Leave it to horror author Stephen King to tell you if a horror movie is worth watching. Many of his best adaptations give audiences an eerie feel where if you didn't read his books first, you would never know what’s coming in each scene. That’s exactly what the horror film hit Barbarian does to audiences where there are twists and turns in every direction. One of Barbarian’s stars, Justin Long, felt starstruck after seeing Stephen King’s praise of the movie.
Stephen King was asked by a fan on Twitter if he saw the new movie Barbarian and the beloved author responded by calling it “crazy good” and that it blew him away. After Justin Long read King’s reaction, he was so touched that his movie received praise from the “King of Horror” himself. Makes me wonder if he caught on to the unintentional joke tying into one of his works in the movie. You can check out the starstruck tweet below:
Horror praise does not get higher than this. 12 year-old me is pinching himself now (so is 44 year-old me :) https://t.co/EobAOSlkHoOctober 31, 2022
Justin Long plays an actor hard on his luck in the entertainment industry who stays at a rental property he owns without realizing there’s something creepy and mysterious happening below. When talking about Barbarian in an interview, the Jeepers Creepers actor said he was awestruck by how scary the script was and that the movie continues to keep you guessing. It was hard for him to know what exactly to talk about to avoid any of Barbarian’s spoilers. Luckily, the film’s trailer tells as little about the film as possible where an Airbnb has been double-booked with a certain threat lurking in this situation. What’s the threat, you may ask? I recommend going into this movie as blindly as possible so you’ll never know what’s coming.
Barbarian was considered a sleeper hit at the box office, scaring up solid numbers. At a budget of $4.5 million, it debuted at $10 million on its opening weekend. While it did experience a 40% drop week-to-week, Deadline Hollywood said that horror films tend to drop by 65% so that was still very impressive for Zach Cregger's solo directorial debut. Ultimately, the popularity of this original horror movie allowed it to open up in 550 theaters on its third weekend and is now at $42.5 million. Proves that less is more when it comes to promoting an original horror film.
Stephen King wasn’t the only one to send out his praises. Critics were saying that Barbarian does an excellent job providing audiences with its twists and turns. When it had its streaming premiere on HBO Max, the reactions were wild as fans took selfies of their reactions, and one noted they had no idea what direction the movie would go in. While it may be cliched to have a horror movie feature a mysterious basement tunnel, you would have to be lying to say you saw any of these twists coming.
Justin Long had a deep appreciation for Stephen King’s praises of Barbarian. If you want to know for yourself what has people buzzing about this jaw-dropping horror film, watch it now on your HBO Max subscription.
