Review: 'Barbarian' is an effectively creepy and terrifying addition to the horror canon

With horror movies, we don’t always need genius-level disturbances to our psyche, like in a Jordan Peele movie. Sometimes, a good old-fashioned story that creeps you out and jumps out from behind a bush and yells “boo!” Is enough — and, by that measure, writer-director Zach Cregger’s debut “Barbarian” more than fills the bill.

It all starts on a rainy night in a sketchy neighborhood in Detroit, where a woman, Tess (Georgina Campbell), can’t get into her housing rental for the night. Turns out someone is already there: Keith (Bill Skarsgård) — and after a few minutes of confusion and suspicion (would you want to be alone with the guy who played Pennywise in the “It” movies?), Tess and Keith figure out they’ve been double-booked, and agree to share the house for the night.

Then Tess hears some noises, and … nope, not going to give away anything more.

After a few more reveals, the movie abruptly cuts to the California coast, where self-absorbed actor A.J. (Justin Long) learns in a phone call that his life is about to implode. And just as you’re wondering why we’ve taken this side trip, we soon get our answer: To raise some quick cash, he has to liquidate some  unused assets — including a house in Detroit. After following that thread for a while longer, Cregger diverts us again, to fill in some more pieces of the puzzle.

Cregger, like Jordan Peele, got his start in comedy. He co-directed, co-wrote and co-starred in the 2009 sex comedy “Miss March,” and he’s one of the co-creators of the sketch comedy group The Whitest Kids U Know. And many of the same rhythms of set-up and pay-off used in comedy also work well in horror.

“Barbarian” delivers some first-rate shocks, and enough bat-crap craziness — mostly delivered by a character played by Matthew Patrick Davis — to keep audiences guessing, cringing and screaming. If you’re looking for an effectively chilling horror movie, you don’t need much more.

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‘Barbarian’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, September 9, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for some strong violence and gore, disturbing material, language throughout and nudity. Running time: 102 minutes