A year ago, Curry Barker made headlines by making a feature-length slasher film called Milk & Serial for just $800 and releasing it for free on YouTube. The film quickly became a viral sensation, racking up over two million views. Now, things have changed in a big way—Barker is debuting his latest film, Obsession, at the Toronto Film Festival.
What’s it About?
Obsession, which will premiere as part of the festival’s Midnight Madness section, follows a guy named Bear (Michael Johnston) who messes with the supernatural to win the affection of his friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette). However, things go horribly wrong.
Barker says the idea for the movie came from an unlikely source: an old “Simpsons” rerun.
“Bart gets a monkey paw and causes a bunch of chaos,” Barker said. “I was thinking that I’ve never seen a straight crazy horror where…we’ve seen ‘Be careful what you wish for’ tons of times. But we’ve never seen my version of it. I instantly started thinking about what I could do with that.”
The idea caught the attention of producer James Harris, known for horror hits like Fall and 47 Meters Down. With Harris on board, Barker was able to make a huge step up from his ultra-low-budget work on Milk & Serial.
A Bigger Playground
“This time around I had a way bigger playground,” Barker explained. He said he was able to do things he’d never done before, like building a custom set. “We found this tiny little house in Burbank and transformed it into Bear’s house. It doesn’t look anything like that when you first see it. It was a game-changer, for sure.” He continued, “I’ve always been scared of letting too many people in because I’m very precious about my vision,” Barker said. “But I’ve learned that if you can get your vision and passion across to them, they tend to give it back, and then it becomes a powerhouse of people that are passionate about the same thing.”
Even with Obsession about to hit the festival circuit, Barker is already busy with his next project, Anything But Ghosts. This new film, which he will direct, co-write, and star in, has two of horror’s biggest producers, Jason Blum and Roy Lee, on board. Barker teases that it’s about “con artists posing as ghost hunters.”
Watch Curry Barker’s one-hour-long film Milk & Serial below. As soon as a release date is announced for Obession, we will let u know.
