★★★★ out of ★★★★★
It’s a darkish night time of a number of souls as a cocktail party with 4 supposed mates goes bitter after which turns lethal on this take-no-prisoners examination of ego clashes and deceit.
Directed by Charles Dorfman
Egos conflict and relationships crumble throughout a extremely uncomfortable birthday ceremonial dinner in author/director Charles Dorfman’s extremely tense debut as a author/director, Barbarians (U.Okay., 2021) — after which the movie goes into full-blown horror mode.
This acerbic skewering of male egos and influencer tradition finds meek screenwriter Adam (Iwon Rheon) and his accomplice Eva (Catalina Sandino Moreno) making ready to rejoice Adam’s birthday on the mannequin house they’re making ready to purchase from Adam’s alpha male pal — frenemy is likely to be extra becoming — Lucas (Tom Cullen), who’s bringing his girlfriend Chloe (Ines Spirodinov) alongside for the get-together. Viewers are tipped off early on that the friendship between the 2 males is an uneasy one, and each {couples} are usually not with out their issues, both. For sure, the ceremonial dinner is a extremely uncomfortable occasion for all concerned, and Adam’s earlier unwillingness to behave when an injured fox — which he encountered within the wild earlier that day — reveals up bleeding on the couple’s kitchen ground is a foreshadowing of a number of parts.
Let’s go away the plot at that in order to keep away from spoilers, however suffice it to say that Dorfman — producer of such movies as Satanic Panic, VFW, and Boys from County Hell — serves up loads of surprises all through this effective movie. His course is eager, and his aptitude for horror is as spectacular and nicely carried out as his sense of drama, with loads of nasty little prospers and refined reveals. The 4 leads are all terrific, making Barbarians price a watch for his or her performing alone. Every of the 4 essential characters is flawed in no less than a method — I imply their personalities or actions, not in the best way they’re written, to be clear — and it’s riveting to see how their arcs play out.
If I haven’t but satisfied you to place Barbarians excessive in your need-to-see checklist, let me state — it’s talked about early on, so not a spoiler — that the house and surrounding space through which the story takes place is within the neighborhood of a mysterious standing stone, which locations the movie within the subgenre of modern-day people horror.
Barbarians screened as a part of Arrow Video FrightFest Halloween Version, which ran in London, U.Okay. on October 29 and 30, 2021.
Evaluation by Joseph Perry
