One of the most infamous scenes in Barbarian could have been even more horrifying. Zack Cregger's Barbarian follows its main character, Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell) as she stays at a Detroit Airbnb, only to discover the horrifically deformed Mother (Matthew Patrick Davis) living in the cavernous depths below. Barbarian is one of 2022's most acclaimed horror movies, with one of Barbarian's most notable and notorious moments involving the Mother trying to breastfeed the Airbnb's owner, Hollywood actor AJ Gilbride (Justin Long).
As horrendous as Barbarian's breastfeeding scene is, it could have been even worse. Writer-director Zack Cregger revealed in an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment that he had originally written that the Mother chews up a rat and feeds it baby-bird-style to AJ. While that part of the scene was cut from the finished version of the movie the intent of it still ties into Barbarian's message about monstrous abuse.
Why The Mother Tried To Make AJ Breastfeed In Barbarian
When AJ arrives at his Airbnb in Barbarian and discovers Tess being held captive, he learns the Mother has taken them both on as her children. The Mother at first tries to feed AJ milk through a bottle, which he refuses. The Mother, who has videos of breastfeeding instructions playing in another room, does not abide AJ's rebuff, dragging him away to forcefully breastfeed him.
The Mother is also a descendant of the house's original owner, Frank, a sexual predator with a long history of rape and incest. Meanwhile, AJ has been hit with a rape accusation by a co-star on his show, with his own flimsy defense heavily implying his guilt. With the Mother being born as the result of one monster's predatory activity, her forceful breastfeeding of AJ thematically turns the tables on the crimes of another — AJ is also later brutally killed by the Mother during the ending of Barbarian.
Why Zach Cregger Cut The Rat Scene In Barbarian
As for the original version of the scene of AJ literally being force-fed a rat, writer-director Zack Cregger explained that he initially removed it from Barbarian's script for fear it would turn Justin Long off from the movie. As Cregger explained, "I was like, ‘When he gets to Bulgaria, I will see if I can talk him into it. And so I very delicately tried to broach it. ... And he was like, ‘We have to do that. We have to do that.’" Although the scene was filmed, it was ultimately not included in Barbarian, with Long revealing in an interview with Vulture, "Zach cut that out. He felt like it was a bridge too far, gross-wise."
In the end, Barbarian's breastfeeding scene is plenty horrifying on its own. With the movie's success, a possible Barbarian sequel or prequel would be the best place to push the envelope further, though even there, something like a forceful rat feeding would really go over the line. Meanwhile, the behind-the-scenes story of how much worse the movie's breastfeeding scene could have been — and the possibility that the Mother has done other forceful breastfeeding and rat feedings off-screen — just makes Barbarian an even scarier horror movie.