How “The Gift of Fear” Inspired Barbarian

Zach Cregger explains how a book titled The Gift of Fear inspired him to write Barbarian, one of the most shocking thrillers in years.

How “The Gift of Fear” Inspired Barbarian

Barbarian is one of the most shocking and twisted thriller films in years. So what inspired this weird and bizarre story? Writer and Director Zach Cregger explains during the Barbarian press conference that he wanted to do a fun project for himself after reading a book called The Gift of Fear by security consultant Gavin de Becker.

“There was a chapter in the book that was really primarily directed towards women. And he was encouraging women to pay attention to these little, minor red flags that men can give off in day to day situations. And they can be very innocuous things that you might not notice. Things like complimenting you when it’s not necessarily appropriate, or doing you a favor that you didn’t ask for, or touching in a non sexual way. That’s not initiated by you, obviously.” Cregger describes. 

He goes on to say that these are the little things that seemingly don’t matter, but that they should stand out in your mind because they absolutely do matter. It is important to pay attention to these little red flags because it will help you to identify potential threats. 

That is when Zach Cregger had an epiphany that he doesn’t ever have to worry about things like that because he is a man, and he doesn’t have to be concerned that one half of the world’s population could be a threat to him and could do harm to him for absolutely no reason.

Cregger realized that he occupies a completely different psychic landscape than most women do, and that was a big moment for him. He goes on the detail how the book inspired him to create a fun exercise for himself, which unintentionally developed into a movie.

“I didn’t want to write a movie. I just wanted to write a scene where I can load as many of those little tiny red flags into an interaction as possible. So that was just an exercise for me to do late at night in my garage. And so I was like a double booked Airbnb, and I’ll make this guy really nice, but I will give him a ton of these little triggers. And it was really fun. I didn’t think about where it was gonna go ever. And my rule was, if I’m surprising myself, then I have to be surprising the audience. As long as I have no long plan, then no one could know what’s coming.” 

Having seen Barbarian is certainly a movie that will keep audiences guessing the whole way through. Thank goodness Zach Cregger decided to pick up Gavin de Becker’s The Gift of Fear, or the world may never have been able to experience Barbarian. See it in theaters, with a packed audience and going in as blind as possible, on September 9th.

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About Barbarian

A young woman discovers the rental home she booked is already occupied by a stranger. Against her better judgment, she decides to spend the night but soon discovers there’s a lot more to fear than just an unexpected house guest.

Barbarian comes to theaters September 9th.