Barbarian, the 2022 psychological thriller- horror movie, has very controversial reviews. Although the movie will play with your mind and still keep you hooked till the end, Barbarian has become one of the greatest movies of 2022. The critical reviews, though, became a reason to emerge the discussion on social media and especially about the antagonist of the movie, The Mother.
Although most of the movie depicts a rented house and area alongside the house, the Barbarian movie was actually filmed in two-three different locations. Even though It doesn’t seem that filmmakers have taken much effort in constructing a set for the movie due to its realistic view of houses, one may consider that the movie is filmed in an already constructed house. There is much difference between reality and what we see on screen. The efforts of the filmmakers are what make the movie so realistic.
Barbarian 2022: Plot
The film, Barbarian starts with a girl, Tess Marshall, who visits Detroit for a job interview. To live, she seeks a rental house, and when she finally finds one, it appears that that house is co-rented by a stranger named Keith. As she has no idea about it, she gets shocked, but instead of arguing, she decides to stay there. The old man chases her after she returns from her job interview the following day, telling her to leave the house.
She ignores him and enters the basement, where she gets stuck. She discovers a stained mattress and bloody prints while she is locked in a basement, which leads her to believe something is wrong with the home she is living in. She exits the basement with relief when Keith arrives. After telling him everything that occurred while she was inside, they both returned to the basement to look around.
Moreover, when Tess enters the tunnel and finds Keith splattered in blood all over his body, she realizes that a nude creature who essentially resembles a woman has attacked him when Keith runs down the basement tube and cries out for aid. Keith is killed by the monster in a struggle to defend Tess and himself from the monster.
Apparently, When an actor named AJ visits his own property, which was rented by Keith and Tess, he also discovers the tunnel and finds Tess. Tess gets shocked when he tells her the story of the creature that lives in his house. The creature is a mere woman who wants everyone who visits her to act as a child of hers, and AJ refers to her as a Mother.
Even if Mother is the main antagonist of the movie, she has a traumatic past. She was imprisoned by a man called Frank, who used to rape women in the basement and raise their children. He also used to videotape every brutality that he had done to innocent women. When AJ confronts Frank about the same, he shoots himself. Later, Tess and actor AJ struggles to save themselves from The Mother, who goes after them to kill them.
Barbarian 2022: Filming Locations
The setting of Tess’ rental home and the scene of all these ‘the mother’ events is introduced to the audience at the beginning of the film. Although Detroit is stated to be the setting initially, only certain scenes were shot there. The whole movie was filmed in Bulgaria, giving it a look of Detroit.
To make it more realistic, director Zach also stated that they worked with the Bulgarian production designer and built every level of the house. Along with that, they also constructed the other 13 dummy houses to make it look like a street in Detroit, where houses are located alongside the street.
As the Bulgarian language differs from the English language, director Zach also stated that the team faced a lot of language barriers and worked even at night because of the time zone difference. Certainly, the street and the house look real in the movie, thanks to the splendid work of the Bulgarian designers and filmmakers. And to make the movie look more authentic, some scenes were also shot in Detroit.
Along with Bulgaria, Zach also stated that some of the movies were also filmed in Malibu. Particularly the scene when actor AJ heads to Detroit after getting fired, with the allegations of raping the co-actors. He was shown driving on the coast of Malibu.
Even though the whole film gives the artificial city in Bulgaria a ‘Detroitish’ look, the whole movie was actually filmed in a remote area of Bulgaria. Barbarian, with its filming location and the characters, following the intriguing storyline, has won the hearts of the viewers.