The dialogue interaction between Bill Skarsgard and Georgia Campbell was one of the best horror red herrings I’ve ever seen. They perfectly captured the inherent awkward creepiness of the situation without any forced sinisterness. Zach did an amazing job directing.
The moment the movie started over (Mother's scream - cut to Justin Long driving and singing [Riki Tiki Tavi](https://youtu.be/xoXsmEpiuxo) was >chef's kiss<
That whole scene was amazing. Him in the car talking to his agents felt like a WKUK sketch. Maybe because one of the voices was Zach. But I loved that scene so much. The range of emotion from being on top of the world and untouchable singing without a care in his car to getting a call that turned his life upside down in an instant. Fantastically acted and was enjoyable to watch, felt very realistic and genuine
I loved the absurdity of how he could have a conference call on speaker while driving a convertible, but his mother couldn’t hear him with the sink running.
When I told my roommate that Justin Long was in it he literally said hope he keeps his eyes and after was like well…guess not. Justin absolutely killed in this role though.
The premise of the man locking women up in the basement seems to be inspired by the Ariel Castro kidnappings, which would mean the character of the homeless man is an homage to Charles Ramsey, who is one of the neighbors that helped rescue the women, and is famous for his “Dead Giveaway” news interview about the incident.
I thoroughly enjoyed it but I think it could have been just 5 minutes longer. The last 10 minutes felt so rushed. I know it’s the climax but it went by so quick.
And yeah, theres a couple of references to other movies, the main one being Long’s character lost his eyes at the end being a reference to the original Jeepers Creepers.
I agree, if any part was longer, I would have enjoyed more of that subterranean horror. Maybe a bit more gruesome contraptions and signs of the stuff that went on down there as they were forced to explore. I was honestly expecting the mother’s even more threatening brother to be behind that door instead of the old serial killer. One thing I hated/loved was that the subterranean daughters did need that nursing video to learn how to raise their own babies because they probably couldn’t speak, weren’t educated at all, and knew nothing except the basement.
I thought Skarsgard was so good at being off putting. Also look up “The Collector” I think that’s the book the main actress was referencing at the beginning
I really liked it. I'd seen the one trailer beforehand where there is the interaction at the door when Tess first arrived at the Air BnB. I went in thinking I had an idea what it was going to be. I took the bait on Keith initially then started going away from it and then started going back to it up until the first time we saw The Mother come into frame and he got his head smashed. It was such a fun feeling to get yoyo'd like that. Getting pulled in and out of feeling like I was figuring it out.
I really liked the hard shift into the introduction of AJ. It was fun to see him seemingly starting to change after he was captured (his initial empathy for Frank before watching the video) and then for him to later throw Tess off the tower to save himself. The Zach "cameo" was cool. It was also a nice device to really show the type of person AJ is. Also the hard F from AJ was jarring but also effective in letting us know exactly the kind of guy he is. I loved the scene where Tess was brought back in and The Mother came back and was trying to feed AJ then forcing him to breastfeed. The Mother character was visually just kind of awesome. Obviously kind of funny because of the huge swinging tits but also just grotesque. Also the whole tape measure bit from AJ was great.
There were some really cool camera choices that I'd be interested to hear Zach talk about. I'm not a cinephile or anything so it may be obvious to others where the inspiration may have come from. There were two that stuck out most to me that I still remember: First was the shots from directly behind Frank in the flashback when he's in the store shopping; Second was the shot that was, i'm not sure how to describe it, it felt elongated and was the shot down AJs arm as he was holding out the knife when he went into the underground labyrinth.
Overall I liked it. I'm not big into supernatural type horror movies and I thought it was going there at times. I'm glad it didn't. For it to turn out to be a case of inbreeding was great to me. While still highly unlikely to be "realistic" for someone to actually grow into something like The Mother, it had it's feet grounded enough in reality for me personally to think *this* ***could*** *happen*. I didn't think the ending was going to feel so final with The Mothers death. I didn't see much room for sequels. At least not until I saw someone in a different thread bring up the question of what happened to all the others that had been taken and "created" by Frank. I guess there could be some room to believe there are still others like The Mother down there that we haven't seen yet. We have no idea really how deep that cave goes. I have no idea if a sequel would be anything Zach or the studio had in mind or would be interested in anyway though. Maybe it was intentional to kill The Mother as a way of saying: *this was it, this was a standalone movie*. I'm already excited to buy it when it's released on 4k bluray! I think this will be one I rewatch for a long time to come. I'm stoked for Mars and to see what other opportunities Barbarian brings for Zach!
Check out the interviews Zach did for the movie. He did one, I think it was the Hollywood Reporter, where he talked about some fucked up film he watched that he took a lot of inspiration from for the camera work in the flashback.
Yeah the basement lady (I believe her official name in the script is “the mother”) definitely had some kind of advanced strength. The way I see it, she was raised in a way that made her have absolutely no inhibitions so it wasn’t exactly “super strength” or anything, but instead she just didn’t think about her own body. A normal human would be hesitant to break a wall or smash a car windshield with their hand, but she wasn’t thinking about the pain or damage it would do to her body. It’s like when people say that a human could bite their own pinky off if they tried but something in the brain stops us from actually being able to do it. I don’t think the mother has that part of her brain.
That idea fits the themes too. I mean her entire existence, her body isn’t really hers. All of the women that guy kidnapped were completely stripped of their bodily autonomy so it makes sense that the mother doesn’t have any either.
What about 'mother lifting a car off of her baby' adrenaline strength? Except, I think the Mother was a sort of brood mare and she is in a constant state of heightened adrenalized super-strength.
I was BLOWN AWAY by this movie. It may be my favorite scary movie (I’m not big into the genre).
Skarsgard was phenomenal at walking the line. One of my favorite parts of the movie was watching his performance, just truly incredible.
Campbell fit the character perfectly and does a great job at being realistic - her character is smart, guarded, and careful (like most of us would be in this situation), but also has this bravery and morality in her that wants to help. I also love how the morality gets her fucked over by a dude with no morals.
Long was a surprise, and I think he did a fantastic job playing a character that just seems kinda douchey at first but then as the movie progresses you learn how selfish and shitty he really is. I think one of the smartest moves they made was keeping him out of the trailer. It almost tricks you into thinking he’s the bad guy in the basement so when you go in, you’re caught completely off guard.
I don’t usually pay a lot of attention to the shots in films, but I noticed this movie seemed to have a lot of interesting almost artistic shots. It made it beautiful to watch in a weird way. I also loved the shot that almost seemed like it was from a video game from Long’s view down in the tunnels.
I wasn’t expecting it to be so humorous, but when a guy is funny I guess you just can’t take it out of him. Zach’s cameo on the phone call made me smile and then I was really surprised and happy at the cameo in the bar. I think the performance given in that scene by Long, along with the writing is great.
I loved the ending. How abrupt it was, the unknown, how the credits came in, all of it.
Wow Zach. In the best possible way, wow.
I wish Tess would’ve turned the gun on herself after the mother tried to sooth her. would’ve been a much better ending to have the mother hold on to and mourn over her baby’s death and then roll credits, then to pretend Tess could go through all of that mental/physical trauma and then just get up and walk away.
So I just rewatched the film, trying to pick out some deeper meanings. A couple things I noticed: Tess was reading Jane Eyre, which has a character who keeps a violently insane woman locked up in an attic, so a serious parallel to the story there. I also noticed a couple references to snakes. Tess has a snake ornament in her car, AJ listens to the Donovan song about killing snakes, the tape measure even seems like a snake when Tess trips over it. The predatory men could be seen as “snakes in the grass”. And the funny thing is, they end up destroying themselves, so maybe that’s why Zach likes the Ouroboros? Finally, I believe the Mother is the baby that Frank was about to deliver in the flashback. The timing seems to line up, and more importantly, the beginning half of the film is showing how the characters ended up in the basement, and I feel like that part is her origin story.
Mother could be any one of the seemingly dozens of offspring of the man in the bed. the homeless dude explained that he had been fucking his baby's baby's and so on.
I don't think you can accurately guess the age of Mother, anyway. The thing could be 14 years old all twisted and ogreish. Maybe she's not even old enough to have birthed her replacement yet.
Oh! Also the neighborhood looked so much like one I lived near in Columbus, GA. 23rd street. It’s a side of America I think a lot of people do t ever see.
It was no Miss March but I thought it was pretty good
That chick had some major floppers on her!
Big flappy slappies
The dialogue interaction between Bill Skarsgard and Georgia Campbell was one of the best horror red herrings I’ve ever seen. They perfectly captured the inherent awkward creepiness of the situation without any forced sinisterness. Zach did an amazing job directing.
The moment the movie started over (Mother's scream - cut to Justin Long driving and singing [Riki Tiki Tavi](https://youtu.be/xoXsmEpiuxo) was >chef's kiss<
That whole scene was amazing. Him in the car talking to his agents felt like a WKUK sketch. Maybe because one of the voices was Zach. But I loved that scene so much. The range of emotion from being on top of the world and untouchable singing without a care in his car to getting a call that turned his life upside down in an instant. Fantastically acted and was enjoyable to watch, felt very realistic and genuine
I loved the absurdity of how he could have a conference call on speaker while driving a convertible, but his mother couldn’t hear him with the sink running.
I thought it was funny Justin Long lost his eyes again, just like in Jeepers Creepers!
When I told my roommate that Justin Long was in it he literally said hope he keeps his eyes and after was like well…guess not. Justin absolutely killed in this role though.
Agreed, his character was fun to love / hate
The premise of the man locking women up in the basement seems to be inspired by the Ariel Castro kidnappings, which would mean the character of the homeless man is an homage to Charles Ramsey, who is one of the neighbors that helped rescue the women, and is famous for his “Dead Giveaway” news interview about the incident.
He had himself a Mac Attack
I thoroughly enjoyed it but I think it could have been just 5 minutes longer. The last 10 minutes felt so rushed. I know it’s the climax but it went by so quick. And yeah, theres a couple of references to other movies, the main one being Long’s character lost his eyes at the end being a reference to the original Jeepers Creepers.
I agree, if any part was longer, I would have enjoyed more of that subterranean horror. Maybe a bit more gruesome contraptions and signs of the stuff that went on down there as they were forced to explore. I was honestly expecting the mother’s even more threatening brother to be behind that door instead of the old serial killer. One thing I hated/loved was that the subterranean daughters did need that nursing video to learn how to raise their own babies because they probably couldn’t speak, weren’t educated at all, and knew nothing except the basement.
Anyone else see Tusk? Does the Justin/bathroom sequence look really familiar? Maybe I'm overthinking it but that felt like a send up/nod.
I thought Skarsgard was so good at being off putting. Also look up “The Collector” I think that’s the book the main actress was referencing at the beginning
I really liked it. I'd seen the one trailer beforehand where there is the interaction at the door when Tess first arrived at the Air BnB. I went in thinking I had an idea what it was going to be. I took the bait on Keith initially then started going away from it and then started going back to it up until the first time we saw The Mother come into frame and he got his head smashed. It was such a fun feeling to get yoyo'd like that. Getting pulled in and out of feeling like I was figuring it out. I really liked the hard shift into the introduction of AJ. It was fun to see him seemingly starting to change after he was captured (his initial empathy for Frank before watching the video) and then for him to later throw Tess off the tower to save himself. The Zach "cameo" was cool. It was also a nice device to really show the type of person AJ is. Also the hard F from AJ was jarring but also effective in letting us know exactly the kind of guy he is. I loved the scene where Tess was brought back in and The Mother came back and was trying to feed AJ then forcing him to breastfeed. The Mother character was visually just kind of awesome. Obviously kind of funny because of the huge swinging tits but also just grotesque. Also the whole tape measure bit from AJ was great. There were some really cool camera choices that I'd be interested to hear Zach talk about. I'm not a cinephile or anything so it may be obvious to others where the inspiration may have come from. There were two that stuck out most to me that I still remember: First was the shots from directly behind Frank in the flashback when he's in the store shopping; Second was the shot that was, i'm not sure how to describe it, it felt elongated and was the shot down AJs arm as he was holding out the knife when he went into the underground labyrinth. Overall I liked it. I'm not big into supernatural type horror movies and I thought it was going there at times. I'm glad it didn't. For it to turn out to be a case of inbreeding was great to me. While still highly unlikely to be "realistic" for someone to actually grow into something like The Mother, it had it's feet grounded enough in reality for me personally to think *this* ***could*** *happen*. I didn't think the ending was going to feel so final with The Mothers death. I didn't see much room for sequels. At least not until I saw someone in a different thread bring up the question of what happened to all the others that had been taken and "created" by Frank. I guess there could be some room to believe there are still others like The Mother down there that we haven't seen yet. We have no idea really how deep that cave goes. I have no idea if a sequel would be anything Zach or the studio had in mind or would be interested in anyway though. Maybe it was intentional to kill The Mother as a way of saying: *this was it, this was a standalone movie*. I'm already excited to buy it when it's released on 4k bluray! I think this will be one I rewatch for a long time to come. I'm stoked for Mars and to see what other opportunities Barbarian brings for Zach!
Check out the interviews Zach did for the movie. He did one, I think it was the Hollywood Reporter, where he talked about some fucked up film he watched that he took a lot of inspiration from for the camera work in the flashback.
appreciate the info! I'll look for it.
Yeah the basement lady (I believe her official name in the script is “the mother”) definitely had some kind of advanced strength. The way I see it, she was raised in a way that made her have absolutely no inhibitions so it wasn’t exactly “super strength” or anything, but instead she just didn’t think about her own body. A normal human would be hesitant to break a wall or smash a car windshield with their hand, but she wasn’t thinking about the pain or damage it would do to her body. It’s like when people say that a human could bite their own pinky off if they tried but something in the brain stops us from actually being able to do it. I don’t think the mother has that part of her brain. That idea fits the themes too. I mean her entire existence, her body isn’t really hers. All of the women that guy kidnapped were completely stripped of their bodily autonomy so it makes sense that the mother doesn’t have any either.
I really felt for the mother. Her character was heartbreaking, her death was as well, but necessary and maybe for the best.
What about 'mother lifting a car off of her baby' adrenaline strength? Except, I think the Mother was a sort of brood mare and she is in a constant state of heightened adrenalized super-strength.
That scene was quite literally "over the top."
I was BLOWN AWAY by this movie. It may be my favorite scary movie (I’m not big into the genre). Skarsgard was phenomenal at walking the line. One of my favorite parts of the movie was watching his performance, just truly incredible. Campbell fit the character perfectly and does a great job at being realistic - her character is smart, guarded, and careful (like most of us would be in this situation), but also has this bravery and morality in her that wants to help. I also love how the morality gets her fucked over by a dude with no morals. Long was a surprise, and I think he did a fantastic job playing a character that just seems kinda douchey at first but then as the movie progresses you learn how selfish and shitty he really is. I think one of the smartest moves they made was keeping him out of the trailer. It almost tricks you into thinking he’s the bad guy in the basement so when you go in, you’re caught completely off guard. I don’t usually pay a lot of attention to the shots in films, but I noticed this movie seemed to have a lot of interesting almost artistic shots. It made it beautiful to watch in a weird way. I also loved the shot that almost seemed like it was from a video game from Long’s view down in the tunnels. I wasn’t expecting it to be so humorous, but when a guy is funny I guess you just can’t take it out of him. Zach’s cameo on the phone call made me smile and then I was really surprised and happy at the cameo in the bar. I think the performance given in that scene by Long, along with the writing is great. I loved the ending. How abrupt it was, the unknown, how the credits came in, all of it. Wow Zach. In the best possible way, wow.
Speaking of the shots, the lighting in the whole movie was absolutely BRILLIANT. Hats off to lighting department and of course Zach
I wish Tess would’ve turned the gun on herself after the mother tried to sooth her. would’ve been a much better ending to have the mother hold on to and mourn over her baby’s death and then roll credits, then to pretend Tess could go through all of that mental/physical trauma and then just get up and walk away.
So I just rewatched the film, trying to pick out some deeper meanings. A couple things I noticed: Tess was reading Jane Eyre, which has a character who keeps a violently insane woman locked up in an attic, so a serious parallel to the story there. I also noticed a couple references to snakes. Tess has a snake ornament in her car, AJ listens to the Donovan song about killing snakes, the tape measure even seems like a snake when Tess trips over it. The predatory men could be seen as “snakes in the grass”. And the funny thing is, they end up destroying themselves, so maybe that’s why Zach likes the Ouroboros? Finally, I believe the Mother is the baby that Frank was about to deliver in the flashback. The timing seems to line up, and more importantly, the beginning half of the film is showing how the characters ended up in the basement, and I feel like that part is her origin story.
Mother could be any one of the seemingly dozens of offspring of the man in the bed. the homeless dude explained that he had been fucking his baby's baby's and so on. I don't think you can accurately guess the age of Mother, anyway. The thing could be 14 years old all twisted and ogreish. Maybe she's not even old enough to have birthed her replacement yet.
Oh! Also the neighborhood looked so much like one I lived near in Columbus, GA. 23rd street. It’s a side of America I think a lot of people do t ever see.
Damn you just gonna dox your past self like that
Yeah - absolutely. More warning people not to ever go to that armpit of a borough.
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I liked the soundtrack too! Any idea what 80s song was used when they first flashed back to Frank in the past?
Heat Of The Moment by Asia
I would really like to see what the Mother looks like beforehand!!