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The Mother is the main antagonist of the 2022 comedy horror film Barbarian.

She is a deranged and deformed woman who is the result of decades of incest and rape at the hands of Frank, a serial rapist and pedophile living in Detroit, Michigan.

She was portrayed by Matthew Patrick Davis.

Appearance[]

The Mother is a severely deformed woman, warped by the decades of parent-child incest between Frank and his lineage. Her body is covered in dirt, is thin and frail, her face is malformed with a mouth with no lips full of rotted teeth, her hair is long and raggedy, and her fingernails are long and black. She is extremely tall, almost seven feet in height. She was apparently never taught to wear clothes and is always completely naked.

Personality[]

Despite her age, the Mother's mind is extremely child-like, the result of having been kept away from the outside world for her entire life. She is obsessed with being a mother, as that is what Frank raised her (and all his daughters/"wives") to be. As such, she takes in anyone she can find and forces them to be her "children", lashing out angrily and brutally murdering them if they resist.

Despite her warped mind and brutal nature, the Mother does genuinely care for her "children". When Tess is injured, the Mother attempts to care for her and is clearly distressed by her pain, even trying to comfort her. Similarly, she never attempts to harm AJ until he nearly kills Tess in an effort to distract the Mother. In fact, the Mother seems violently protective of her "children", with her murders of AJ and Andre appearing to be efforts to defend them from perceived threats.

The Mother, for the most part, does not react to apparent dangers and is in fact rather reckless with her own life. She throws herself off of a water tower to save Tess from a likely fatal fall and has no reaction when Tess points a gun to her head outside of mild confusion. The only thing the Mother is truly afraid of is her abusive father Frank, who she avoids and leaves trapped inside a room in the catacombs.

Biography[]

While her true name and age are unknown, it is known that she was likely born sometime in the 1980s due to her being in the house for at least 40 years.

For many years, she would venture out of the tunnels beneath 476 Barbary Street and seek out people to become her "children", dragging them to her lair and forcing them to play their roles, and killing them if they acted out.

At some point, 476 Barbary Street was simultaneously rented out by two different people, Keith and Tess, due to the property being listed on multiple renting websites. On the second night of staying there, Tess became locked in the basement due to the door being modified by Frank to be unable to be opened from the inside to prevent his victims from escaping. In trying to find an exit, Tess discovered a secret passageway in the basement and came upon the room in which Frank committed many of his horrible deeds, and frantically called for help until Keith arrived and helped her escape through a basement window. Not believing her story, he ventured into the secret passage and discovered that there was yet another secret door, leading deep underground into the tunnels where The Mother lived and was captured by her. After somehow escaping, he was discovered by Tess, however, the two were quickly found by The Mother, who kills Keith by bashing his head in and takes Tess into her lair.

Two weeks later, the owner of the property, an actor named AJ, arrived at 476 Barbary Street to size it up for selling to pay his legal fees in a sexual harassment lawsuit. While investigating the house and realizing people were staying there (despite the rent only being for a short time), AJ discovered the Mother's lair and was captured as well. After refusing to drink from the Mother's baby bottle, AJ was taken to one of the many underground rooms and forced to be breastfed by The Mother, giving Tess an opportunity to escape. After realizing that Tess was gone, The Mother chased after her while AJ attempted to find an exit, coming upon a bedridden Frank. After accidentally giving Frank a gun (which he immediately used to shoot himself), AJ attempted to flee.

Meanwhile, Tess attempted to bring the police but was waved off as a homeless person. Returning and getting into her car, Tess was suddenly attacked by the Mother, who she ran over with her car and seemingly killed. Venturing down into the tunnels again to try and rescue AJ, she ended up getting accidentally shot by him, although nonfatally. Leaving the house, the two realized that The Mother was still alive and began trying to get as far away as possible, coming across a homeless man named Andre and taking shelter in an abandoned tower. Andre explained to them how the Mother came to be before she appeared and brutally killed Andre in front of the others. Fleeing to the top of the tower, AJ threw the wounded Tess off of the tower, causing the Mother to jump after her and end up cushioning her fall. When AJ came down and realized Tess was still alive, he attempted to help her but was quickly grabbed by the still-alive Mother and had his head torn in half.

Turning to Tess, the Mother realized that she was wounded and tried to help her up, pointing back at her home before cradling Tess' face. Tess grabbed Frank's gun and slowly pointed it at The Mother's face, to which the Mother did not resist, and pulled the trigger, finally ending the creature for good and avenging the deaths of Keith, Andre, and the other people the Mother had killed years ago.

Powers and Abilities[]

The Mother is shown to be extremely strong despite her deformed body, being able to tear people limb from limb and even tear a man's head in half. She is also very resistant, having survived being hit by a car and rammed into a house.

Victims[]

• Keith Toshko - Head bashed repeatedly against a wall.
• Andre - Beaten to death with his own arm after tearing it off.
• AJ Gilbride - Eyes gouged out and head split in half.

Trivia[]

• The Mother usually doesn't speak audibly, often blurting out gibberish and babbling incoherently, though she will sometimes utter a few words, such as "baby" when she comes across her victims, and "boop" when she begins sexually assaulting them.
• The Mother's final design was stated by Zach Creggar to be based off of that of Grendel's Mother. Interestingly, her original design was also much more human-like, appearing as just her actor with longer hair, though this was later changed to making her appear more monstrous, as it was believed that giving her a human-like appearance would give away the twist of the film, that of her not being the true monster. ^[1]

References[]

Navigation[]

Villains

476 Barbary Street The Mother | Frank Other AJ Gilbride