Barbarian

In the isolated, pre-dawn hours of a chilly autumn night, a young professional named TJ, clad in a rumpled suit and looking every bit as exhausted as she feels, steps out of her rental car and approaches the unassuming Airbnb near Detroit. She's in town for an upcoming job interview, a chance to break into the corporate world that could be a significant stepping stone in her budding career. Her goal is clear, but her skepticism towards the city itself – not to mention her own growing desperation – is palpable. As TJ enters the wooden creaking, dimly lit driveway of the seemingly old, dilapidated house, a mixture of uncertainty and fear ripples through her stomach. She's never been one to take unnecessary risks, and yet, here she is, venturing into the night to meet a complete stranger for an apartment she knows only through online reviews. Still, something she can't quite explain keeps driving her forward – perhaps it's a fleeting thought of adventure, a growing sense that the monotony of her life is eating away at her. Tentatively making her way to the house, TJ discovers that she isn't the only one who thinks she booked the apartment. A man, a scrappy-looking, aggressively shaggy individual known as Keith Toshko, simultaneously stumbles into his cramped quarters on the second floor, wondering why there's another person in the space. As the minutes tick by, an impenetrable conflict arises between TJ and Toshko, driven further by their contrasting personalities. Toshko comes off as defensive and boorish, unfazed by the emerging strange situation, whereas TJ exudes an ingrained, educated polish, her anxiety and confusion simmering just below the surface. Sensing something is off at the house, she carefully begins piecing the property's unsettling, layered past together. Despite her initial hesitation, TJ starts to stand her ground, becoming increasingly unsettled by Toshko's very presence. The interplay between the two characters fuels the rising tension as they fumble through a disjointed night of late-night conversations – some strained, others surprisingly candid – their growing discomfort driving a shared glimmer of panic. The atmosphere is darkening by the minute, with each new sound, from the creepy wind and shrill woodwind whistling through the creaking trees surrounding the property, eerily illuminating the unsettling sense of claustrophobia closing in on them. What initially starts out as an uneasy, shallow argument escalates into a terrifying and darkly disorienting nightmare. TJ and Toshko are both forced to navigate the entangled web of reality, fantasy, and real terror that was being cleverly manufactured on the property. Their surroundings become increasingly unsettling: peeling paint on old wooden walls, mysterious pipe noises in the walls, as well as the insidious, jarring creaks and groans from the old house's foundation, mocking TJ's increasing unease – with Toshko losing all semblance of civility. This is when the eerie, oppressive atmosphere intensifies. Little hints emerge of something sinister lurking just beneath the surface, simmering, watching, and waiting for the perfect moment to rear its ugly head – unseen, omnipresent, and suffocating. When TJ explores the dimly lit attic space, the wooden beams overhead seem to yawn open like dark abysses. The very fact that a claustrophobic nightmare begins forming in the shadows unleashes an innate feeling of dread. This sense is deeply connected to Keith Toshko's tussles with reality, of an existence twisted by psychological hardship. A tense, disorienting, thrilling fight unfolds that cuts between present-day horrors and unexpected revelations from Toshko's chaotic past, blurring the lines of reality – offering disturbing, albeit grim hints about Keith's dark, claustrophobic psyche. Toshko must confess an impending, supernatural struggle with something more nightmarish – pushing TJ to dig deeper into the dark spaces of the house. Rising levels of menace start to engulf them both – a chilling foreboding that continues to surface whenever the old house gives a spine-tingling creak. Since there's an unhinged environment where lines keep shifting, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish reality from a nightmare fueled by fear. The darkness surrounding them seems to manifest as a visual form of emotional, sensory proof – to combat a terrifying sense of nothingness – this is where everything evolves, the story plunges forward. It reaches the core of the terror known as Barbarian, now one of the defining protagonists turned antagonists, at the very core of this 2019 horror film that sets to illuminate TJ's entrapment and turn Keith's bizarre mental condition into something extremely dark and malevolent.