The best house-rental horror movies to watch before seeing Barbarian

Clark Collis
·3 min read

In the horror film Barbarian (out Sept. 9), Georgina Campbell plays a woman who arranges to stay at a rental home only to discover that the place has been double-booked and that a man is already lodging there. Despite the aforementioned gent being played by Bill Skarsgård (a.k.a. Pennywise from the It movies) Campbell's character agrees to share the accommodations, with surprising and terrifying consequences.

BARBARIAN
BARBARIAN

20th Century Studios Barbarian

Written and directed by Zach Cregger, best known as a member of the comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U' Know, Barbarian is the latest entry in a new subgenre of horror movies which find terrible things happening to people who rent via Airbnb-style companies. Here are the four best examples to check out before you check in.

A Perfect Host (2019)

This ominous tale finds Jeff McQuitty's lovelorn Sam accompanying Koko Marshall's Avery on a weekend away at a lakeside abode in the hope of getting out of the friend zone and into his pal's bed. Instead, the pair are slowly dragged into terrifying territory by their host, Tad (Brady Johnson), a supposed health freak with fresh track marks on his arms and absolutely no sense of boundaries.

The Rental (2020)

In Dave Franco's feature directorial debut, two brothers (Dan Stevens and Jeremy Allen White) and their respective partners (Alison Brie and Sheila Vand) rent a dream house on the coast of Oregon. The fantasy starts to curdle when they are greeted by Toby Huss' sinister, racist Reggie, who is looking after the place for his brother. Ultimately, things descend into a complete nightmare of betrayal, violence, and murder. "I think about how the country is as divided as it has ever been, and no one trusts each other," Franco told EW ahead of the movie's release, "and yet we trust staying in the home of a stranger, simply because of a few positive reviews online."

Superhost (2021)

Sara Canning and Osric Chau play a pair of rental house-reviewing vloggers who, desperate for subscribers, make the mistake of lampooning their latest host Rebecca, played with delirious brio by Teen Beach Movie star Gracie Gillam. Writer-director Brandon Christensen lards Superhost with gags and some nicely-appointed gore while also wisely finding space for a supporting turn from horror icon Barbara Crampton.

The Retreat (2021)

Think it's any less terrifying for Canadian characters to vacation in a horror movie? Think again. In this Canuck film, Tommie-Amber Pirie and Sarah Allen play a couple who visit some home-renting friends and fall afoul of local, horrifyingly well-organized homophobes. The film was inspired by a real-life vacation taken by the movie's writer Alyson Richards. "My wife and I stayed in this cabin in rural Australia," the screenwriter recently told EW. "It was so beautiful and serene, but there were a couple of elements that were a little bit off. One day, this basket of baked goods showed up at the front door, and I picked it up, and it was covered in bugs. It was this nice gesture but was kind of creepy. That was the beginning of the idea. It was taking that fear that queer people have outside the comfort of the urban environment and spinning it with what the worst case scenario would be."

Watch the trailer for Barbarian below.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content: