10 Movies That Shockingly Switch Protagonist

Barbarian crept onto our screens last year and proceeded to drag all of our common understandings about horror cinema through the mud.

The film sets off as a psychological thriller in a rented house in Detroit that two people have booked, bringing Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell) into collision with Keith Toshko (an immediately creepy Bill Skarsgard). As the evening progresses, the pair unwind and it seems Keith isn't such a bad guy after all. The night goes smoothly and the pair head out for the day, safe in the knowledge that they will be returning not to a psychopathic killer but a new friend.

This sets up a one-two-three punch: Keith turns out to be neither antagonist nor protagonist and is killed in the first act, Tess is kidnapped by a creature living under the rental house, and we are then flung many states away from the action, characters and established plot.

Writer-director Zach Cregger piles on the tension by having the film switch on a whim to the life of sleazy TV actor AJ Gilbride (Justin Long), who owns and manages the rental from California. Fired for sexually harassing his co-stars, he makes the cross-state journey to inspect the place before he can sell it to cover legal costs. The film pivots to a creature feature flick as AJ uncovers the subterranean maze under the house, where he finds Tess and has to fight dirty to make it back out with his life.