I had not intended on heading to the theatre this weekend. Then, I saw a Twitter review of the new film Barbarian which said that it was a lot of fun and that you should approach it with as little knowledge as you could (I believe it was a Dan Murrell Tweet). I had no idea about what Barbarian was and I am not sure I had ever seen anything about it, so I decided that this would be a good opportunity to check it out.

I came into the film with zero knowledge. I do think I had seen a trailer once, but I barely remembered it. I wasn’t even sure that I knew the style or genre of the film before it came on screen. (Horror, by the way).

Having said that, I 100% agree with Dan Murrell. Going into this film without any pre-existing knowledge is absolutely the way to go. It keeps you off balance and things happen that you have no idea is coming. The unknown really helped out Barbarian for me.

Because of that, I am going to pass on the typical synopsis that I would normally place in my review to keep it as surprising as possible.

The film starred Georgina Campbell as Tess, our main protagonist. Bill Skarsgård played Keith. Justin Long appeared in the movie too, as a character named AJ. Georgina Campbell brought a great performance, leading the audience through the mysterious goings on of Barbarian. This was one of my favorite performances from Justin Long too. He had some of the more emotional and questionable moments in the film.

There were some amazing moments of suspense, built by the mood and the tone of the film. Combine the setting with the unknown aspect of what was happening and Barbarian did a great job of keeping the audience on the edge of their seats.

The film has a fantastic look to it and the effects are truly frightening.

That’s about all I can say about the movie without spoiling it, so all I can say is, if you are a horror fan, or if you enjoy a tense suspenseful thriller, give Barbarian a try and go in with as little info as you possibly can. It was worth it to me.

4 stars