“Barbarian” Ending, Explained: What Was Living Underneath the House — and Who Survives Its Rampage?

NEED TO KNOW

• The horror thriller movie Barbarian originally premiered in theaters in 2022

• Barbarian reveals tragic events inside a house located at 476 Barbary in Detroit

• The film explores what the need to survive drives people to do

There are monsters lurking everywhere in Barbarian.

The 2022 horror hit from writer-director Zach Cregger kept audiences guessing with its twisty turns and narrative switches, following multiple characters as they discover the horrors hidden beneath an Airbnb.

“I wanted to surprise myself. I wrote thinking this would never get made and I threw out the rule book, like a kid colors with crayons,” Cregger told The New York Times in November 2022.

Barbarian weaves several characters’ lives together as they intersect at a house located at 476 Barbary in Detroit. Viewers are first introduced to Tess (Georgina Campbell) and Keith (Bill Skarsgård) who eventually come face-to-face with an ominous creature called The Mother. Despite their best efforts, only one of them survives.

So, now that Barbarian is streaming on Netflix, how does the creepy thriller end? Here’s everything to know about the brutal and surprising movie, including who the actual monsters turn out to be.

Warning: Barbarian spoilers ahead!

What is Barbarian about?

Barbarian tells the story of Tess, who comes to Detroit for a job interview with a documentary filmmaker. She rents an Airbnb in a rundown part of town, but when she arrives at the house on a rainy night, she discovers that it has been double-booked.

Tess meets a man named Keith who is already staying there, and against her better judgment, she decides to share the space with him. The following day, after her interview, she returns to the rental and discovers a hidden room underneath the house with a bed, camcorder and bucket.

Terrified, Tess attempts to leave, but Keith wants to see the room for himself in the basement. He disappears below, and when Tess eventually searches for him, she finds a slew of subterranean tunnels under the house. She later locates Keith, who warns her about a creature living in the darkness. The Mother (Matthew Patrick Davis) then emerges and brutally kills Keith in front of Tess.

With that, viewers are introduced to AJ (Justin Long), a disgraced Hollywood actor, who is the owner of the house in Detroit. AJ takes advice to sell his rental to pay for his legal fees, and he travels to the city to inspect the house before listing it.

While there, he discovers the hidden tunnels below the house for the first time. Like those before him, The Mother captures him and takes him prisoner, joining Tess.

In a flashback to the ’80s, viewers meet Frank (Richard Brake), the house’s original owner. Frank abducts women and keeps them down in his basement — eventually creating the creature that lives underground.

What happens at the end of Barbarian?

Tess escapes and brings the police back to the house, but they don’t believe her, so she drives off. Meanwhile, AJ, who is attempting to flee the underground lair, finds an elderly, bedridden Frank, who has been living in a room below the house. After a tense exchange, Frank takes out a gun and shoots himself.

Tess manages to escape and is about to leave in her car when The Mother emerges from the front door. After slamming on the gas and pinning The Mother against the house with her car, Tess goes back down in the tunnels to find AJ, but he accidentally shoots her with Frank’s gun. Still, the two leave the house, realizing that The Mother has disappeared.

As they run down the street, they encounter a man named Andre (Jaymes Butler). Andre takes Tess and AJ to an abandoned building, and explains to them the genesis of The Mother chasing them. Not long after, the creature finds them and kills Andre. In response, Tess and AJ climb a water tower, as The Mother follows in pursuit.

To save himself from The Mother, AJ throws Tess off the water tower, and The Mother jumps off the structure after her. AJ sees them lying on the ground, but then realizes Tess is still alive.

The Mother also wakes up and kills AJ by ripping his head open. Tess shoots the creature and limps down the road as the sun rises behind her, and “Be My Baby” by The Ronettes plays.

Who is The Mother in Barbarian?

The Mother is a deformed woman, the result of generations of inbreeding.

As Andre reveals in the movie, Frank would take the women he kidnapped to the room below the house, “and then he started making babies with them and babies with the babies, and you make a copy of a copy of a copy, you end up with something like that [The Mother].”

In a September 2022 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cregger said he believes that Frank is The Mother’s father.

“So as much as I normally would like to just leave things to the audience, to ruminate on and decide for themselves, I do think that The Mother is his offspring,” he explained. “He is probably her father and grandfather.”

Speaking to The New York Times, the director elaborated that he saw The Mother as “innocent.”

“Her behavior is understandable. The best monsters, like King Kong and Leatherface, are not just evil,” he explained. “They’re behaving the best way they can with the tools they have.”

The creature might kill people in Barbarian, but as the movie continues, it is revealed that the actual monsters are the men in the story, Frank and AJ.

Who built the tunnels under the house?

While in the movie it is never confirmed who actually built the tunnels under the house, in a September 2022 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cregger said that “in my mind, [Frank] built them.”

Why is the movie called Barbarian?

In a September 2022 discussion with Murphy’s Multiverse, Cregger revealed that the title Barbarian doesn’t have a secret meaning; it was just what he called the script when he started working on it.

“Truth be told, I had to name the document something when I saved it the first time,” he recalled. “I was writing the script and I had to write something to save it, or it was going to be called ‘Untitled Screenplay’, and so I wrote ‘Barbarian’ and then I got attached to it.”

According to Cregger, the name might have influenced what the story eventually became. “Maybe the movie just sort of wrapped itself around that title. I’m really happy with it. I think it’s the right title, but it is mysterious,” he said.

After it was pointed out that the house where Barbarian takes place is located at 476 Barbary St., the director admitted, “I think that was probably what I was thinking.”

“The first time I started writing, I named the street Barbary Street,” he explained. “So that probably was in my head. Like ‘Barbarian’, an inhabitant of this place.”

Fans also formed their own theories on the meaning of the title.

“People pointed out that ‘Barbarian’ is an anagram of Airbnb and I did not realize that until way too late,” Cregger told Cinemablend. “Somebody pointed out that 476 Barbary, the address of the house, that is like 476, the year that Rome fell to the barbarians. I didn’t know that, you know, it’s fun.”

Where can I watch Barbarian?

Barbarian is available to stream on Netflix. The thriller can also be rented or purchased on Prime Video, Apple TV and Google Play.

Read the original article on People