This article contains discussion of sexual abuse.
The Mother in Bill Skarsgård's Barbarian character, Keith, gets ruthlessly eradicated while Tess finds herself trapped in the rental's labyrinth of tunnels as The Mother's prisoner.
When Barbarian's storyline jumps ahead to introduce AJ, it is hard not to wonder what happened to Tess after Keith's death. However, soon after, when AJ, too, falls into one of The Mother's traps in the underground tunnels, it becomes evident that she may not be half as evil as she seems, especially toward Tess. Instead of mindlessly killing Tess, The Mother (played by Matthew Patrick Davis) offers her a milk bottle and even tries coddling her while calling her a baby. Even towards Barbarian's violent ending, The Mother does not think twice before putting her life on the line to save Tess, which further affirms that she is more complicated than simply being a horror movie monster, and - while her attempts at mothering are disturbing - clearly cares for Tess.
Why The Mother Never Tried To Kill Tess In Barbarian
On the surface, The Mother seems overprotective of Tess because she has likely developed a skewed sense of motherhood after living in Frank's basement and obsessively watching the videotape that teaches how mothers should nurture their children. Beyond that, however, considering how she gives Tess special treatment over AJ and Keith, her behavior likely ties down to her years of trauma in the basement.
Frank's flashback and Andre's story establish that The Mother is a consequence of the sexual abuse and incest that Frank's victims in Barbarian were subjected to. After sustaining years of physical and psychological trauma from forced births, rape, and wretched living conditions, The Mother probably became more suspicious and less forgiving of men's mistakes due to associating them with Frank's treatment of her, while being more sympathetic towards women like Tess. This also explains why she backs off out of fear when AJ walks towards Frank's room in the tunnels.
Was The Mother A Villain In Barbarian?
As the homeless man Andre mentions, The Mother is not the worst thing living in the home's basement. As much as she appears to be Barbarian's primary antagonist, she is only a victim of Frank's sinister crimes. Frank is the real monster because he created The Mother through years of rape and deep incest. He is the titular "barbarian" whose misdeeds spiraled out of control and destroyed the lives of many innocent women and children. In some ways, it seems like Barbarian's The Mother only tries to stop more women from traveling deeper into the cave and finding Frank's room. Her methods of doing so may be too aggressive, but she is only trying to play her part as a misguided protector for those who end up in the tunnels. Both Frank and even AJ are more inclined towards being the true Barbarian movie villain, as their misdeeds seemingly don't have a history of egregious abuse trapped in an underground maze to explain them. The Mother, in contrast, has a far better moral com, since she almost dies while protecting Tess, showing she wishes to protect others despite how brutal her life has been up until this point.
The Mother's protective behavior towards Tess in the Barbarian's scenes involving the two also has a lot to do with Tess' sympathy for her. Unlike the men in Barbarian, Tess is quick to spot The Mother's humanity and maternal warmth beneath her monstrous demeanor. While Frank assaults her, Keith runs away from her, Andre demonizes her, and AJ fails to acknowledge her efforts to protect him, Tess is the only one who somehow empathizes with The Mother even moments before she shoots her dead. Even when Tess shoots The Mother in the Barbarian movie's climactic moments, she seems to do it more out of pity than anger, which shows how much she understands what she has been through.
