{"id":24652,"date":"2022-10-27T11:51:36","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T09:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1729047"},"modified":"2022-10-27T12:34:55","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T10:34:55","slug":"barbarian-director-reveals-what-inspired-villains-terrifying-look","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/barbarian-director-reveals-what-inspired-villains-terrifying-look\/","title":{"rendered":"Barbarian director reveals what inspired villain\u2019s terrifying look"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Patrick Cremona\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 27 October 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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New horror flick Barbarian has received some very strong reviews since its release in the US last month \u2013 and now it\u2019s arriving in UK cinemas to terrify audiences on this side of the Atlantic as well.<\/p>\n

The film \u2013 the second feature from comedian and actor Zach Cregger \u2013 explores events after a young woman (Georgina Campbell) arrives at a rental home in Detroit and finds a mysterious stranger (Bill Skarsg\u00e5rd) already living there.<\/p>\n

The many twists and turns from that point onwards are best left relatively unspoiled, but one thing that can be revealed is that a truly terrifying villain known only as The Mother (played by Matthew Patrick Davis) eventually appears \u2013 whom Cregger says has her roots in a book he remembers from his childhood.<\/p>

\u201cIn my head, I knew exactly what she was going to look like,\u201d Cregger explained in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com<\/a>. \u201cBecause I had an illustrated children\u2019s book of Beowulf when I was a little boy and it had an illustration in there of Grendel\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I loved that image of Grendel\u2019s mother. She looks just like the mother looks in my movie, it was the same. And so I took that illustration to Bulgaria [where the film was shot], and I showed the team \u2013 I was like, \u2018This is what we\u2019re gonna do.’\u201d<\/p>\n

But he said the first attempt at using prosthetics on Davis to create the character did \u201cnot take it far enough\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just looked kind of like an exaggerated handsome person,\u201d Cregger continued. \u201cAnd we were about to shoot, I think we had like three days and I realised we had to do a complete reimagining of the facial prosthetics.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I went online and did a tonne of research into like facial disfigurements \u2013 which was not fun \u2013 and kind of picked, like, \u2018Okay, it\u2019ll have this forehead and this cheek, and this chin and this mouth.\u2019 And so we kind of came in at the 11th hour and threw a bunch of stuff at the wall, and I think the movie is better for it!\u201d<\/p>\n