I'm pretty sure every review of 2022's 'Barbarian' mentions 'Psycho,' so I'll get the comparisons out the way early. It's a horror film that effectively has one long portion of the film (the first act, basically) specifically following certain characters, only for what seems like a completely different story to kick off midway through, giving most people a sense of confusion at how what they've just witnessed is related to what's happening right now.
In the classic 'Psycho' the trick was pulled by having the 'star' get murdered halfway through, bringing us - the audience - to the realisation that, actually, she wasn't the star and the new people we're going to follow through the final half is in fact the ultimate protagonist.
In 'Barbarian' - which I read online is a very loose anagram of the word 'air B and B' - two strangers find, by a 'coincidence' that they've accidentally been booked into the same property at the same time. Seeing as they both appear to be decent folk, they decide to spend the night there and sort it out with the owners in the morning. Only the house has a few secrets of its own.
I thoroughly enjoyed the film, largely because it was a rare occasion where I genuinely didn't know where it was going. Most 'run-of-the-mill' slasher films follow a set pattern of genre cliches and you know who out of the main cast will be the 'final girl.' However, here you really didn't know what the deal was when it came to the threat and how it came to be and, what's more, how is going to make it out alive - if any!
I don't know whether 'Barbarian' will remain up there with the best horror films as the years go by and cement itself as a long-standing classic. It's pretty gruesome in place and I don't just mean in term of (practical - no computer-generated, thank goodness) gore, but also some genuinely sick imagery and things the protagonists have to do to survive. But, if you're looking for something that's actually gone to the effort of trying to be different in terms of the scares it gives you, this is definitely above most of today's horror offerings.
