WE JUST REVIEWED a horror flick titled “Barbarian”, which is American and set in Detroit.
Now, here’s a thriller entitled “Barbarians”, which is British and set in the countryside in Surrey, England.
The story happens only in one night and centers on two couples.
The first is Adam (Iwan Rheon, "Game of Thrones"), a struggling writer and filmmaker, and his more successful wife, Eva (Catalina Moreno, "Maria Full of Grace"), a sculptor.
The second is Lucas (Tom Cullen, "Downton Abbey"), a real estate magnate, and his girlfriend, Chloe (Ines Spiridonov), an actress.
Lucas has developed a new community called Gaeta or Gateway for city dwellers who want a more tranquil way of life.
The local people in the community are against it because the area used to be a sacred site for druids, an ancient Celtic religion.
They also distrust Lucas because his original partner, Wickes, who actually owns the land, suddenly died after filing a case against Lucas.
Adam and Eva are living in the first house built on Gaeta and, that night, they’re having Lucas and Chloe for dinner to celebrate Adam’s birthday.
The evening starts cordially but soon, secrets are discovered.
It turns out Adam and Chloe know each other and had an affair. Chloe is now pregnant and Adam thinks he might be the dad.
Lucas is an alpha male who wants to dominate people. He says he wants to get back the house from Adam as he has found another buyer who’s bid is higher.
He tries to put down and bully Adam, who then spikes Lucas’ drink with a drug to get back at him.
They get into a fight and at this point, someone rings the doorbell. When Eva opens it, two masked intruders with a gun shoo her back in and tie up all of them.
This turns the film into a home invasion movie.
Chloe tries to run away but it turns out there is another masked man outside who gets her and brings her back into the house.
One of the invaders destroys the property inside the house then seats Lucas on a chair to make him confess about his sins.
But the drug Adam has given to Lucas kicks in and he seems to become stronger, fights back and kills one of the men.
This is about as far as we’d go so as not to spoil it for you.
Suffice it to say that you can expect the violence to escalate and some of the people, both invaders and their victims, would die in the process.
“Barbarians” is the directorial debut of Charles Dorfman, a film producer who made “Lost Daughter” with Olivia Colman and “Honest Thief” with Liam Neeson.
His film tries to address valid issues like toxic masculinity and territoriality, but he is not able to articulate his themes very well.
Then midway, he turns the movie into a thriller and it’s not a very well realized thriller either.
The main problem is that you don’t get to sympathize with the characters, specially Lucas and his aggressive personality that can easily turn anyone off.
Also, he seems to have indulged in shady dealings on the acquisition of the Gateway property that has caused the death of his partner. This leads to some very serious complications.
As for Adam, he seems very insecure about himself. To begin with, he’s rather short and his wife Eva is even taller than him.
He’s such a softie and cannot even throw a punch or shoot an enemy who’s threatening his life. Lucas openly humiliates him and calls him a pussy.
As for the female characters, we cannot understand what attracted them to such off-putting men.
So when the invaders attack them, we don’t really care much whatever happens to them.
We think the title refers to the characters who have innate feelings residing within all of us that come out when we are threatened, no matter how educated or cultured we think we are.