Say what you will about Jordan Peele, but his influence is already undeniable. Barbarian premiered only a few days after Nope, and yet it contains what appears to be a shoutout to that film. Whether it is by design or accident is up to you to decide; I’ll just say it’s unlikely that writer/director Zach Cregger was unaware of Peele’s much discussed big-budget third movie (but then who was?).
The similarities, intentional or otherwise, pretty much end there, which means it might be unfair to compare the two films, what with apples and oranges — but I’m going to go ahead and do it anyway, if only because everybody loves an underdog. And we can always measure the two movies up against each other as examples of the same genre, can’t we?
Barbarian is a superior horror flick than Nope first and foremost because it’s a lot shorter, which helps it to be a lot more focused as well. Like Nope, Barbarian has more than one storyline going on, one of which involves a flashback). Nope’s plot and subplot, however, run parallel to each other, passing one another by like ships in the night, until the B story is abruptly dropped halfway through; it’s like watching a movie with half of another movie sticking out of one side — in one word, a wreck.
In contrast, Barbarian’s narrative threads are perpendicular; that is to say, they eventually intersect each other and make a meaningful connection. There’s a lot of stuff in Cregger’s film, and the script digs deep in more ways than one, but it all feels like it belongs together thanks to a tight, disciplined screenplay. In addition to being more organized and better structured, Barbarian relies infinitely less (i.e., not at all) on CGI than Nope or, for that matter, than the majority of motion pictures produced today (horror and otherwise), making it a sight for sore eyes (the explanation for the feature’s creature is an afterthought at best, but the creature itself sure as hell isn’t).
Another movie that Barbarian reminds me of, and which it also puts to shame, is Run Sweetheart Run. The resemblance is clearer in this case, and at the same time merely superficial — and it really couldn’t be any other way, considering that the latter is all surface with absolutely nothing underneath: blunt, in-your-face, manipulative, obvious, opportunistic drivel. Barbarian, meanwhile, gives a hero’s welcome to our old friends suspense, ambiguity, and irony (the last one courtesy of a wicked, arguably career-best performance by a perfectly cast Justin Long). Even non-horror films like the recent On the Line and See How They Run could learn a thing or two about red herrings (such as what they are and how they’re used) from Barbarian. And the way it grey-areas the whole MeToo business without copping out in the end is a huge breath of fresh air (as opposed to Run Sweetheart Run’s literal demonization). All things considered, Barbarian is the kind of horror film that you see it and think, ‘I thought they didn’t make’em like that anymore.’
90% of Everything is Crap 