Explaining the Barbarian Ending: Is Keith bad or good?

Zach Gregger: Are you familiar? American comedian, actor, filmmaker, Zach Gregger was best known as a member of the comedy group Whitest Kids U Know. He co-directed Miss March 2009, a comedy film with Trevor Moore. They collaborated again on The Civil War On Drugs in 2011 but Zach has returned to helm a movie solo this time around, and what a movie it is…

Starring Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, and Justin Long, the American horror film Barbarian hits US theaters in September and then HBO Max on Tuesday, October 25th 2022, inviting more audiences to witness the sheer unrelenting terror of its tale.

Tess is staying in Detroit for a job interview but discovers that the rental home she’s supposed to be staying in is double-booked. However, Keith – who also booked – invites her to stay and they begin to get on.

Tess uncovers hidden rooms and tunnels beneath the house. AJ Gilbride, the owner, also falls prey to them.

Now that you’ve seen the film, let’s get the Barbarian ending explained.

WARNING! MAJOR SPOILERS

Barbarian ending explained

The movie’s first third ends with Keith and Tess entering the tunnels, and Keith being attacked by a deformed woman. We cut to AJ as he discovers the tunnels. He meets Tess inside a cage. She tells him that she wants them behave like her children.

How did this woman get there? Flashbacks to the 1980s reveal that Frank, the homeowner abducted young women, brought them under his roof, and then had them become pregnant.

He kept the babies and women trapped. When AJ and Tess escape, AJ discovers that Frank is still alive. However, AJ has no idea who Frank is until he records a recording of an assault.

Frank shoots himself after AJ makes threats about the cops swarming the place, but upon Tess’ escape, she informs the police of what’s going on and they refuse to search the house. After running the woman over, she realizes that AJ is still there and decides to return in and save him.

When entering AJ accidentally shoots her and he accompanies her to a stranger named Andre’s hideout. Unfortunately, the woman survived and found them.

AJ pushes Tess down from the top to save her own skin. Tess, convinced her baby is falling to her death, dives for her and cushions her fall. AJ recognizes Tess’s existence and tries to justify his actions. However, he is confronted by the woman and killed.

The woman then attempts to help Tess, but Tess shoots the woman in the head. She leaves the scene.

Ultimately, the final act reveals that the woman isn’t the real monster: Frank is and she is his victim. She’s the culmination of years of abuse and the themes of the film stem back to classic works like Frankenstein. Who is the true monster, the creator or the creation?

Is Keith bad for Barbarian?

It turned out that Keith had booked the rental property in good faith, without knowing of the hidden secrets it held, just like Tess.

It’s somewhat foreshadowed and teased that he’s involved in something sinister, with shots of him lingering in hallways and so forth. However, he’s just a little nervous and uncertain of how to approach the unexpected and awkward situation.

When he entered the tunnels he went further and further out of sheer curiosity and surprise but couldn’t have expected what he’d find.

‘I’m sure the audience knows what’s coming’

Zach recently opened his home to ScreenRantAbout the writing process and the secret to the basement:

“I was thinking, ‘Okay, Keith’s probably the bad guy. That’s fun. He’s got some tricks up his sleeve.’ I didn’t really know how it was gonna work out, and I got her down into the basement and then I was like, ‘It feels like now’s about the time something should happen. I don’t know what it should be.’”

He explained: “But obviously, I was thinking that if I know what’s coming, I’m sure the audience knows what’s coming. ‘This sucks. I hate this is.’Then, I was just like ‘Giant naked lady comes down, smashes Keith to pieces! Oh, wow. Okay, here we go.’”

Barbarian is now streaming on HBO Max.

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