BARBARIAN is one of those movies you don't want to know too much about before the opening credits roll. We'll give you the basics: Tess (Georgina Campbell) books an Airbnb in Detroit so she can interview for a job. But she discovers someone else at the house when she checks in — and then things quickly get weird… and then they turn really nasty.
Stars Georgina Campbell and Justin Long know they shouldn't give too much away, and so when we spoke to them ahead of the movie's opening they didn't even dip a toe into spoiler territory. Writer/director Zach Cregger also avoided specifics, but he did give us some interesting backstory.
Specifically, Cregger says that he was inspired to write BARBARIAN, which also stars Bill Skarsgård, after reading a book called "The Gift of Fear" which, he says, "encourages women to pay attention to a lot of very subtle red flags that can come up in day to day life." So behavior which seems innocuous could indicate a real threat — and that was the starting point. So Tess is faced with a guy doing things which, on their face, aren't "that bad, but when you put them all together and put them in this context, it's menacing." Writing that scene as an exercise led to many more ideas.
"If you're afraid of scary movies and horror, in general, is not really your thing, think of this as a really fun roller coaster ride… you're going to have some moments of concern but you'll also have moments of real laughter."
Watch our full video interview with the stars and director of BARBARIAN below:
BARBARIAN opens on September 9.
All images courtesy of 20th Century Studios.