Barbarian

Go in knowing nothing. Every synopsis ruins it and this one will stop here.

What can be said: a woman arrives at an Airbnb in a derelict Detroit suburb and finds it double-booked. The film then does something structurally that almost nothing else attempts, twice, and the second time is more audacious than the first.

Zach Cregger came out of a sketch comedy group, which shows in the timing rather than in jokes: he knows exactly how long to hold before releasing, and he uses that for dread instead of punchlines.

The Detroit setting is not decoration. There is a flashback that reframes the entire location and it is the smartest thing in the film.

Watch it with somebody who also knows nothing.