Whereas the darkish humorousness to this scene serves as a pleasant break between the moments of terror, it additionally ties again into an attention-grabbing thematic through-line. Tess had a dialog with Keith earlier within the movie in regards to the elementary distinction between how they navigate the world as a girl versus his perspective as a person. Although it is in a comedically heightened kind, this tonal shift in portraying the descent into the tunnel as Tess within the first act versus AJ the second time round could be very a lot a literal, cinematic manifestation of their gendered experiences. Paradoxically, the motherly area by which AJ is getting into is certainly one of female energy. As he runs into the Mom, his function on this story shifts from a sexual predator in place of energy to a creature’s weak prey.
Like several nice trendy horror image, “Barbarian” is a layered expertise that understands the right way to manipulate its viewers. Nevertheless, it has been a very long time since we have seen a studio horror flick so assured, meta, and prepared to take huge dangers. Judging by the equally measured laughs and thrills the movie earns in a totally packed cinema, its experiment was successful.
