“Barbarian” (** out of four) was a lumpy horror thriller about a woman (Georgina Campbell) staying at an AirBNB who discovers that the house she is staying at is not what it appears; later, a disgraced actor creep (Justin Long) is trying to get his life together but soon stumbles upon her in the house and both their fates and consequences are intertwined. Confusing thriller stops-and-starts and has story threads in scattered directions. Works best in its final third where it has flashes of creepy dread and cleverness but not enough to make it work as a whole. Jordan Peele did uncredited work on film’s story and characters but he should have said “nope” to this and worked on other projects instead.

Leave a comment