The setting makes “Barbarian,” a movie about the worst Airbnb stay in the history of mankind.
October is beginning, and it’s getting spooky out there. So we’re reposting a (slightly edited) review of Barbarian, a scary movie released in 2022.
Halloween is already around the corner, so I’ve been watching scary movies. In fact, I was at the theater last weekend to see one called “Resident Evil,” a movie loosely based on a survival horror video game series. And in all seriousness, it was pretty good. And that, I think, is because director Zach Cregger is becoming a very accomplished in the horror genre. It was only a few years ago that Cragger made his directorial debut with a film there’s really stuck with me:
This movie is called “Barbarian,” which is an apt name because it has some pretty savage moments. Barbaric, even! It’s most effective if you watch it knowing as little as possible about its story. So I won’t spoil it, nor will the above clip, beyond saying the story begins with a woman having trouble checking into an Airbnb in a forlorn Detroit neighborhood – and that is very important, because there are parts of that city that work very well as the backdrop to an unhinged horror flick.
I say this is a credit to Detroit. The Motor City has a distinct look to it that can lend itself to all kinds of genres, as evidenced by movies like “Gran Torino” or the more recent period crime film “No Sudden Move” (which is also great, by the way! Definitely check that one out).
But some really good horror movies have taken advantage of Detroit’s environs too. “It Follows,” which is a cursed ghost story and a rumination on sex and mortality, takes place in and around the city. “Only Lovers Left Alive,” the 2013 vampire romance directed by Jim Jarmusch, is set there as well. And so is “Barbarian,” which simply wouldn’t be as effective as it is if it were set in a location less desolate than the depopulated neighborhood of Brightmoor. While most of the movie takes place indoors and was filmed on sets in Bulgaria, the filmmakers still attempted to root their story in this corner of the Big D. Many of its exterior shots are of the actual neighborhood.
That said: Brightmoor a real place and a home to real people who are working very hard to revive it. The neighborhood isn’t as apocalyptic as this flick would have you believe – this is only a movie, of course – but Brightmoor reasonably passes as apocalyptic because it’s beset by blight, which is the result of deindustrialization decades ago.
The neighborhood in fact was developed in the 1920s to house immigrants and new arrivals from the Great Migration who moved there to find work in auto factories. The Detroit of 1950s, as seen in “No Sudden Move,” is flush with those factories and jobs. In the decades that followed, many factories left the city and so did the white population that had the means to do so. The residents left behind, typically African American, had to contend with little opportunities for work, deteriorating city services and a corresponding rise in crime.
Here’s how it was put in a 2016 report released by the Alliance for American Manufacturing on this very topic:
“Barbarian” is a good movie but what really makes it frightening is its setting. The desolation and emptiness are integral to the dread you feel as the film’s protagonist suffers through what would be the worst Airbnb experience of all time. And while not all of Detroit can pass as this bombed out, you can find neighborhoods there because of the very real deindustrialization the city and its residents have suffered.
So I guess, uh, at least we got a few good movies out of that national experience?
“Barbarian” can be streamed on HBO Max and Hulu, and rented or purchased through platforms like Amazon Prime. You should watch it! And while you’re peeking at it through your fingers, consider the location the filmmakers set this story in. There’s a whole economic history that helped create it.