Barbarian is a 2022 American horror film[6] written and directed by Zach Cregger in his solo screenwriting and directorial debut.

The plot sees a woman finding out that the rental home she reserved has been accidentally double-booked by a man, not knowing of a dark secret within the dwelling.

Barbarian premiered at San Diego Comic-Con on July 22, 2022, and was theatrically released in the United States on September 9, 2022, by 20th Century Studios.

Tess goes for her interview the next morning and is cautioned to stay on guard while in the neighborhood around the house, which is suffering from heavy urban decay.

She accidentally locks herself in the basement and stumbles across a hidden corridor, leading to a room with a camera, a stained mattress, a bucket and a bloody handprint.

Tess uses the opportunity to escape the house with the help of Andre, the homeless man, who warns her that The Mother will come after her at nightfall.

Zach Cregger was inspired by the non-fiction book The Gift of Fear, citing a section that encourages women to trust their intuition and not ignore the subconscious red flags that arise in their day-to-day interactions with men.

Cregger settled on a woman showing up to an Airbnb late at night, only to find that it had been double booked, as the ideal set-up for this exercise.

I just wanted to write a fun scene for myself and it ended up being something that hooked me, and I didn’t know where it was going, and then it turned into a feature film.

In mid-2020, Lifshitz and Margules accrued a $3.5 million budget for the film, largely through foreign financing, most of it from the French production company Logical Pictures.

"[11] However, when Efron turned down the role, Cregger decided to take the character's image in a different direction and cast Justin Long for his "warm and disarming and charming, lovable presence onscreen" which he thought would make AJ more engaging to audiences.

Unsure of the film's future, Lee secured financial backing from New Regency who increased the budget to $4.5 million, and as a result, 20th Century Studios became the film's distributor, stemming from a prior distribution deal between Regency and The Walt Disney Studios, 20th Century's parent division.

[18][3] CinemaBlend and AMC Theatres premiered the film at the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con on July 22, where it garnered positive reactions.

[22] In the United States, Barbarian was released on digital download and to stream on HBO Max beginning on October 25.

[4][5] In the United States and Canada, Barbarian was released alongside Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva and Lifemark, and made $3.9 million from 2,340 theaters on its first day, including $850,000 from Thursday night previews.

Deadline Hollywood called the 40% week-to-week drop "pretty spectacular", noting that horror films typically see a 65% decline in their sophomore frames.

The website's consensus reads: "Smart, darkly humorous and above all scary, Barbarian offers a chilling and consistently unpredictable thrill ride for horror fans.

"[33] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 78 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.