Zach Cregger’s Barbarian isn’t the scariest movie you’ll ever see – despite the commercial promoting the movie strongly implying exactly that – though it’s a shockingly good horror movie.

And what’s particularly interesting is that Cregger wrote as well as directed, and the movie is surprisingly layered (by which I mean there’s more to it than what horror movies typically give us, which is various flavors of carnage).

And it’s also particularly well-acted, with Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård and Justin Long acquitting themselves admirably and that for me reveals that horror movies have arrived in the mainstream in that they’re not only well-acted, but actors and directors don’t appear to be embarrassed that they’re starring in and making them.

Never mind being very, very profitable when done well.

Barbarian isn’t anything an avid horror movie fan hasn’t seen before, because there’s relatively little new under the sun, though the killer app of the movie are its sharp writing and strong performances so that it manages to at least feel novel, which is pretty rare.

And it’s worth mentioning that if there were an award for the Best Use of the Word ‘Nope’ – outside of Nope, that is – Barbarian would definitely win.