10 Sudden Time Jumps In Horror Movies That Completely Change Everything

Barbarian is often spoken of as a movie you need to watch while knowing as little as possible, and that's absolutely true, especially as it'll ensure the film's wildly unexpected change of both time and location lands with the desired shocking impact.

The first act of the movie details Tess (Georgina Campbell) discovering that her rental home is already occupied by a man, Keith (Bill Skarsgård). Despite her initial suspicions, she agrees to make the best of it and share the place with him for the night, but the next day, they discover a secret tunnel hidden in the basement.

When Keith disappears down there, Tess ill-advisedly follows, and when she finally finds him, he's suddenly killed by a naked, deformed woman who smashes his head against the wall. Director Zach Cregger then abruptly cuts to black and shifts the action from downtrodden Detroit to sun-kissed California two weeks later, for a seemingly unrelated plot revolving around actor AJ (Justin Long) being fired from a TV show due to sexual misconduct allegations.

AJ's involvement in the main story - that he's the landlord of the Detroit house - becomes clear soon thereafter, but this isn't the only unexpected time jump in the movie. Later, Cregger jumps all the way back to the 1980s, revealing the origins of the mutated "Mother" and her despicable captor, Frank (Richard Brake).

Though Barbarian could've just unfolded in chronological order and likely still been an entertaining movie, by adventurously transporting the audience back and forth through time without warning, it truly leaves viewers with no idea of what to expect for the remainder.