Brand new horror flick Barbarian finally lands in the UK this weekend on the back of a wave of strong reviews and positive audience reaction in the US – and its star Georgina Campbell has detailed what she considers to be its most “horrifying” aspect.
Campbell plays Tess, a young woman who arrives at an Airbnb only to find it already occupied by a mysterious man (Bill Skarsgård), and from there the film takes numerous twists and turns that it’s best to know as little about as possible before viewing.
“I don’t want to spoil anything, but the kind of story within the story is more horrifying, to me,” Campbell exclusively revealed to RadioTimes.com when asked about the scariest aspect of the movie to her.
“The real story within the story that echoes true events – things that really happened in the world. And you know, with that stuff you kind of feel an emotion towards it – like, it’s just horrible.”
While the film often breaks with convention, it also provides some good old-fashioned horror scares along the way – but Campbell admits she never felt too scared on set herself, even if one part of the film made her feel a little “icky”.
“I mean, as soon as you know what the magic trick is, it doesn’t affect you the same,” she said. “So it’s a normal work day, you know. There’s a kind of a creature element to it, and I was very aware of that person [playing it] and knowing who they are, and that kind of demystifies things a bit.
“[But] there were some parts – I think right at the beginning, there’s a part going down to the basement and there are some rooms, and in one of the first rooms I remember feeling kind of icky, like I remember going in and being like, ‘Oh, this really is gross.’
“That was a testament to the production design, which looked great.”
As mentioned above, the film has been met with a very enthusiastic response from cinemagoers across the Atlantic, and Campbell said she went to watch the film at her local cinema just to see the audience reaction in real-time.
“There’s been a couple of films now that I’ve done that have had limited cinema releases or, you know, they’ve had a cinema release, but it’s been in the UK just for a few weeks or whatever,” she said.
“This was the first one that had a big release in America – it was in so many theatres, and that was just so exciting. So we, my boyfriend and my friends, went and watched it at a cinema near where we live – like, going to actually buy the ticket.
“And you know, I’ve never done that before. I’ve never bought a ticket to see myself in the cinema. And we were at our local cinema, and it was just so much fun – like hearing people’s reactions and everything. It was great!”
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Barbarian is released in UK cinemas on Friday 28th October 2022. Looking for something else to watch? Check out our TV Guide or visit our dedicated Film hub for the latest news.
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