Barbara is a Dungeons and Dragons fueled, bunny ear wearing Don Quixote tilting at threats that others just don’t perceive.
Based on an acclaimed Image graphic novel written by Joe Kelly and drawn by Ken Niimura, Barbara (Madison Wolfe) is a social misfit girl, who escapes ridicule and bullying by fantasizing herself as a hunter and slayer of giants that threaten her town. Fortunately for her, she seems to have found a Pancho Sanza in the one girl she knows who finds her more fascinating than bizarre, Sophia (Sydney Wade), whom she takes her under her wing. With these two, I’m getting a vibe of Sylvester the Cat and his son discussing the validity of the Giant Mouse, which is in fact a kangaroo, (A mmmm… a mmmm… a MOUSE!) but maybe that’s just me. I also sense elements of Colossal, A Monster Calls, Brazil, and Stranger Things in this trailer… which bodes well on all fronts. Is Barbara is completely nuts? Or if she really is the savior of the town? The trailer is suggestive that at some point her fantasies bear truths, and cash on the barrel head says that she saves the town from real Giants.
Like I have mentioned with other films like The Shape of Water and Colossal, I don’t really see this as a scary movie, but it is monster themed, so I’m claiming it as relevant to our website reviews! It probably won’t be any scarier than a Harry Potter movie, and that’s fine. I do want to see what those Giants are capable of, and they are properly menacing looking. There’s potential for a cool hero’s journey wrapped into this premise, a modern dark fairy tale covered in crazy sauce. I’m crossing my fingers that this film will be as good as the trailer suggests it is.
I Kill Giants arrives in theaters on March 23.
