Why Barbarian’s most disgusting scene was cut

Barbarian – a new horror film that stars Georgina Groom, Bill Skarsgård, and Justin Long – is in cinemas now, but there’s one disgusting scene that was shot, but which audiences won’t get to see. WARNING – SPOILERS FOR BARBARIAN AHEAD…

Barbarian is a shocking new movie about the horrors waiting within the wall of a New Orleans rental home. You can read our review of the movie here, while we’ve got an answer to Barbarian’s most important question here.

Groom plays Tess, who believes the place to be her accommodation for the night. While Skarsgård is already there, having rented the house himself. Apparently.

That’s Act 1 of the movie, but then we meet AJ – played by Justin Long – and following a spot of misdirection, we learn that he owns the property. As the film proceeds from Act 2 into Act 3, AJ finds himself prisoner of the monstrous mother who dwells beneath…

What happens in Barbarian’s sickest scene?

Barbarian recently screened at FrightFest, and after the film, writer-director Zach Gregger spoke about what didn’t make it into the final edit. The following isn’t for the faint-hearted, so be warned, but would have happened around the time “Mother” breast-feeds AJ.

“We cut a scene where he refuses to latch, and so she snatches up a rat, chews it up, and baby-birds him,” Gregger explained to a somewhat surprised London audience.

“We filmed it perfectly, Justin was such a good sport. Matthew – who plays the Mother – really masticated this prosciutto, and dropped it direct, bullseye into his mouth. It was pretty gross.”

Why the offending sequence was removed…

Cregger then referenced Jaws – and the fact the the shark is barely seen in that film – to explain his editorial decision.

“We realized that it couldn’t stay in the movie because you don’t want to see the shark too much,” Cregger said. “And there’s no way to show that without getting really up close, and it was just not appropriate yet, so it had to go.”

Barbarian is in US cinemas now, while it currently has no UK release date.