Judging by the trailer or the poster, Zach Cregger Barbaric seems to follow a classic horror movie premise, updated for the tech age: a young woman checks into an Airbnb in Detroit, only to find a man – and assorted terrors – waiting inside . But that’s only a fraction of the story.
Halfway through the film, which opened at No. 1 for the Sept. 9-11 weekend, writer-director Cregger abruptly cuts to a breathless moment, jumping from damp Detroit to sunny LA, where a hotshot actor played by Justin Long cruises around in a convertible without a care in the world. That is, until he got a call from his agent telling him he’s been charged with sexual misconduct. The News84Media.
“When I was writing, my dream was to use The News84Media but it was one of those things that you assume can never happen and it would have been sad for me to fabricate some sort of fictional approximation,” Cregger explained to THR Zoom on recently. “And one of the benefits of having competent producers is that they said, ‘Why don’t we see if we can get the real deal? “”
For Cregger, the real deal wasn’t just using THR but also the signature of editor Kim Masters, whose name can be seen at the top of the written exhibit about Long’s character.
“Having Kim Masters as the author of the article is the ultimate. Kim has just been ahead of the curve in exposing the toxic nature of the power dynamics that are at play in Hollywood when it comes to men and women. ‘sexual misconduct,’” Cregger says of the veteran reporter and KCRW host. Deals who has published articles on Fred Savage, Roy Price of Amazon, Warner Bros.’ Kevin Tsujihara, sex and the city Chris Noth, and more. “She was very locked up in [these stories] since before it exploded a few years ago. I think that’s very commendable.
Because of her job, Cregger says seeing or hearing Kim Masters’ name triggers a reaction. “There are a lot of people who are terrified of her and a lot of people who really look up to her. She’s earned this place in our culture and she deserves a lot of credit for what she’s done. Personally, having her name in this film for me is like a tip of the hat for what she did. And a thank you to Kim Masters.
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
What about Long’s character? Cregger insists he created it based on an amalgamation of people he knows. In casting Long, a beloved actor best known for his comedy chops, he wanted to play with expectations in a way similar to seeing Georgina Campbell’s character welcomed inside the Airbnb by well-known Bill Skarsgård. to play villains like the clown monster in the blockbuster This.
“We all have this preconceived idea of what a predator looks like and I wanted to explore that a bit,” says Cregger. “Bill is a perfect cast for the role of Keith because he has a long history of being a real movie freak. This is the greatest horror movie of all time and it’s the clown so when you see him you know he’s an evil person right? The public is ready to be afraid of him or to suspect that he has some kind of ulterior motive.
As such, Cregger gave Skarsgård very limited direction. “My only directive to Bill, from the start, was, ‘Don’t do anything scary. We leaned into him from the good guy zone even though he had all these microaggressions. Then when it came time to cast AJ, I first thought of it as some sort of low hanging fruit. Let’s take someone like Zac Efron who has the jawline, the haircut and the biceps, a very alpha actor. But I didn’t think about it deeply enough.
Barbaric is now in theaters.
Courtesy of 20th Century Studios
This story first appeared in the September 16 issue of The News84Media magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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