Zach Cregger, veteran of The Whitest Kids You Know, stepped behind the camera for the first time as the writer and director for the new horror film Barbarian, and he tells ABC Audio the response to the nightmare-inducing film has been "a dream."
In the movie, which debuts in theaters Friday, Georgina Campbell plays a young woman who finds her rental home has been doubled booked -- and the red flags keep piling up from there.
Bill Skarsgård, who played Pennywise the Clown in the It movies, and Justin Long also star.
The movie is already being hailed as a "horror classic" and "brilliant" by critics, scoring a 94% from the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
Moviegoers who caught a sneak peek two weeks ago were similarly blown away but vowed online not to spoil the film.
"It's a dream," Cregger enthuses. "I mean, it has been universally positive. People are talking about the movie in the way that I maybe in my heart of hearts hoped that they would. And I'm just I'm so excited for the world to be able to watch it."
Cregger directed the movie but left the creepy coming attraction to the folks at 20th Century Studios, which was for the best, he jokes: "The trailer I would have cut together would not have been as good."
The filmmaker teases, "It doesn't spoil the movie. A lot of people think it does."
"I can promise you it does not ... you just can't predict it from the trailer, I promise!" Cregger vows.
He also adds, "This is the perfect movie for a theater. It's a roller-coaster ride. And you don't want to watch a roller-coaster ride on your phone. You want to go to the theme park, and you want to get on the ride, you know?"