The 2021 film Barbarians follows four friends at a dinner party celebrating a birthday at a country house and narrates what unfolds in the house over the course of twenty-four hours. It centers on the two couples, Adam and Eva who have just bought their dream home, and their friend Lucas and his girlfriend Chloe who have come to visit and celebrate Adam’s birthday and their new house. However, their evening takes a dark turn when uninvited guests suddenly arrive. The film was directed by Charles Dorfman and stars Catalina Sandino Moreno, Tom Cullen, Iwan Rheon, Inès Spiridonov in lead roles, and Steve Saunders, Kevin Ryan, Connor Swindells, Tommy McDonnell, and Will Kemp, in supporting roles.
Reelviews published a review of the film and wrote, “For those on the lookout for a deeper meaning, Barbarians can be seen as a takedown of toxic masculinity, a condemnation of cultural appropriation, and a critique of entitlement. However, although those aspects can be found in the subtext, this is first and foremost a thriller/horror movie that trades in tension and suspense both of the slow-boil kind (during the dinner sequences) and the more traditional form (during the home invasion).” Los Angeles Times also reviewed the film and praised the main cast’s performances saying, “All four of the main actors — and especially Cullen — excel at depicting the strange power dynamics at play when a man who seemingly has everything starts asking for more.” If you enjoyed the thriller film as much as we did, here are five more movies that involve nightmarish dinners and celebrations that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
The Invitation
The Invitation is a 2015 American horror film directed by Karyn Kusama and written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi and stars Logan Marshall-Green, Tammy Blanchard, Michiel Huisman, and Emayatzy Corinealdi. It shares similar themes and setting with the film Barbarians. The film follows a man who attends a dinner party hosted by his ex-wife and her new husband. The dinner party also takes a sinister turn as the hosts seem to have prepared something for their guests. The Guardian reviewed the film and commended the director saying, “Kusama’s ability to keep the action all very realistic is to be commended. It’s only in the final 15 minutes that we start to get our genre-picture payoff. While some viewers may complain that the action is too heavily weighted toward the ending, I’d argue that this is a strong example of destination-not-the-journey film-making.”
Coherence
The 2013 film Coherence also features a group of friends at a dinner party who faces disturbing events as the night unfolds due to the influence of a passing comet. Although the film involves science fiction, it still shares a similar tone with Barbarians. The film was directed by James Ward Byrkit in his directorial debut and stars Emily Baldoni, Nicholas Brendon, Lorene Scafaria, Alex Manugian, Maury Sterling, Elizabeth Gracen, Hugo Armstrong, Lauren Maher. The film received relatively positive reviews and has received several accolades at film festivals including Next Wave Best Screenplay at the Austin Fantastic Fest, Maria Award for Best Screenplay at the Sitges Film Festival, Carnet Jove Jury Award for best In Competition at the Sitges Film Festival, Black Tulip Award for Best Feature Debut at the Imagine Film Festival, and Imagine Movie Zone Award, Special Mention at the Imagine Film Festival. Independent reviewed the film and wrote, “The film is shot handheld, like a fly-on-the-wall documentary. One of its strengths is the attention it pays to character. Scrape away the sci-fi trappings and this emerges as a caustic, closely observed drama about some narcissistic California types with obvious tensions in their lives that are only heightened when normal routines are disrupted.”
Funny Games
The 1997 Austrian psychological thriller film Funny Games written and directed by Michael Haneke, and starring Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Mühe, and Arno Frisch resembles Barbarians in many ways. The plot follows a family who is taken hostage by two men at their vacation home. The two men terrorize the home subjecting the family to cruel games. In a review by New York Times they wrote, “Funny Games” observes the family’s excruciating terror and suffering with the patient delight of a cat luxuriantly toying with a mouse that it is in the process of slowly killing. Posing as a morally challenging work of art, the movie is a really a sophisticated act of cinematic sadism. You go to it at your own risk.”
Ready or Not
While Barbarians is more of a slow burn, the film 2019 comedy horror film Ready or Not is more fast-paced and full of thrills. The film was directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and with a screenplay by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy. It stars Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Mark O’Brien, Henry Czerny, and Andie MacDowell. It follows Grace, who marries into a wealthy family. On their wedding night, she must participate in the family’s ritual where they play a game with the new family member. Grace finds herself playing hide and seek with the family not knowing it’s a life or death game as she must stay hidden from midnight until dawn to stay alive. In Empire’s review, they praised Weaving’s performance in the film saying, “But this is Weaving’s film, the perfect audience surrogate for the wild goose. Even before the game’s afoot, she is a sparky, engaging presence and as the fightback begins, she perfectly encapsulates the film’s nimble toggling between comedy and intensity.
Would You Rather
Last on our list is the 2021 American psychological horror-thriller film Would You Rather, directed by David Guy Levy, starring Brittany Snow and Jeffrey Combs. The film is set in a dining room of a mansion resembling scenes from Barbarians. The film is based on the party game “would you rather”, and follows Iris who attends a dinner party, where she must participate in life-threatening games to win a large sum of money to help her sick younger brother. The film received mixed reviews but has received praise for some of the main cast’s performances. In The Hollywood Reporter’s review, they commended Comb’s performance and wrote, “Enlivening the formulaic storyline is the underlying class-conscious theme and Combs’ deliciously droll performance. Investing his character with an entertaining, ever-shifting mixture of forceful menace and feigned fatherliness, the actor is clearly having such a good time that one can’t help resist enjoying a certain degree of complicity with his sadistic game.”horror
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