Who is the True Monster in “Barbarian”?

• No one knew what to anticipate going into this year’s Barbarian.
• The trailer teased without giving anything away.
• Zach Cregger, the filmmaker, probably intended the mislead.

No one knew what to anticipate going into this year’s Barbarian since the marketing campaign was expertly planned and the trailer teased without giving anything away.

Viewers observed Tess (Georgina Campbell), the movie’s protagonist, reserve a house to rent for a few nights only to discover Keith (Bill Skarsgrd), another individual, had previously reserved the same house. Then, in a series of terrifying scenes, we saw doors suddenly open in the middle of the night, Tess discovers a sinister tunnel, and she fled for her life. We don’t know what she is escaping.

When you first start watching Barbarian, you could be excused for thinking that Skarsgrd is the bad guy. With his terrifying performance as Pennywise the killer clown in the It flicks, he was so adept at playing the bad guy that it made sense.

Due to how predictable it was to make Skarsgrd the villain, it might have made too much sense. Zach Cregger, the filmmaker, probably intended the mislead. He is aware that when we see Kevin, Pennywise will be there. Despite the fact that Kevin is so accommodating to Tess and is shown as being really kind, we expect him to do something terrible.

The real dread starts when Tess finds a door concealed in a basement wall that leads to an eerie, little hallway. Tess discovers a dirty mattress in a room with a home security camera looking at it. What horrors were documented here is beyond our comprehension.

Even though Keith is hesitant to accept what Tess has discovered, she persuades him to check it out. We wonder if it’s because he designed the space in the first place. Tess enters the hallway in an attempt to locate him when he leaves to investigate but fails to return.

We can see the expected scene where Keith charges at her. In fact, he jumps out, but he is fleeing from panic. The monster is exposed at this point as a tall, lanky, naked woman with a malformed body jumps out of the shadows and kills Keith. She is a horrifying monster, like the terror in [REC] from 2007 or the witch in Blair Witch from 2016.

Before we can catch our breath, the movie abruptly switches to a side story about AJ (Justin Long), a Los Angeles actor who has been accused of rape by a fellow actor. After losing his job and facing growing legal costs, he moves to Detroit, where he owns a house that he might be able to sell. It just so happens that this house is the one from the beginning of the movie.

It doesn’t take long for AJ to find the tunnel as well and reach a room that we haven’t previously seen. Strangely, an ancient TV showing a breastfeeding instructional videotape can be found in the room together with crumpled and filthy bedding, suggesting that someone is currently residing there.

A homeless guy named Andre (James Butler), who had earlier chased Tess outdoors and yelled for her to leave the house, helps Tess narrowly escape as The Mother flees after her. Tess wants to go back inside and save AJ, but Andre cautions her against doing so because The Mother hunts at night.

At this point, the audience is left with a lot of unanswered inquiries. The Mother is who. What makes her so distorted? She lives in these tunnels, but why? Who designed them? Why is having a baby on her mind all the time?

Cregger turns away from the action once more to deliver yet another story as the thoughts continue to swirl in our heads. Starting in the same house, this one is set in the past, in the 1980s. In this bygone era, the dilapidated and abandoned neighborhood that we see today was a thriving one.

A suspicious-looking man named Frank emerges from the residence (Richard Brake). He is shown purchasing baby supplies at the grocery store before pursuing a woman and impersonating a city employee to get access to her house and unlock a window.

Though thankfully we never see it, it’s clear that he’s going to hurt this woman when he returns later. As to what caused the Barbarian’s monster, the audience starts to piece together the hints. Frank is the real monster, and in some strange way, The Mother is the product of his misdeeds.

When The Mother is pursuing AJ, we first witness her expressing fear. He discovers a space that causes The Mother to freeze and crouch in terror. A much elderly, bedridden Frank is in the space. Why is The Mother so terrified of him? What atrocities has she seen as a result of what he has done to her? A group of videotapes with names of ladies on them are discovered by AJ.

He starts playing them. Although we can’t see what he can, we can infer what’s there from AJ’s response and our earlier observation of the room with the mattress. When AJ confronts Frank, the elderly man chooses suicide over being sent in jail.

After Tess smashes her with a car and presses her against the home, the Mother flees the house at night while being pursued by Tess. Tess and AJ receive assistance from and refuge from Andre. The Mother, he explains, is a rape victim. To force women to become pregnant with his children, Frank would kidnap and rape them. Years of inbreeding produced the Mother. We don’t know how Andre knows all of this when no one else does or why he has never reported it.

The Mother then makes her appearance. She ripped off Andre’s arm after having survived being hit by a car, demonstrating her tremendous power. We never learn where she draws her strength from. The Mother pursues AJ and Tess outside, all the way to the top of a water tower.

Knowing that the Mother will pursue Tess once they reach the top, AJ tosses her off in an effort to save himself. The Mother jumps off the tower without even pausing to consider it, giving her life to save Tess. Tess lands on her and survives because she somehow manages to catch up to her.

The epilogue is heartbreaking. The Mother is still alive, but in her final act, AJ is killed, turning the alleged villain into a hero. Then she starts to look at Tess. She is heartbroken to find Tess in such poor condition. She has a baby, Tess. She attempts to say the words clearly.

Tess declines her request to accompany her back to the house, despite her desire. The Mother doesn’t respond as Tess holds a gun to her head. She’s probably never even seen a gun before, so she has no concept that it will hurt her. She only worries about her baby suffering harm. The Mother is then put out of her agony by Tess.

This last shot does not represent the triumph of good over evil. Never was the Mother a villain. She was a product of wickedness. She is also a victim of rape and has never known anyone. She has clung to her film of a mother breastfeeding since having her own child is all she has ever wanted.

She initially appears to be a stereotypical monster—something horrifying and familiar—but Cregger is playing a ruse. She develops a sympathetic personality by the end. We are sorry for her. She wasn’t entitled to this life. In this tale, the monsters are Frank and AJ. The Mother is merely a woman who desired to love but was unsure of how. She perished as a result.

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