Seriously though, if you’ve yet to see Barbarian, I recommend streaming it with an HBO Max subscription before you read further. It’s worth the surprises!
After Barbarian impressed at the box office last month, the horror movie has already become available on streaming, leading to a whole new wave of audiences experiencing its terrifying premise. It’s one of those movies where you just have to turn to someone to say WTF, and people are taking to Twitter to vent about the wild release.
Barbarian is one of the most well-reviewed movies of 2022 (we gave it a 4 out of 5 in our review), so obviously when it hit HBO Max, people were going to tune in. Here’s one accurate depiction of what it’s like to watch Barbarian:
My mood the first 15mins of #Barbarian vs the rest of the movie: pic.twitter.com/IdGVWE5CxeOctober 26, 2022
The marketing for Barbarian for one was extremely clever. The trailer made one believe they were walking into a very different movie than what it actually is. For example, many people probably thought Bill Skarsgård was going to be the villain after playing Pennywise in the IT movies. Plus, the actual creature hiding in that Airbnb basement is just such an unexpected reveal.
My reaction after watching Keith getting his head smashed against a wall multiple times by a naked big titty psycho woman this movie is something else not Bill 😩😭😭 #Barbarian pic.twitter.com/A3KMGth1o2October 20, 2022
During CinemaBlend’s Barbarian video interviews, we spoke to writer/director Zach Cregger about his inspirations for the movie’s creature, which he likened to Grendel from Beowulf. Yep, once you’ve seen that breastfeeding scene between the creature and Justin Long, you’ll just never be the same either.
Plenty of conversations about Barbarian revolved around how ridiculous the protagonists were for going into the deep dark basement of the Airbnb when there were clear signs of danger. But hey, if everyone was smart in horror movies, we wouldn’t get these nightmare scenarios. You often don’t get into these situations by looking both ways and doing all your research. This one just about sums it up:
rewatching barbarian and counting all the dumb decisions this woman makes pic.twitter.com/ENVfEcVfhYOctober 26, 2022
Barbarian has especially received a lot of praise for how unexpected it is. The movie cleverly has two beginnings that bring two different characters into the same house (and they both find completely different tones with the whole thing). Justin Long in particular brings some comedy to the movie following Georgina Campbell and Bill Skargard’s Tess and Keith starting the movie off. As another Twitter user praised:
BARBARIAN: I'm not breaking any new ground with this tweet, but how absolutely delightful it is to watch a movie in which I had *zero* idea what would happen next.Also FYC, Justin Long.October 26, 2022
Not everyone was impressed with the big twists though. Perhaps it was all hyped up too much for some expecting their minds to be blown:
I thought barbarian was going to have some big cool twist but it’s just another guy with a basement rape dungeon.October 15, 2022
While it feels like Barbarian’s run from theaters to streaming was shorter than usual, it comes just in time for Halloween, when audiences are particularly ready to get a bit scared. Barbarian remains one of the most wild and memorable movie experiences of 2022, so no wonder people are sounding off on social media about it right now.
