Jordan Peele Offered BARBARIAN Director Zach Cregger Some Helpful Advice on His Movie
Director Zach Cregger’s Barbarian was a great movie that took horror fans by surprise. The movie was filled with all kinds of wild unexpected twists and turns that we didn’t see coming! It was a surprising movie and it ended up being one of the biggest movie success stories of the year.
The marketing was built on mystery, and audiences really didn’t have any idea what was coming until they went out and watched the movie, which is so rare these days! A lot of the trailers that we see today take you through the whole movie and don’t leave anything for a surprise when you actually see it.
When talking about that trailer, the director said: “The movie that’s advertised in the trailer is not the movie you’re going to experience in the theater. That’s not to say it’s a bait and switch or false advertising, but there’s just no way you could know what’s coming.”
Barbarian was Cregger’s first feature film and he went out looking for help and advice from people in the industry to guide him on his journey. The filmmaker revealed that he went to Jordan Peele (Get Out, Us, Nope) for some help.
Cregger told Variety: “He spent a lot of time with me before I went to Bulgaria to shoot the movie. He gave me a crash course on how to handle the inevitable challenges, and that was so valuable.”
Peele also watched an early cut and gave feedback on the film. In regard to that, Cregger told Empire: "I went over to his house and he gave me a ton of advice on inevitable issues I could expect to encounter on my first feature. Then I showed him a cut and he gave me notes. He was very helpful."
I think it’s cool to hear about seasoned filmmakers helping new filmmakers out, and guiding them in the right direction.
Barbarian star Georgina Campbell also discussed Peele's influence on the film with IndieWire saying: "Zach's good friends with Jordan Peele, and I think he spoke to [him] a lot while he was writing the film, and [he] saw an early cut of it as well. So he definitely was kind of part of the essence of the movie."
Whatever advice Peele offered worked! Barbarian is one of the best and most entertaining horror films of the year! If you’re interested, you can watch the initial pitch video for the film here.