Curry Barker made headlines at this very publication by making a feature length slasher called “Milk & Serial” for $800, posting it to watch for free on YouTube and watching it become a viral sensation. A year later, a lot has changed. “Milk” never slowed in momentum, with over two million views in the year since it debuted. Meanwhile, Barker is opening his newest film at this year’s Toronto Film Festival.
“Obsession,” in which a lovelorn guy named Bear (Michael Johnston) messes with the supernatural to get romantic attention from his friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette), is set to debut on Friday as part of the fest’s Midnight Madness section. As can be expected, things don’t go as planned, and a new spin on the classic monkey’s paw / “be careful what you wish for” tale is born.
Barker admits that inspiration struck from an unlikely time and place. A group of friends had come over to check out an episode of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” that he had a part in, yet his mind started racing during the lead-in, an old “Simpsons” rerun.
“Bart gets a monkey paw and causes a bunch of chaos,” Barker says. “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, who has worked on horror hits like “Fall” and “47 Meters Down.” His Tea Shop Productions banner was soon on board for the film, and Barker was suddenly able to make his film with a more conventional crew, compared to the ultra-shoestring “Milk & Serial.” The ability to do things like build a set proved revolutionary for Barker.
“This time around I had a way bigger playground,” he says. “I’ve never had the resources to create a house. 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. I remember my first day on set and I saw the set being built by [production designer] Vivian [Gray] and people painting the walls. And then I went down into the camera department and everyone’s setting that up, and I remember going, ‘Oh wow, I’m running the ship.’ It hit me that this is much bigger than I’d ever been a part of.”
Despite the influx of help, Barker’s specificity of vision inspired him to keep some of his many hats on, like choosing to edit “Obsession” himself. Yet he says he found new joy in working with others on set to make his vision come to life.
“This movie taught me how to collaborate with more people,” Barker says. “I’ve always been scared of letting too many people in because I’m very precious about my vision. 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. That’s what we had here. The movie did not have to turn out the way that it turned out, but a lot of people put their heart into it.”
That vision is certainly specific. Barker, along with his creative partner Cooper Tomlinson (who has a role in “Obsession”), have a background in sketch via their online work as That’s a Bad Idea. That dark sensibility often infuses itself with their horror projects, with key moments toeing the line between scary and funny.
That said, Barker is always focused on having the right look for the right medium, be it their flashy, funny viral sketches or the found footage creativity of “Milk & Serial.” For “Obsession,” he worked with cinematographer Taylor Clemons to lens the film in a very specific way.
“I wanted to shoot this center-composed and have extra head space because I wanted it to feel uncomfortable in its loneliness,” Barker says. “There’s something about center-composed that forces you to look and pulls you in in a way that traditional composition may not. I’ve seen a lot of horror filmmakers I look up to recently shooting in that way.”
Even though he’s getting ready to debut “Obsession,” Barker is already booked and busy with his next project, titled “Anything But Ghosts.” Barker is set to direct and star in the film, and co-wrote the script with Tomlinson, who will also star in the film. The project also has two of horror’s biggest producers — Jason Blum and Roy Lee — signed on board.
While keeping details close to the chest, Barker teases that it’s about “con artists posing as ghost hunters,” which feels like a perfect fit for the duo’s scary-funny sensibilities.
As for another “Obsession” down the line? Barker says it’s always a possibility, especially given how much he enjoys the “be careful what you wish for” trope.
“I don’t think you’ll ever see a movie with these characters again, but it would be cool to expand this world with different characters,” he says, leaving the door open.
