Holding a 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes, we’d recommend going into this film as blind as possible.
Our TV movie pick for tonight (Thursday, 22 August) is Barbarian, the brilliant 2022 horror thriller from writer-director Zach Cregger (The Whitest Kids U’Know).
The film begins with Tess (Georgina Campbell, Bird Box Barcelona) checking into an Airbnb in Detroit the evening before a job interview, only to find its been double booked.
Hitting it off with the other renter, Keith (Bill Skarsgård, IT), he suggests they both share the space.
A string of strange occurrences, however, leads Tess to doubt whether Keith is as kind as he seems.
To reveal any more would do viewers a disservice because Barbarian’s terrifically dark and twisty plot is the main reason to seek out the movie, along with its great performances (also including Dodgeball’s Justin Long), its string of nerve-shreddingly tense sequences and its moments of laugh-out-loud black comedy.
Holding a 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes, Barbarian is airing on TV tonight on Film4 at 9pm. It is also available to rent on Apple TV, Google Play, Microsoft, Rakuten TV and the Sky Store.
Here are the other movies on TV tonight:
Strangers on a Train – BBC Four – 8pm
Two strangers meet on a train which winds up setting in motion a deadly chain of events in this legendary Alfred Hitchcock-directed thriller.
Midnight Run – Legend – 9pm
This classic action-comedy – featuring Robert De Niro’s most surprising performance – recently turned 36 years old.
The Intern – Comedy Central – 9pm
In this well-liked comedy-drama, a 70-year-old widower (De Niro, again) becomes a senior intern at a fashion website, where he forms an unlikely friendship with the company’s workaholic CEO (Anne Hathaway).
Saturn 3 – Legend Xtra – 9pm
Farrah Fawcett, Harvey Keitel and Kirk Douglas star in this ’80s sci-fi from the director of Charade and Singin’ in the Rain.
Saturn 3’s 29% Rotten Tomatoes score suggests it’s not as fun as it sounds, however.
Killer Elite – ITV4 – 10pm
We’ve recommended this 2011 action thriller with Jason Statham, and Clive Owen and De Niro (yet again) before.
Psycho – BBC Four – 10.35pm
In this even more legendary Hitchcock thriller, a woman on the run (Janet Leigh) checks into a motel run by the seemingly kindly Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins).
However, there is more to Norman than meets the eye.
Stake Land – Legend Xtra – 10.50pm
This solid indie horror takes place in a world of vampires and follows an expert vampire hunter and his young protégé as they travel toward sanctuary.
Men – Film4 – 11.05pm
In this very disturbing horror, Jessie Buckley plays a widowed woman who travels on holiday to a countryside village but becomes tormented by several men (all of whom are played by Rory Kinnear).
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