First off, if you intend on watching this film leave now and only return after watching it to let me know if I did a half decent job - the best enjoyment you will get from watching is going into the film with no idea what is going to happen.
Second, no pictures - I can't remember ever doing a post without pictures, but aside from the copyright you just don't need it for this sort of tense thriller.
Opening is Tess heading to Detroit for a job interview, it's a dark and wet night (could be the UK any time) and she has driven over and rented an Airbnb house for the stay. Finding the rented house is tricky, when she arrives in the rain the key locker is empty...
After failing to get through to the agent that rented the apartment, she resorts to banging on the door - eventually a just awoken Keith opens it. Turns out the house is double booked, Tess is wary of Keith - but warms to him and with little other options decides to stay (Keith on the couch, Tess in the bedroom)
The next day Tess leaves for her interview, and Keith leaves to continue his vacation. Tess returns first, but as she walks up to the house a homeless man starts shouting for her to leave and runs towards her - she scrambles for the keylock and get's inside just before he reaches the door - then he bangs on it.
Scared Tess finds a door in a cupboard to the cellar, in the cellar she finds a rope which when pulled opens a secret door to a network of tunnels and rooms. One of the first rooms she finds has a bloodied bed, a video camera set on it and bloodied hand print on the wall. Spooked Tess tries to get out but the door she entered through is mysteriously blocked - she finds a cellar window to bang on and by good fortune Keith appears at it and helps her out.
Back upstairs in the House Keith insists he will investigate the cellar, when he is gone some time Tess decides to follow after him - discovering the tunnels go deep she hears him screaming for help - when she finds him he tries to tell her someone else is down there - and then he is beaten to death by what appears to be a naked disfigured women.
Jump to actor AJ Gilbride driving his sports car while all is happy in his world, then he receives a call from his agent - basically an actress he works with has accused him of rape and he's been dropped from his job. With no income and legal fees to pay he has to sell some of his let houses starting with one in Detroit...
So AJ Gilbride ends up at the same house Tess started at - his rental property. After arriving he realises someone must be using it because their personal property is present - bags, wash kit etc - but nobody around. Ringing his letting agent is mostly useless as they don't think they have letted the place in weeks.
AJ does the most sensible thing and meets an old friend at a bar and get's very drunk. The next day nursing a massive hangover he discovers the cellar and it's tunnels - and then the mother - who throws him in a pit with Tess. From Tess he learns that the mother wants to feed them like baby's - just as the mother pushes a bottle of milk into the pit for them to suckle on. AJ refuses while Tess wisely drinks, the mother drags AJ out and forces him to feed from the breast instead.
While the mother is busy forcing her breast into AJ's mouth, Tess escapes the tunnels and house by breaking a basement window - being pulled free by the same homeless man she tried to escape earlier. He warns her to stay away, but she still wishes to save AJ. Reaching a local petrol station she calls the Police - who are less than useful because she looks like a vagrant by now and they quickly head off to do some real Police Work.
Jump again, now back 40 years ago to the house previous owner Franks - seems he built the cellar tunnels and rooms so he could kidnap women and trap them down there, so he could father children from them and then father children from those children. So it seems the mother is a multi inbred that has never seen the light of day which makes the nurturing obsession understandable.
Back to AJ at present and he finds Franks in a room while the mother is chasing Tess, AJ thinks that Franks is another person the mother has trapped - but realises after seeing some old videos Franks had filmed that Franks had started it all. Franks reaches for a draw, takes out an old pistol and ends his life with a bullet to the brain.
AJ takes the gun and tries to find a way out, meanwhile Tess drives back to the house to try and save AJ - finds the mother looking for her and runs her into the wall of the house - leaving the mother pinned to the house. Tess then goes to look for AJ - who repays her kind thoughts by shooting her...well to be fair he thought she was the mother.
AJ and Tess leave the house only to find the mother is no longer pinned to the house by Tess's car...
The homeless man Andre finds them and guides them to his shelter, where he explains the incentious past of Franks in the house - and then the mother finds them and finishes Andre off.
AJ and Tess leg it up a water tower with the mother in close pursuit, AJ decides to save himself and pushes Tess off the top - the mother enraged at her favourite new baby being thrown from height leaps after her and saves Tess from the worst of the fall.
AJ makes his way down from the tower and finds Tess has landed on top of the mother and still alive, he tries to apologise to Tess for using her to save his own sorry skin - and then the mother wakes up and kills him.
The mother then decides Tess should be next, but Franks gun is to hand dropped by the now very dead AJ - Tess grabs it and ends the mother's breastfeeding obsession.
Tess shambles off vowing to only ever use Holiday Inn for future out of town job interviews.
Barbarian as a film wins on many levels, a tense thriller with jump scares it has so many twists and turns you never know what is going to happen next. There is hardly any gore, no severed limbs or slit throats pumping arterial blood until death. The scare is not knowing how the tale will turn next, you can never trust anyone throughout the film.
If you want a film to watch for Halloween, but don't want the cheap and nasty thrills of gore - Barbarian is the psychological thriller for you.