Barbarian
Episode 12- Barbarian: *Bonus Screen Scares* Recorded Live at a Murder Free Airbnb in Asheville, NC
Intro, both hosts
<Spooky sounding theme music>
This is Screen Scares, a special October series created by Screen Cares. I’m Sarah, and I’m Jennie and we welcome you to our place to connect beyond the screen and dish on what scenes and scares excite us most during the fall season. And explore ways we can watch better, together.
Sarah: Jennie, I wanna tell you a story, and this is a story from IMDB and here it is: A woman staying at an Airbnb discovers that the house she has rented is not what it seems.
Jennie: Hmmm. It sounds a lot like another story that I know that I'm currently living: Two good friends sign in to an Airbnb driving an identical car, as a woman in a horror film at an almost identical looking Airbnb, and they decide to go to a terrifying movie. A murder Airbnb. What movie are we talking about during this very special Screen Cares retreat?
Sarah: I have a feeling we're talking about Barbarian unless there's another movie that's equally terrifying that I'm not aware of.
Jennie: Or the story of, “Can we go to sleep tonight?
Sarah: Hashtag no. Hashtag lock the doors. <laughs>
Jennie: <laughs> Hashtag there's no basement. Thank God. So yes, we are on a very special in-person live pod retreat to celebrate Sarah’s birthday, a very special birthday, 40 years of fabulousness, 40 years in days. Now at this point you're working on 41.
Sarah: Oh, don't say that. <laughs>
Jennie: Well, that's, I mean, it's better than the alternative, right? <laughs>
Sarah: Being dead, right?
Jennie: As long as this Airbnb doesn't go awry. But yes, we decided that we would meet up in lovely Asheville, North Carolina to have a fun getaway and also play on our computers with a microphone together in person and have wonderful conversations.
And we wanted to record one for all of you about the movie Barbarian and about actually seeing it in person. And it was kind of hard to come up with picking this movie, but we actually watched it in a real theater.
What was that like, Sarah?
Sarah: I thought it was great. It was really hard to decide what movie to see with you, but I think we did a good job and it was very difficult because we had choices, we had art house choices, and I feel like we should really just own the fact that we chose the movie that had the recliner.
And the convenience, showtime and the compelling story, and that's what we did. Yeah.
Jennie: Because really no matter where you're watching a movie, no matter what the seats are like, although I love comfy seats, and no matter what the movie is, if you're watching it with someone that you're friends with, you know you're gonna have awesome conversation with, then it's probably gonna be a good experience.
So could you tell us a little bit more, Sarah, cuz you brought this movie to my attention and then terrified me by sharing the trailer. What is Barbarian, when was it made, why was it made?
Sarah: I can't answer the last question. I just really can't. I have no freaking idea. It was released this year, just a few weeks ago, in October of 2022. It is a rated R film, duh. I don't need to clarify that since you've seen that, but there is definitely nudity, there is so much violence. There are all of the gross feels, there's just yuckiness and yeah, it definitely deserved that rating for sure.
But of course we have our usual Screen Shares rating, and we have the five types. We have Buddy, which you would watch with a friend. Work Screen, which you would watch with a colleague or coworker. <laughs> Oh my God.
Jennie: There is a job, there is a job interview in this movie that there is maybe, maybe, maybe could watch it with a coworker about like how not to do an interview,
Sarah: How not to spend the night, well, how not to travel for that interview. Like you would never do it in this way. It just would not have been in this.
Jennie: Absolutely not. Absolutely. Okay. So we have Work Screen,
Sarah: We've got Partner Screen where you would watch it with a significant other. you've got Family Screen where you would watch it with, you know, grandparents, parents, and family members, extended family.
And then of course, Little Screen, which if you are sharing this with your little littles, I would like to know why. And then, let's have a great discussion about that. But, um, so Jennie, what is your Screen Shares rating for this?
Jennie: My Screen Shares rating for Barbarian is Little Screen.
I'm kidding. No, my Screen Shares rating for it is definitely Buddy Screen. Definitely Buddy's Screen, so that's why I'm so glad that I, I watched it with you, but for me, watching it with someone that makes you feel safe, who will let you check the door 16 times when you get back to your Airbnb, make sure that there are no secret basements, all these things, you, you need that.
And also it's just a really kind of, honestly fun movie to sit next to someone and be like, Oh. Don't go down the stairs! So whoever that person is, maybe it's a partner-buddy, maybe it's a family member-buddy, but like someone who has buddy vibes. Definitely Buddy for me all the way. What about you?
Sarah: 100%, Buddy. I had so much fun watching this movie with you because there were definitely times where, and you know what? We actually talked about this before the movie even started. I really feel like we said, I'm sorry in advance for me saying, “Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.” And that is exactly what happened. There were many times where I'd look over at you and you had your hand like half over your face and I was muttering things under my breath.
So I'm sure the people in front of us were like, “Wow, have these people ever been out in public before?” Cause I did notice the person in front of us, later outside in the bathroom and she like made eye contact with me a little bit. “Hey, I just also saw that movie and I also know. You're a freak show when you watch scary movies, but that's cool.” There was a little moment and then she left, but that's fine. That's fine. But it made it fun. It made it fun for sure.
Jennie: It's a fun movie, I think to watch with a buddy, but also I think everyone else who was watching it was probably also watching it with a partner. Like I, you don't go to that alone and then like yourself, Let me go back to my quiet, empty house by myself.
I wouldn't do that. Like I wouldn't watch this alone. Maybe don't watch it in an Airbnb. don't watch it in an Airbnb. with someone else accidentally staying at the Airbnb.
So yeah, the premise of this movie that they don't really get into on the i m DB description is that this woman, what's the character's name? Does she have a name? It's mostly screaming and terror, so we don't get lot of chitchat.
Sarah: Her name is Tess.
Jennie: It's Tess. Oh, that's a cute name actually.
That's a cute name. So yeah, Tess played by Georgina Campbell. She is going for a job interview in Detroit. She is getting in late. It's raining, it's dark. She can't see where she's going. She gets to the Airbnb, which looks. Identical to the one that we are staying at right now, which was really terrifying. Ours is a different color, so they painted it since the movie was made.
She comes in, she can't get in her key and she's calling the service and it's very timely. This movie, the whole, if you've ever rented an Airbnb, you would know this experience of, Oh, the keypad didn't work.
Then a light turns on inside. This presumably empty Airbnb, but there's another person already staying there, and that is Keith played by Bill Skarsgard who also plays Pennywise
Sarah: Pennywise in It. And he looks a little bit better in this movie than he did in it but also had such similar vibes. So we are not sure if this is a good guest, like to share, have to share this Airbnb with, or if this is an ominous dude. Like this was a very good casting for that role.
Jennie: I agree. I agree. But anyway, these two meet because he is already staring, staying at the Airbnb that she has booked. He booked it on HomeAway, she booked it on Airbnb.
They have to decide how to solve the problem. And so he very gallantly decides he'll sleep on the couch. She can take the room until they sort it out in the morning and thus they have kind of a meat, cute of terror. And I kept thinking, “Hey, Sarah, what if this was a romcom instead?” And it really could be.
Sarah: It really could be. I mean, the first third of the movie was a romcom. This was like three separate movies. And you did a really good job describing that part. That movie. That movie: The Barbarian, The Romcom. <laughs>
Jennie: <laughs> Oh, Barbarian, The Romcom And you know what they, there's a bottle of wine. They like a little fall in love. Tess becomes invested in Keith just enough that she's willing to do super dumb stuff later.
And before we go too much further into this, I have to say this is an R rated movie and the discussion by virtue of that will also just like be R rated because we can't talk about some of the reasons why it's terrifying without describing some stuff that's truly disgusting and very unsettling and like shocking to your system.
And it's shocking to even hear about or discuss. Just be mindful of if you want to hear that or if anyone listening with you wants to hear about like truly shocking. I would say you, you said it right? You described it not as terrifying, but as it's
Sarah: …horrifying. Horrifying. It's not terrifying, but it's horrifying. And just to piggyback off of what you're saying too, I think I really wanna also caution any listeners, that there is some talk about rape and sexual assault and, very scary, creepy things along that line.
Jennie: So if that's something that doesn't feel comfortable, just feel free to maybe just skip this episode.
Sarah: Yeah. And don't watch Barbarian.
Jennie: And definitely don't watch Barbarian, don't watch Barbarian. Yeah. There's some, like, I would just say some hardcore, not nice, In this movie, like several examples of not nice guys and sometimes you don't wanna hear about 'em or think about it. And the movie progresses terrifying things happen.
And then you have kind of a dramatic pivot but basically, you know, the going down the dark stairs happens, the doors creaking, open happens, and you realize that this neighborhood is really not what it seemed at first, because under the veil of like the dark, rainy night…
Sarah: Wait a minute, I do have to interrupt you there.
Okay. Just because it's nighttime doesn't mean that you're going to see a neighborhood that is, has experienced complete blight. I could not believe that part in the movie when “Okay, yeah, it's night, it's raining. Oh, that means I'm blind. I can't see anything but my Airbnb, I see nothing else around me. That was very strange.”
Jennie: Yeah. She opened the door, so she gets there the night before an interview. She opens the door the next morning having, Keith, it was all above board, everything was fine. It was a little creepy. You don't know who's the bad guy, but she wakes up, she's ready for interviews. She heads out and she opens the door on a bright, sunny day.
And like blight is the word for the neighborhood. It is burnt down buildings, graffiti, complete desolation, and then a cute little bungalow Airbnb rental in the middle of it. You don't really ever get resolution on that. You don't really get it explained to you. But yeah, I agree. our girl Tess, not super observant, maybe
Sarah: Not super observant, and just like overly committed to “let me save people and let me keep putting myself in a position where more bad things are gonna happen to me and the people around me,” like, “let me just keep doing that over and over again, cuz that would be fun.”
Jennie: Yeah. Over and over again, she comes back and realizes that there's like a creepy door opening. She needs to get toilet paper, so she has to go to the basement because it's a horror movie, we have to get into the basement. She finds a secret passage way where clearly people have probably been tortured in some room.
There's a camera. It's very creepy. The hole goes deeper and deeper, and then she gets saved by Keith. And then long story short, he goes down the tunnel to check it out, straight up murdered by some terrifying like naked lady monster and in a truly graphic way, and we don't know what happens to Tess. And then the scene cuts to California where Jason Long is singing a song in a convertible and it is jarring.
Sarah: I actually really like the Freudian, well that wasn't a Freudian slip, but I like the psychological slip there because it's Justin Long, not Jason Long. And I understand why you wouldn't want that to be his name.
Jennie: Justin. Yeah, my husband's name is Justin and so I think me removing my husband's first name from the character played by Justin Long of Dodge ball in my mind, he is not like the Justin Long in Dodgeball. He is a different kind of character in Barbarian.
But yeah, I don't want my husband to be anything like his character in this movie. Who does he play? AJ. So like a Hollywood sort out and about and he's, we quickly realized he is not a likable guy.
Sarah: He's not a likable guy. And this is like, I would call this Act Two in Barbarian.
So we had Act One where we're like, I don't know who's the bad guy? is it Bill Skarsgard or is it not Bill Skarsgard? And then act two, we meet AJ, he's driving down the road in his convertible talking to some agent or some people with movie business stuff. And he's been accused of sexual assault and basically just fired from the movie or the show or the project or whatever Hollywood thing it is that he's working on.
And, he's mad, he's upset and we see his professional deterioration and we actually don't really feel that bad for him. We don't feel that bad for him. We don't really know what happened, but we don't feel that bad for him. And, we realized that the Airbnb that we were introduced to in Act One is his Airbnb.
So he goes there, he's gotta sell stuff off for his legal defense because, you know, when you maybe do bad things or when you're accused of bad things, you have to hire an attorney and it, and an expensive one at that. So he's liquidating his properties and he goes to this Airbnb and sees that there are suitcases and he doesn't know why there are people there, so he starts doing some digging.
He goes down the stairs, he looks around, he tries to figure it out, and then of course he eventually is, “Hey, look at all this extra square footage down here, and let me start randomly measuring stuff with the longest measuring tape known to man,” because that's, What no person would ever do in this situation.
“But let me just do that. Like this creepy dark tunnel with a torture room. Let's measure that.”
Jennie: It was honestly, this was one of, I thought, one of the most really out of place parts of the entire movie. This is part of what was nice about watching it in a theater.
Everyone was laughing cuz it was ridiculous. So we've just had tests in act one, like going down. You know, hallway very carefully and Oh my gosh, that room, Oh my gosh, that hallway. And he is just “Oh my gosh. Like square footage galore!” And he's like overlooking bloody hand prints in this little closet basement.
And yeah, like tape measuring and measuring everything deeper and deeper. Just completely self-absorbed and is like whatever. We at this point don't like him at all because he admits that he probably did sexually assault someone and like that it was her fault.
Sarah: He did. It was like, “it was her fault.” He said all of the things that you hear, these Hollywood types or people who are famous, like their excuses. it was those lines. So we are introduced to the second type of barbarian, like this medium type of barbarian. So we don't like him. We don't like him, but we still think. “Okay, well he's a human. Let's see what happens to this human.”
Jennie: Right. Exactly. And so he goes deeper and deeper and he then becomes ensnared in the trap of this very terrifying kind of ghastly naked lady monster, that is, I don't know what to call it, the name in the movie, like in IMDB cast description is “the mother.”
Sarah: Which is horrifying. That's a horrifying title. That's gross. Especially when we see what happens because she is barely verbal. I'm pretty sure she's vitamin D deficient. Like I don't think she's been outside in maybe her whole life. And she has this very deep desire to be maternal, so she wants to feed both Tess, who we do find is in the hole, along with this gross AJ guy. And that is her goal. That is her singular focus and that's terrifying.
And I think this is like our second or third very odd, uncomfortable nursing scene in a movie that we have talked about, which I think is interesting. I don't understand like why is nursing this gross thing? Why is it something that movie makers are making into a gross situation? Do you know what I'm saying?
Jennie: I do. I do. That is really weird. Yeah. Because there's this weird kind of torture, weird room where maybe the mother character who is taller than, very tall, very naked, very terrifying, but mostly in like her speed and strength and just kind of veracity,
Sarah: Um, you know, I think she's related to James McAvoy in that movie where he turned into the beast. What's that movie? Oh, you know that movie I'm talking about? Oh yes, I do. It was like an M. Night Shyamalan movie, wasn't it?
Jennie: Yes, it was. It's gonna come. He's so beautiful.
Sarah: It’s called Split.
Jennie: Was it split? Yes, it's Split. James McAvoy and Split.
Sarah: It's absolutely James McAvoy and Split. And we see the same like weird body strength, weird body shifting, animalistic movements.
Super. Just, it's just, it's grotesque. I just, it's the whole thing is grotesque.
Jennie: It is. It is. And it's pretty effective in being terrifying because she's very unpredictable. But the question you pose is interesting. Like, why weird nor nursing stuff? Why make it weird? I don't know. But you're right, there's definitely something there.
I feel like the writers need to work through that work, that work through your issues with your Mommy. Like nursing’s a great option for many people. Right? Like, let's not stigmatize that with horror films. I don't know. But there's a very creepy room where there's this nursing video, this weird video on cassette that you can tell on replay, on replay.
Really weird kind of like Room, like someone being, kept forever kind of prisoner. It's actually evolves into being a very sad narrative for the mother because then you get interspersed between this, I don't know, Would you call Act Three, the bit where we're introduced to? What? What are they?What are we calling the guy who we find out later is responsible for this entire horror show?
Sarah: Well, his name would be Frank
Jennie: That sounds right.
Sarah: It does sound frank. Uh, It does frankly sound correct <laughs> that is the name of, I feel like that's a perfect serial killer name, and that's really who we're introduced to.
And like I, Yeah, Act Three. Our third barbarian character really. and the worst one of all of them, like he is the one that we find, at the very end of the tunnel. AJ actually finds him when he's running away, and he's in bed. He's very old. He clearly lives there.
And what is even more shocking and disturbing is that we do see in flashbacks that over a period of time when the neighborhood was not the blight that it is now, it was a lovely little place and yet he was using his time to prey on women in the neighborhood, in a very horrifying way.
And when we then see him in the present time when he is in bed, there are videotapes upon videotapes with the grossest titles I've ever really seen in these types of sequences. And the sequence annoyingly, I feel is used too much, but the sequence tells us that he is a gross torturing rapist, murderer kidnapper, who likes to videotape his grossness in all of the ways.
Sarah: And as AJ realizes that this is the monster that he has found, he is horrified. And I think that's interesting because like now, he is farther removed from being a good guy than he was before, and we already didn't like him, but now we see a worse, a worse guy, if that makes sense.
Jennie: Yeah, it does make sense. and the frank character, who is very clearly a serial killer, very clearly is responsible for this whole torture situation, is aged. He is aged out of being a serial killer and has this gross. Well, I actually have heard that on, on other, on other podcasts like crime podcasts. They've talked about the idea, the part of the Golden State Killer, for example, that they actually will age out of, of doing it. Cause they just physically can't, they physically can’t execute it. And so that's kind of what happened to this Frank guy, but he's still disgusting and terrifying.
But basically Frank kills himself. I like, don't even wanna dignify his character by calling him a human being. Basically, AJ tries to get out. Tess has come back to save him cuz she escaped.
Once she and then came back to save AJ, who then accidentally shoots her,
Sarah: Who accidentally shoots her. Or was it accidentally? I mean, of course, and actually had she escaped twice at this point. Yeah.
Jennie: She has escaped multiple times and I think at least twice. Yeah. I understand that she is a caring person and if you hear someone screaming in a basement, you want to help them because of course you do.
But. One of the times, whenever she escapes, she does find the police. And I would say arguably one of the most terrifying parts of this movie. And we'll get into that more breaking down specifically why this movie was scary. As we get to the end of the narrative arc of it, part of what is terrifying is that Tess cannot get.
There is a homeless man who lives at the water tower down the street who alludes to some kind of deeper evil in the neighborhood that has ruined it. That, that, that is never explained. There are some, there are huge gaping holes. Gaping holes in a lot of the like the plot of this movie. Really gaping holes.
Sarah: …like not just the one in Tess's side, but like in the plot. <laughs> That’s not nice.
Jennie: It's, it's not nice, but this is true. She's like running around though, so it's not too big. LIke it can’t be that bad.
Sarah: It’s just a little flesh wound.
Jennie: <laughs? A flesh wound, nearly a flesh wound to scratch. And so she finds police and they think because she's dirty and she's hysterical. She was trapped for two weeks in a torture basement. They think that she's like on some kind of drug. They're like, “Well, we just need to take you down to the station, let you sleep it off.” To which I would've said, “Please do.”
Sarah: Oh, that would be great. That would be fantastic. I would love to wear that orange jumpsuit while you figure out that I'm not crazy and like at least I'll be safe.
Jennie: Oh, 100%. And so she's trying to save AJ, She's trying to alert the police and they go to the house with her. They're like, “Well, this isn't your house. You can't just go in. You just broke that window.” And she's like, “Yeah, because I was kidnapped and I had to get out of the house.”
And they're just not hearing her. They have decided who she is. They have decided what she is. They've decided she is not who they're going to help. And they leave for another call. Call. And she is left at like torture house. Mm-hmm.
Sarah: That is terrifying. Let's not tell the end of this, let's let our listeners get to watch this cuz like usually we do the whole spoiler alert, but let's not do that.
Let's just leave that where it is. But what do you think is the scariest part? Why was this scary for you? Because I know it was scary for you cuz I was looking over at you and I know that like you were having all the intense feels that I was.
Jennie: I think that Barbarian was scary to me. One, because it was just cinematically very scary. The whole first act presents as a very kind of like, “Ooh, ah, like scary things, unexpected sounds, doors creaking open.” That's just scary. There was very scary imagery.
And then Tess presents to them like very real, “This is happening to me. I need help.” And she is shrugged off. And I think on like a personal level, just like in relationships, I cannot handle not being heard.
And so not being heard on the level of “You don't understand me.” She kept saying like, “How can I make you understand? I was kidnapped. I have been in prison for two weeks. I am not crazy.”
Right? “Believe me, believe me.” I think all those movies that fall into that vein of like someone knows a truth and no one listens. Right. Terrifying.
Sarah: Oh my God. So terrifying. Did you see that really bad Halle Berry movie, Gothika. All those years ago. No, it's that same thing. It's like Halle Berry's in a psychiatric hospital. Her husband's a psychiatrist and she's been made to seem like she's like mentally ill and she's trapped there because of,
Jennie: Oh, I did see that.
Sarah: Did you see that?
Jennie: I did.
Sarah: I don't remember the rest of it, but that was like the basic, that would be the one liner on the IMDB, summary. I'm sure it was like “this poor woman is trapped in a psychiatric hospital. Physician, husband, the end.” Is that the scary part for you, that not being heard, that kind of gaslighting creepy ness of this whole thing?
Jennie: I think that's it. Authority figures not hearing about like true dangers cuz if you've listened to any crime podcasts or Dateline or anything like that, you know there are times when people have sounded alarm about terrifying people and been ignored and then terrifying.
Things keep happening over and over and over again. It's like my worst fear, maybe not my worst fear, anything happening to my kids is my worst fear, but like this is like part of it.
Sarah: This needs to be like on the list though, for it's all like worst things, worst fears.
Jennie: Absolutely. What about you? What's terrifying about Barbarian?
Sarah: The thing that was terrifying to me... I think the terrifying thing to me about Barbarian was the sliding scale of barbaric behavior and how when you're comparing gross male behavior, like we excuse the lesser quote with air quotes, like the lesser grossities when you hear about something worse.
And I almost felt like even with the, the character at the beginning of the movie who didn't really do anything overtly wrong, it was almost like he was trying too hard, like he was fully aware that he is a man and that men do gross things to women in vulnerable positions. Like he made jokes about like her not wanting to drink the drink that he prepared for her, that she didn't see him pour for her. And there's just this very, like thick awareness of gross male behavior.
And then we see this edge a little bit further with the AJ character who's been accused. And we, we hear that, it sounds like it might have been, date rape, and that's not good. We don't like AJ. And we think that he is the worst. But then we meet the character in the basement, the serial killer, and like nobody, like we can't compare to that.
AJ suddenly seems a whole lot less barbaric, but they're all barbaric.
Like maybe not the first guy. Like he didn't overtly do anything. I'm not exactly sure I'm on the fence about whether he's barbaric or not, but there, there is that sliding scale and I think it's really dangerous and really terrifying if we decide what is barbaric and what is gross and what is scary and what is bad, or less bad than other behaviors.
Jennie: Mm. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think as you inch down that sliding scale, I think you excuse more and more, or you ignore mm-hmm. or you don't see as much. It was also fascinating to me that the AJ character didn't see. All of the danger, like literally written on the wall and blood as he went into the kind of torture room.
Sarah: Like he shrugged it off though. and he supposedly worked in the film industry. Yeah. So part of me was like, does he think, is he so dumb that he thinks this is like a movie set? Right. You know? Right. Like, how can you not see the camera that is pointed at the blood soaked bed?
Jennie: Right. With the bloody hand print beside it like, So ridiculous to me. And it's another example of the woman and the homeless person. Those are the two people sounding the alarm. The people who arguably have less power or control in society, at least as it's presented in this movie.
They're the ones who are seeing the danger. Mm-hmm. and the dudes are like, “It's fine, let's go down to the basement.” And Tess is like,” Keith, no.” And he's like, “I just had to see it for myself.” And there is a funny little exchange there cuz they really do a good job in act one of making it like almost romcom.
Like there are some funny moments where she's like, “There's a bed with a bucket on the floor and a camera!” And he was like, “Okay, wait, wait, wait. We have to leave the Airbnb because there's a bed and a, what?” And, and he just didn't understand. And I just wish he would've believed her…
Sarah: I know that's always, hey, maybe that's the moral of this story. We wish that they would've believed her. Yeah. And my last thing that I do wanna say though about the scariness is I think we also have to talk about the very overt racist. Stuff because that is terrifying.
We were not listening to the female, we were not listening to the female of color. We were not listening to the person who like lives beside the water tower, who was also of color. And of course that's terrifying. Yeah, that's terrifying.
Jennie: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. It is. It's another cautionary tale.
It's another example. Of movies highlighting things to us in a really horrifying way. And this movie was interesting. . And so I have to say, I wanna circle back.
Why did you want us to go see this today? And then I think I wanna end on what was it like watching it where we watched it?
And I think we can agree it's scary. So why watch a scary movie when you know that you're in a place that kind of mirrors that place that is scary. .
Sarah: I think it felt really exciting to offer a movie to you that was so timely. , you mentioned that at the beginning because like we, we were also talking about this after we saw the movie.
I think that like this movie is not gonna age well because of the very like, time specific technology references, the Airbnb app, the way that the emails look, they look like they do now, but like in five years, 10 years, is Airbnb gonna be around? I don't know. Maybe, But is their app gonna look the same? I don't know. Probably not. That was so specific. So I thought the premise sounded interesting.
I didn't actually know that we were gonna be seeing the graphic. Stuff that we saw, like I did not know there was gonna be a serial killer. I really thought I didn't know what I thought it was gonna be about, and I think that I don't have any good reasons why I really wanted to see this other than that I thought it was really fun to see Worst Person in the World with you because there were big reactions.
There were a lot of things that like were fun to react to as an audience and you as a person who is a very emotive person in an audience is really fun to watch movies with. And I knew that this movie would be something that would be like, it's not gonna be like a subtle period piece where we're just gonna.
And nod gently, to like the beautiful pastoral scenery. That's not what that's gonna be. That would be lovely to see with you too. But this is a movie of big reactions and this is why we needed to see it. Plus it got like a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and that's a really good gauge of whether a movie's decent or not.
Jennie: I agree with those too. And this is part of why I love watching movies with you, because this was not even on my radar. And you always bring amazingly interesting, thoughtful movies that this is thoughtful
It's thoughtful in that it was something I wouldn't have found. it's not thoughtful in the sense of. Wow. I'm a better person now. Like absolutely not. I knew 100% of these things were bad. I wasn't like on the fence about serial killers prior to
Sarah: It was not a teachable moment.
Jennie: It was not a teachable moment. It was not. But it was so fun though, to watch. You're right, a horror movie at a theater. With you specifically too, because I knew you were gonna be someone who wasn't like, Oh my God, this girl, cuz I legitimately hid behind my hands. I just, I can't even hardly play video games cuz they're too interactive and terrifying for me.
I also like movies. I am that person. I am usually pretty good about my not being disruptive in a theater.
Sarah: You're not disruptive.
Jennie: But I am definitely reacting, and it's also a little less scary to watch scary things in a theater with other people. So that was another thing. And honestly, the thing about real theaters is you pick a time that. And you pick a location that works and you pick going with someone that you like and you got your Buddy Screen. And these are the reasons. And I think that watching it in a theater was really fun too. And I understand. I think the 92% Rotten Tomatoes review probably came from people who were savvy enough to find this movie, cuz it wasn't like a big, you know, highly promoted movie. It's not like a Marvel film or something. But the people who wanted to watch this are gonna be people who appreciate the things that were unique about this. Cuz I felt like it was uniquely modern. Mm-hmm. like uniquely. But again, modern is gonna mean it's not gonna age well.
Sarah: Nope.
Jennie: Because these things won't last. But it was very timely and it was extra super duper timely because I think it was almost like kind of a truth or dare moment for us where you, when you sent me the trailer, I shared it with my husband and he was like, “Are you gonna seriously watch a movie about someone getting murdered in an Airbnb? But when you go to an Airbnb?” And I was like, “No, that'd be silly.” And then we were both like, “Let's do it.”
Sarah: I'm really glad that we got to watch this movie together and have this conversation. And I think as always, I think the moral of the screen care story is that it's really fun to watch movies with people and it's even better to watch movies and then talk about them with people that you'd like. So I encourage you to do that, pick a movie, whether it's Barbarian or not and go do that.
Jennie: Absolutely. And celebrate the people that you love and care about. Absolutely. Even if they're in creepy, haunted Airbnbs. It's gonna be fun if you're with a friend. 100% . Thank you for listening to this very special pod retreat episode of Screen Cares, celebrating Sarah's birthday.
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Thanks for letting us share our screens and scares with you this week. We hope that you keep watching for the meaning behind the screen and enjoy our special spooky October Screen Scares episodes. Don’t forget to like and subscribe to Screen Cares wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Then, if you’re like Jennie and I and love digging deeper into the things that fascinate or horrify you, drop by our social media pages, check out our show notes, or visit our website at www.screencares.com for more info.
Huge special thanks to Brooks Milgate for giving our Screen Cares theme song a spooky spin for Screen Cares month.
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