Paul Giamatti Is Obsessed With This Modern Horror Classic That Just Landed on Netflix

Paul Giamatti is one of our greatest dramatic actors, having performed in the theater, starred in TV shows like Billions, and played the lead in Academy Award-caliber films such as The Holdovers, for which he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar. He’s even won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for John Adams. You might think that Giamatti is a film snob, then, the type who looks down on horror movies, but he is actually a big fan of the genre. Not only is he set to star in a TV version of Eli Roth‘s Hostel, but he’s also going to be the lead in Radio Silence’s next horror movie.

I knew Paul Giamatti was good people when he told Variety last year that his favorite horror movie is The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. He has some modern favorites as well. Last year, he raved to Deadline about recent horror gems such as Ari Aster‘s Hereditary and Jordan Peele‘s Nope, but one he really loved was Zach Cregger‘s Barbarian. He told Deadline, “I thought that movie was really, really well done, and that’s kind of one of my favorite horror movies I’ve seen recently. That movie really struck a chord with me, and it stuck with me.” If you’ve seen Barbarian, you know exactly what he’s talking about.

‘Barbarian’s First Unsettling Act Ends With a Shocking Twist

Part of what initially made Barbarian such a success is that audiences had no idea what they were getting into when they sat down in the darkened theater. In an era where trailers give away an entire movie’s plot in two minutes, Barbarian showed very little. We saw Georgina Campbell exploring a creepy house, and Bill Skarsgård was there, but what horror awaited was unknown.

The first act of Barbarian is extremely tense, and nothing much even happens. This is because of Skarsgård. Campbell plays Tess, a woman who rents out an Airbnb house in Detroit only to discover that someone else, Keith (Skarsgård), is already staying there. Keith says that it’s just a mix-up, but with a man now alone with a woman in a dark house at night, we know where this is going. Skarsgård might be acting all nice, like the perfect gentleman, but it’s just a facade. This is the guy who played Pennywise after all. At any moment, Keith is going to snap and take Tess hostage. But then it happened. When a series of rooms are discovered under the house, Keith is pulled to his death in one of the most effective jump scares in recent memory. Barbarian is not the movie we thought it was.

The Monster Effects in ‘Barbarian’ Are Terrifying

After this, we not only get a tonal shift, but a confusing plot twist as well, when we meet AJ (Justin Long), a Hollywood actor who was just fired from a TV show because he’s been accused of rape. He now goes back home to Detroit to the home he owns, looking to sell it, and it just so happens to be our Airbnb house of horrors. Is AJ a monster? He’s certainly been accused of being one. Will he harm Tess, and does he know what the creature is under the house, or will AJ find a way to see the light and redeem himself?

For much of the second act, Barbarian is a disgusting monster movie, with Matthew Patrick Davis playing “the mother”, a deformed, horrific woman who tries to make AJ and Tess her babies. She’s beyond gross, with her gray skin and jagged teeth making her look more like a zombie than anything human. It’s a phenomenal performance by Davis with some stellar practical effects makeup, but as scary as our monster is, we know there has to be more. Why is she treating her victims as babies instead of killing them, and just what is this place she lives in? She certainly didn’t build it herself.

‘Barbarian’ Turns Into a Heartbreaking Horror Movie in the End

That leads to another shift for Barbarian. It goes from a possible male aggressor pursuing a woman film, to a monster movie, to a heartbreaker. We get to see how “the mother” came to be with a flashback. Here, we follow Frank (Richard Brake) living in this same house in the 80s, back when it existed in a still-thriving neighborhood. Frank is the true monster of Barbarian, as we learn that he abducts and rapes women, bringing them back to his home where they are held hostage and give birth. “The mother” is a victim created through decades of incestual sexual assault, a deformed product of his hatred. She has never been loved, has never known the sunlight, and only goes out at night. “The mother” can’t speak, not because she’s a monster, but because no one ever taught her.

The third act of Barbarian turns her from a traditional movie monster to a tragic figure. She’s more on par with the Elephant Man than the Wolfman. She is violent, killing people with her superhuman strength when she’s scared or threatened, but she is also capable of love. Despite never having felt it herself, “the mother” sacrifices herself to save Tess. When AJ throws Tess from the top of a water tower, our supposed monster doesn’t think twice about leaping after her. Tess is saved in the process, leading to a soul-crushing final scene. Although she’s in great pain, before Tess puts this poor soul out of its misery, her last words are looking at Tess and saying “baby”. Maybe she’s lost a baby in the past, or maybe she just has that much to give. Either way, it hits you right in the chest.

Barbarian is three genres of films all in one, and it’s unforgettable. It says so much without ever telling you how it’s going to get there. No wonder Paul Giamatti loves it so much.