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This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.

Frank and Beings

Barbarian on IMDb

Plot Overview

puzzledcross
country migrationIn its Reagan era heyday, Bright­moore on the out­skirts of Detroit was home to countless yuppies and the odd barbarian. When business moved away, so did they, mostly. When Holly­wood type A [Assault Justifier] J (Justin Long) is about to be prosecuted for a sex crime, he comes to look at his investment property for garnering resources to cover his legal expenses. He finds evidence of yuppie squatters upstairs and tunneling rodents down. We'd been intro­duced to the former in the opening scenes, but it is unknown what happened to them. The two (Georgina Campbell & Bill Skarsgård) had been double-booked thru Airbnb & Home­Away and had decided to share the accommo­dation for the night and let the “idiots” sort it out in the morning. Easier said than done.

Ideology

The foundation of the horror story is the twisted application of a true enough proverb: (Prov. 30:15-16) “The horse­leach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough.” The two needy daughters are, of course, the very young and the very old, full of demands. The grave being never satisfied is like to claim old Frank (Richard Brake) seen earlier in his prime but now bed­ridden and so decrepid he can't speak but must point. The barren womb is the erst­while suburbanites who cranked out kids like there was no tomorrow. The earth that is not filled with water is the land that dried up leaving a salt flat. Water is stored in a tower and the walls of the unfinished base­ment are unsealed yet dry. It is a land­scape fit for industry. The fire that never quits is, of course, human metabolism, mouths wanting to be fed from birth till death.

babyspud
mansenior busThe movie repetitively returns to a video tutorial on breast feeding. There's an earlier shot of a clueless Frank going to a store to buy baby supplies when the kid is yet on the way. Later we see multiple play­pens at his place. His perverse family planning produces an incestuously horrid hag, a certi­fiable idiot who ignores Frank's need but nurses big babies. AJ doesn't care for it and throws her babe under the bus. The hag-mother sacrifices her­self to thwart the abortion.

While we like to distance ourselves from the horror on screen, there is a niggling suspicion that our waking world sees some of the same. Women seek abortions when their fetus makes demands on them. The public discourse on justifications for it include rape, incest, and convenience, not to mention protecting the mother's life, all of which come up here if we include AJ's alleged rape of his co-star Meagan. As for the sicko hag's misdirected maternal care, isn't one of the standard defenses for abortion to free a woman to better service her employer? There's even a bit on assisted suicide thrown in.

Production Values

” (2022) was written and directed by Zach Cregger. It stars Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård and Justin Long. All the acting was very adequate for this genre, and I was particularly pleased with Derek Morse & Trevor Van Uden playing indifferent policemen.

MPAA rated it R for some strong violence and gore, disturbing material, language through­out and nudity. Filming was done in Detroit, Michigan, USA and in Bulgaria. It has a runtime of 1¾ hours.

Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation

This was a well directed, choice horror piece. Hold onto your seat, is my recommendation.

Movie Ratings

Action factor: Edge of your seat action-packed drama. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: Don't watch this movie alone. Overall movie rating: Five stars out of five.