 31, and later September 9.

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

reportedly maintained a theatrical release for ''Barbarian'' (as opposed to a streaming release on

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

) due to strong, positive reception from studio test screenings.

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and

AMC Theatres AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (d/b/a AMC Theatres, originally an abbreviation for American Multi-Cinema; often referred to simply as AMC and known in some countries as AMC Cinemas or AMC Multi-Cinemas) is an American movie theater chain fou ...

premiered the film at the 2022

on July 22, where it garnered positive reactions. The film was also screened at the

Arrow Video An arrow is a fin-stabilized projectile launched by a bow. A typical arrow usually consists of a long, stiff, straight shaft with a weighty (and usually sharp and pointed) arrowhead attached to the front end, multiple fin-like stabilizers ca ...

FrightFest on August 29. The film was released on October 20, 2022 in Australia, on October 27 in New Zealand, and on October 28 in the United Kingdom. In the United States, ''Barbarian'' was released on digital download and to stream on

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...

beginning on October 25. It was also released on

Star+ A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

in Latin America and on

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and deligh ...

as part of the

Star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

content hub in other international territories on October 26, 2022 The film was released on Disney+ as part of the Star content hub in the United Kingdom on December 14, 2022. A soundtrack album for the film featuring score by Anna Drubich was released by

Hollywood Records Hollywood Records is an American record label of the Disney Music Group. The label focuses in pop, rock, alternative, hip hop, and country genres, as well as specializing in mature recordings not suitable for the flagship Walt Disney Records l ...

on December 9, 2022.

Marketing

The first trailer for ''Barbarian'' was released on June 23, 2022, and appeared at the front of theatrical showings of ''

The Black Phone ''The Black Phone'' is a 2021 American coming-of-age supernatural horror film directed by Scott Derrickson and written by Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill, who both produced with Jason Blum. It is an adaptation of the 2004 short story of the ...

''. According to Margules, Disney marketed the film to "feel like a discovery" and teasing very little of the film's plot in promotional materials. After the film's release, an alternative trailer was released on September 23, playfully portraying the film as "Justin Long's New Movie" before transitioning into the more horrific scenes.

Reception

Streaming viewership

According to the streaming aggregator Reelgood, ''Barbarian'' was the fifth most watched program across all platforms, during the week of October 26, 2022. According to

Whip Media Whip Media Group is a private American company selling enterprise software for content distribution, as well as TV- and film-related user data. It operates physical offices in the US, the UK, and the EU. Background Whip Media Group is the resul ...

, ''Barbarian'' was the most streamed film across all platforms in the United States, during the week ending October 30, 2022, and the sixth during the week ending November 13, 2022. According to the streaming aggregator JustWatch, ''Barbarian'' was the second most streamed film across all platforms in the United States, during the week of October 31, 2022, to November 6, 2022.

Box office

''Barbarian'' grossed $40.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $4.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $45.4 million, against a production budget of $4.5 million. In the United States and Canada, ''Barbarian'' was released alongside '' Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva'' and ''

Lifemark ''Lifemark'' is a 2022 American Christian drama film by director Kevin Peeples, adapting the true story of the adoption of David Scotton, previously depicted in the 2018 short documentary film ''I Lived on Parker Avenue''. It tells the story of ...

'', and made $3.9 million from 2,340 theaters on its first day, including $850,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $10 million, topping the box office; 59% of the audience was male, with 74% being between 18 and 34. The film made $6.3 million in its second weekend, finishing behind newcomer ''

The Woman King ''The Woman King'' is a 2022 American historical action drama film about the Agojie, the all-female warrior unit that protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey during the 17th to 19th centuries. Set in the 1820s, the film stars Viola Davis ...

''. ''

Deadline Hollywood ''Deadline Hollywood'', commonly known as ''Deadline'' and also referred to as ''Deadline.com'', is an online news site founded as the news blog ''Deadline Hollywood Daily'' by Nikki Finke in 2006. The site is updated several times a day, with ...

'' called the 40% week-to-week drop "pretty spectacular", noting that horror films typically see a 65% decline in their sophomore frames. The film was added to 550 theaters in its third weekend and made $4.8 million, finishing fourth at the box office.

Critical response

Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale, while those at

PostTrak PostTrak is a U.S.-based service that surveys film audiences for film studios. History The service conducts surveys in the top 20 markets in the U.S. and Canada with the use of polling cards and electronic kiosks. A PostTrak report for a film a ...

gave the film a 70% overall positive score, with 54% saying they would definitely recommend it.

Accolades

The film is one of the media that received

the ReFrame Stamp The ReFrame Stamp for Gender-Balanced Production certification is awarded by ReFrame to corporations and media that show progress toward gender equality and greater representation of women in key roles. History On June 8, 2018, the ReFrame Stam ...

for the years 2022 to 2023. The stamp is awarded by the gender equity coalition

ReFrame ReFrame (also known as ReFrame Project; formerly known as the Systemic Change Project) is a US non-profit organization founded by Women in Film LA and the Sundance Institute together with over 50 leaders and influencers in Hollywood, with the goa ...

and industry database

IMDbPro IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

for film and television projects that are proven to have gender-balanced hiring, with stamps being awarded to projects that hire female-identifying people, especially women of color, in four out of eight key roles for their production.

References

External links

* * {{Portal bar, United States, Film, Speculative fiction, Horror 2022 films 2022 comedy horror films 2022 horror thriller films 2020s American films 2020s English-language films 2020s monster movies 20th Century Studios films American comedy horror films American horror thriller films Films about kidnapping in the United States Films about rape in the United States Films produced by Roy Lee American monster movies Films set in California Films set in Detroit Films set in subterranea Films shot in Bulgaria Incest in film Regency Enterprises films Vertigo Entertainment films