‘Barbarian’ director names some surprising inspirations behind one of the year’s best horrors

With a plethora of smartly placed red herrings and a nod of approval from horror master Stephen King, it makes perfect sense why Zach Cregger’s Barbarian has established itself as one of the most chilling horror flicks of the year. While the list of inspirations for the bone-chilling feature could probably stretch out for miles, Cregger has surprisingly alluded to the fact that several influences behind the movie are fairly unexpected.

Chatting with Screen Rant, the 41-year-old director wasted little time in admitting that Barbarian has successfully borrowed a massive amount of influences, with all sets of different perspectives and structures helping the film to grow in credibility, plot, and visual effects. Among the major influences, however, is Drag Me to Hell director Sam Raimi’s unique filmmaking style. Cregger noted:

“I guess the main influence for this—and there’s a million influences, we’re all film lovers, so every movie you ever see is lodged in there somewhere. So, thousands of movies go into this movie, but I’d say Audition, the Takashi Miike 1999 movie, that’s the spiritual ancestor, for sure. Just because, thematically and structurally, it’s very similar. Psycho as well. But in terms of the tone, our rule was Fincher upstairs, Raimi downstairs. David Fincher was the beginning, and then once we go under the house, you know, Sam Raimi with all the goofiness and visual flair that he uses.”

In that same vein, Cregger cited J-horror flick Audition (1999) as the primary source of influence, along with Alfred Hitchcock’s cinematic masterpiece, Psycho (1960). And while these literary works were obviously significant for Cregger’s directing style, one must wonder what future inspirations will help with Cregger’s upcoming projects, which includes the rumors of a Barbarian sequel.

Regardless of the influences presented the biggest impact, Cregger’s directorial debut proved to be an adventurous cinematic experience filled with a variety of twists and turns that kept audiences on their toes at all times. That being said, it’s safe to assume that Raimi and Hitchcock’s individual influences will continue to inspire genre filmmakers for years to come.

Barbarian is currently available to stream on HBO Max.