As a Nightmare Fuel page, all spoilers are unmarked as per wiki policy. You Have Been Warned!
"Nope."
Barbarian is considered one of the scariest films of 2022, and it's not hard to see why.
- The first act is arguably the most terrifying part of the entire film. It is built on Tess and the audience being suspicious of Keith as well as sensing something entirely off about the AirBnB from the get-go.
- At first, the hidden compartment in the basement. It's the definition of Nothing Is Scarier as Tess investigates it to find a room with a bloody handprint and later a steep staircase leading down into Frank's underground tunnel.
- The scene where Tess slowly descends into the dungeon, shrouded entirely in darkness is one of the most nerve-wrecking scenes in all of cinema. It’s shot almost entirely from Tess’s POV with some even being handheld shots. It truly makes the audience think they’re really there exploring this dungeon.
- The Mother's first onscreen appearance, where she runs screeching out of the dark and smashes Keith's head against the wall until he dies.
- What makes the reveal scarier and more surprising is that there were pretty much zero signs of The Mother in both the trailer and the film's first half. The first few minutes makes it seem like Keith is the villain trying to lure Tess in. So to suddenly have this tall monstrous naked lady come out of nowhere to, very graphically, bash Keith's head off is a complete shock.
- The flashback showing Frank posing as a maintenance man to unlock a woman's bathroom window to kidnap her later.
- The way the flashback is shot is terrifying in and of itself. The camera follows Frank around in a very paranoid and claustrophobic manner, instantly signalling the audience that despite the bright '80s suburban aesthethic, something truly foul is at play.
- Worse, AJ finds the woman's dress in Frank's room.
- AJ watching one of Frank's tapes - we don't see anything, thankfully, but AJ's reaction and the kind of person Frank is leaves little to the imagination.
- The tapes themselves. Though nothing is seen of their content, it is made very obvious that each one is a home video Frank made of himself raping one of his victims. Each tape is labeled with the victim’s name or another description, one of which reads “Won’t Stop Crying.”
- Frank pulls out a gun and it appears as though he's about to shoot AJ, only to reveal that he's going to shoot himself in the head. The completely blunt way the scene is delivered is enough to nearly stop your heart.
- The scene where the Mother crashes through a wall and kills Andre by ripping his arm off and beating him to death with it. Although, there's a bit of Black Comedy to it considering it happens immediately after Andre states he's survived for years and she'll never find him.
- AJ's death where his eyes are gouged out and his head is cracked open in two. Not to say he didn’t deserve it though.
