Barbarian has been one of the sleeper hits of 2022, grossing more than $40 million at the US box office from a reported $4.5 million budget, and it's now finally arrived in UK cinemas for the Halloween weekend.
Written and directed by Zach Cregger, the much-talked about horror movie centres on Tess (Georgina Campbell) who arrives at her rental home in Detroit. Unfortunately for her, Keith (Bill Skarsgård) is already staying there after he booked it on a separate site, but he does seem to be the perfect gentleman.
With limited options and a job interview to get to in the morning, Tess decides to stay the night and soon discovers that a double-booked home is the least of her worries.
It's a relatable nightmare, but talking to Digital Spy, Georgina Campbell is pretty sure she'd be out of there quick-sharp: "To be honest, if I was Tess, I don't think I would have stayed in the first place. I think I would have left.
"I do think Zach, he does write lots of obstacles in her way about why she has to stay there as there's nowhere else to stay. Why she has to go down in the basement because she needs to get toilet roll, then she gets locked in there and it's all these little moments. You'd do it and then suddenly you're caught in a bad situation."
Not that we'll tell you here what that "bad situation" is. The joy of Barbarian is going in blind, but you can at least enjoy this spoiler-free chat with Georgina Campbell to mark the UK release.
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Barbarian has been a sleeper hit at the US box office and while it was a critical hit, did the performance take you by surprise?
I knew when we were making it, we all loved it, we all thought it was great. We thought that it could do well, and I think when we were coming up to the point of it coming out, everyone was like: "OK, maybe this is going to be something…".
It's just gone above and beyond that, it's just insane. The last time I spoke to Zach was two or three weeks after it had come out in the US, and he was just screaming down the phone at me about the box office success and how many people had seen it. It's definitely been a really welcome surprise. It's great because we all really love the film.
Zach has spoken about the struggles in getting Barbarian made due to the movie's unique structure. When you first read the script, did you have any similar concerns or could you immediately see how it would work?
I really went out on a limb on this film because I actually already had a job that I was going towards doing, I hadn't signed contracts or anything but I was kind of like: "This is it, I'm doing this".
Then this script came along and I loved the script, I thought it was amazing. As soon as I read it, I was like: "Oh my God, I have to do this job". I was in this weird position that really hardly ever happens to me. Normally you're waiting and waiting for a job, and suddenly I had two jobs and I had to make a decision.
There were pros to both of them, but I really had to go out on a limb for this one. We really had no idea what would happen with this film. It was independent as well, so there could have been a chance that it didn't even get made. I just knew when I read it that I loved it and I thought it was fantastic.
I completely understood that some people would read this and be like: "What on Earth is this? What is happening? How is this going to work?" That was the fun thing about it that the people that were involved were really passionate about it, they really wanted to make this film.
The first act centres on the unease that Tess feels being in such a strange, potentially dangerous, situation with Keith, and the red flags that women might notice that aren't necessarily seen by men. Did you have any input into the script over what Tess might or might not do from your perspective?
That was all in the script. That was all Zach. He'd read a book that was called The Gift of Fear, which I also read, which is about these moments, these red flags, these feelings in your stomach about something being off that you should really follow those feelings.
A lot of people, especially women, tend to ignore them because they don't want to look silly or they don't want to embarrass someone or they just brush them under the carpet. I found it really interesting because lots of the stuff I could relate to, but also I could look at it and I would be like: "It's fine".
If someone made me a cup of tea, I don't know that I would immediately go: "Oh, I shouldn't drink that as I don't really know them", but maybe I take a couple of sips and be like: "Was that a good idea?".
Or maybe like him coming and taking my luggage, I really loved that moment because I've had that happen a million times when people are trying to touch your things or they're trying to help and you don't really need them to do that, but you just go along with it because you know it's kind of coming from a good place.
I didn't have anything to do with the script, it was all his writing, but I could completely understand and found it very interesting that as a man, he'd been able to understand these little moments and bring them into the script.
Talking to other actors who have been in horror movies, they talk about how exhausting it is compared to other genres because you're always at a heightened state. Tess goes through a lot in this movie, so did it feel that way to film?
It was very stressful. Lots of jobs that I do tend to be quite intense characters going through really hard situations, so I kind of knew what I was letting myself in for.
Once you pass the threshold in a horror film of hitting the horror, you have to keep that pace up and that tension up for the rest of the film, which is really hard and really tiring. Zach was really supportive and it was only like six or seven weeks, so you just go hell for leather for the whole thing, and sleep when you finish.
With only one trailer out, so much of Barbarian has been kept under wraps. Has it been hard to keep the secrets?
It's been really hard. It's been hard because you want to talk about more and it's been like: "I can't talk about this, I can't talk about this...". But I also don't want to spoil it for people and I think it's great to go and see it without knowing anything.
It's your first major horror role, so has anything about the experience put you off doing another horror?
No, it's probably just made my expectations very high. After having done it and enjoyed it so much and loved the final product, it's quite hard now to do it again without it being A) very different and B) something that I can feel as proud of doing.
Any genre you have your eye on next, or is it very much on a script basis like it was for Barbarian?
Mostly it is that. People don't like you saying that, but mostly it's waiting and I really don't know until I see the script because it's so hard to judge by genre as the script can blow anything out of the water.
I would love to do something a little lighter, a comedy or I'm such a sucker for romantic comedies, I would love to do something like that.
Barbarian is out now in UK cinemas.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
