Cregger, of sketch group The Whitest Kids U’ Know and their Playboy magazine frat comedy “Miss March,” knows well what he’s playing with here. The optics of this woman putting herself in certain vulnerability are uncomfortable, and his economic filmmaking nudges it just so. Soon enough, it’s time to check out the basement, which, no big spoilers here, but you probably wouldn’t want to go down there, or past the door that can be opened with a strand of rope. Effective dread comes in various sizes from this story, sometimes due to pushy plotting. And yet the creepy mysteries and wacky reveals are plenty visceral in “Barbarian,” even when they get willfully dumb.
Did I mention that the other Airbnb guy is played by Bill Skarsgård of “It”? For further proof that casting is a vital part of moviemaking, consider Skarsgård’s inclusion, one of the film’s unsettling pieces, as unsettling as the house’s numerous secret, dark corridors. Here, the former Pennywise the Clown uses his casual presence, those circular eyes and that imposing figure, supplanting it with a nervous rambling, going on and on when trying to explain that he cares for Tess feeling safe in this bizarre situation. Is it just a disarming act? Is Skarsgård playing another luring creep? “Barbarian” gets a fair amount of adrenaline from that question, and answers it in one of the film’s best scenes.
Later on, Justin Long shows up at the house. His Hollywood dude AJ is introduced zipping down some coastal road in a convertible, only to find out in a phone call that he’s being accused of doing something horrible to an actress. As someone who very likely did said thing, AJ is more concerned with his career and in putting this behind him. Long is adept at playing the sincerely terrible nature of the guy, down to a good laugh-out-loud joke in how he gets involved with this mess at the Airbnb (“Barbarian” could be funnier, and its lack of more comic relief is a copout). A movie like this flourishes on the choices that characters make, and Long’s slick creep is its most sound construction.