Barbarian, a review.
I was unsure what to make of this movie at first. It opens slowly, centring around Tess sitting in her car after pulling up to a house in the rain. She gets out and attempts to get the key out of the lockbox, only to find it is not there. The place looks empty, and she phones the company she had made the booking with, hurrying back to her car in the meantime. At this time, a light comes on in the house, and Tess rushes back to knock on the door. It is opened by a very tired-looking man with a confused expression. The two talk back and forth, and it is swiftly discovered that the booking company for the house has double-booked them. From there on, the pair work out a deal, Keith offering her the option to stay there and take the bedroom. Reluctantly, at first, Tess takes the deal. The pair soon begin talking, and the initial tension between them fades. Eventually, they retire for the night, and we get our first inkling that something isn't right at this house. Tess wakes up in the night to find her door open. She is obviously nervous, and moving across the room, finds Keith asleep on the sofa. As she moves to him quietly, we see something move behind her and a door close at the end of the corridor. This is the first sign of something suspicious going on in this building. Tess wakes Keith, and he is obviously startled. After questioning him, Tess returns to bed, and we flash forward to her waking in the morning.
Both of them head off to their respective days. Tess head's to her interview, and we see her do well. So well that it looks as though she has the job in the bag. However, when she mentions where she is staying, her new employer seems surprised and unsettled by the information. This is another hint that something is odd about the house and the area. Tess returns to the house and begins looking around, ending up in the basement. She ends up being trapped inside after the door closes behind her. This leads to her investigating and discovering a secret door. A door that leads to another room, a room with a bed, a bucket, and a camera in it. Tess is obviously freaked out by this and returns to the basement proper, looking for a way out. Keith returns at this moment, looking for the key she was supposed to leave for him, and she manages to get his attention. Together, they open the basement window, and Tess passes the key to Keith. He comes to a panicked Tess, and after a few moments, he leaves to investigate this room. Tess waits and then calls to him, he doesn't answer, and she goes to look for him. He isn't in the room, and Tess looks about in confusion, finding yet another door. A door leads to stairs that lead down into darkness. She calls to Keith, and he shouts back, his voice distant and scared. Stumbling through the tunnels, she finds him hurt moments before a woman comes out of the dark and brutally murders him. Then the film flashes to our next protagonist.
Justin Long plays AJ. A Hollywood type enjoying his drive until he gets a phone call. And things are about to take a bad turn for him. And it turns out in the long run that he probably deserves everything that happens to him. I've always enjoyed Justin long, as an actor, but this character is one of the sleeziest that he has ever played. AJ is not a good person, but he believes that he is, to such a degree that he cannot see how he treats others.And it will be his downfall. After his new series drops him, and accusations are made against him, he has to liquidate his assets. It turns out that the house Tess and Keith were staying in is owned by AJ. This leads Aj to the house and what awaits him there within. He finds what Tess did before him, and like her he wanders into the dark below the house. Also like her things do not go well for him.
The tunnels below the house lead to roughly carved out room and worse. The woman is living in this space and treating her new guests like they are her babies. She even tries to feed them, until Aj freaks out, leaving Tess still trapped in her cage. Until she manages to free herself and the two of them attempt to flee the tunnels separately. We get a flash back to this space to another time, looking to be the 70's by the clothes and cars on display. A man leaves the house that Tess and AJ are below in the future, heading off in a car. We see him buy things for a new born and then stalk a woman, dressing up a gas man and lying to get into her house. After leaving a window unlocked he leaves and returns to the house, and then down to the basement. In the present Aj and Tess aren't doing so well but they manage to escape the house, helped by a homeless man. With Tess hurt they listen to the man's story of what happened to the area, and what led to this woman being born. Moments before she bursts into their place of safety and kills the old man. Fleeing the pair find themselves atop a water tower, where AJ throws Tess off the tower in an attempt to save himself. The woman jumps off the tower after her, managing to catch her though it looks as though she dies in the effort. Of course that isn't the case and Aj finds that out just before he meets a grizzly end.
This is a strange and intense film. It gets its hooks into you and doesn't let go. The performances are good, the 'creature' oddly sad and horrifying, and the overall story grim but interesting. I enjoyed it immensely and would recommend it to any fan of horror. I rate it 8 out of ten, and would watch again.
