For the archetypal fewer minutes, you could beryllium forgiven for reasoning that Curry Barker’s début feature, “Obsession,” was a rom-com. The movie opens with its shy, delicate twentysomething protagonist, Bear, struggling to confess his feelings for his puerility friend, Nikki. Their narration is afloat of banter and, truthful far, strictly platonic; he’s smitten and terrified of ruining everything. He stumbles upon an aged novelty artifact called the One Wish Willow, which promises its idiosyncratic immoderate they desire, and, aft failing to admit his crush, impulsively wishes for Nikki to emotion him “more than anyone successful the fucking world.” He gets what helium wants. Unfortunately for Bear, this is, successful fact, a fearfulness movie. During their archetypal nighttime together, conscionable for an instant, Nikki appears to glitch, jerking backmost mid-kiss and looking astatine him with unsighted panic alternatively of undying affection. Her behaviour gets alien from there. Whether the idiosyncratic he’s with is truly “her”—and however overmuch that favoritism matters to him—becomes a question of expanding urgency.
When “Obsession” premièred astatine the Toronto International Film Festival past September, Barker was twenty-five, and champion known arsenic a purveyor of comic sketches and fearfulness shorts. (His offerings successful some arenas tin beryllium arsenic disturbing.) “I tin pinpoint the infinitesimal my beingness changed,” helium said, of the midnight screening. “I woke up the adjacent greeting to this flood of texts and missed calls.” A twenty-four-hour bidding warfare culminated successful the movie being sold to Focus Features for 15 cardinal dollars—the highest terms commanded by a genre movie successful TIFF history. Jason Blum, the shaper of specified hits arsenic “Get Out” and “Paranormal Activity,” came onboard “Obsession” aft the première. “I spot an tremendous fig of fearfulness movies, and it’s precise hard present to marque thing that feels unique,” helium told me. “This 1 surely did.”
Blum and Focus are besides partnering connected Barker’s adjacent film, “Anything but Ghosts,” which conscionable wrapped successful Vancouver. It had a fund of astir 5 cardinal dollars—easily the astir wealth Barker has ever had to enactment with. (He made “Obsession” for “seven 100 and 50 thousand, max,” and earlier projects for far, acold less.) But erstwhile we met precocious successful Burbank astatine the Mystic Museum, a shrine to each things horror, helium inactive seemed to person the mind-set of idiosyncratic operating connected a shoestring. He eyed what looked similar a quality spinal file successful the depository acquisition shop, arsenic appalled by the terms tag arsenic helium was by the entity itself. “Eight 100 and 50 dollars?” helium mouthed. “This can’t beryllium real, right?”
A clerk explained that determination were 2 adjoining storefronts: one, helium informed us, sold “bugs, skeletons, and trinkets,” whereas the different was devoted to “more horror-franchise stuff.” Barker, who has a daze of platinum-blond hair, hexagonal metal-frame glasses, and a game, laid-back attitude, made a beeline for the latter. He took successful the blood-smeared signage and life-size statues of slasher villains arsenic thunder crackled from the loudspeakers. “This is my vibe!” helium declared. Still, wearing a achromatic T-shirt tucked into light-wash jeans, helium stood retired amid the darkness. “I’ve been obsessed with fearfulness my full life, but I’m besides not a precise gothic person,” helium said. During his puerility successful Mobile, Alabama, his parent had imposed strict viewing limits: “She didn’t privation to person to woody with maine crawling into furniture with her due to the fact that I was scared.” When helium was eleven, she relented and fto him prime retired a movie for Halloween. He chose the 2003 mentation of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”
Critics had been mostly unimpressed by the film, a remake of the 1974 classic, but for a young Barker it was visceral. “In the archetypal 5 minutes, a miss pops herself successful the head,” helium recalled. “Dude, I was not acceptable for that. It was the biggest daze of my life.” (He ended up sleeping successful his mom’s chamber arsenic she’d predicted, though helium spent the nighttime curled up connected the level retired of pride.) He continued, “But, honestly, I wanted to pursuit that feeling. I wanted to beryllium shocked again. Which is benignant of reflected successful the mode I constitute now.”
After that, helium said, helium was “off to the races,” devouring “Donnie Darko,” “The Ring,” and considerably little acclaimed fare. “Once I started going down that rabbit hole, I watched all fearfulness movies. I besides got to that constituent wherever I was, like, these movies sometimes suck,” helium said, laughing. His heavy dive into the genre near him with immoderate favored peeves, not slightest the irrational oregon simply implausible behaviour of galore horror-movie protagonists. When helium writes, helium performs what helium calls the “eye-roll check”: would a spectator rotation their eyes astatine what was unfolding? “The wherefore of it all—why wouldn’t they conscionable bash that?—is truthful important to me. I’m ever thinking, What’s the archetypal happening you would bash if this happened?” helium said. Bear’s archetypal determination aft Nikki starts acting strangely is to look up the One Wish Willow connected a Reddit knockoff called “Thredit.”
Barker constructs universes wherever immoderate is terrorizing his protagonists is an anomaly. In “Obsession,” adjacent aft Nikki is possessed, determination are inactive location parties, admissions letters, and friend-group dynamics to interest about. The One Wish Willow doesn’t person past lore; it has a customer-service helpline. The conceit besides has a motivation dimension. Though Barker was inspired successful portion by the trope of the monkey’s paw—a cursed entity that grants a privation with terrible, unexpected consequences—he sees the One Wish Willow arsenic a neutral entity. The problem, helium said, is “the guy, and the privation he made.” The favoritism elevates a acquainted be-careful-what-you-wish-for premise to a funny, brutal existentialist drama.
“It starts from a precise guiltless spot with Bear. I wanted it to beryllium relatable. We’ve each had a crush connected idiosyncratic who didn’t similar america back—which is benignant of a creepy concept, erstwhile you deliberation astir it,” Barker went on. “You ideate this full world that whitethorn ne'er be.” Such obsession tin beryllium a frightening emotion some for the idiosyncratic experiencing it and for the target. One of Bear’s archetypal lines, arsenic helium talks astir his emotion for Nikki, is “I consciousness similar I’m coming apart.” The information that helium ne'er manages to confess this to her is portion of the horror: Barker wanted to play connected the precise modern fear, among young men, of “not saying the close thing, oregon not wanting to travel disconnected similar a creep.”
We made our mode into the museum’s Séance Parlor. Ouija boards were enshrined successful solid cases passim the room; periodically, a tiny metallic doorbell tolled without warning, moving arsenic though connected its own. In 1 corner, a brace of headless mannequins were prostrated earlier a crowned, decapitated head: a tribute to the last country of Ari Aster’s “Hereditary.” Barker gasped successful designation and delight. “I was lone seventeen erstwhile that movie came out. It near a immense content connected me,” helium said. “It benignant of sparked for maine that movies tin beryllium artsy.” Jordan Peele’s “Get Out”—also released erstwhile Barker was successful precocious school, and changeable a fewer miles from his location successful Alabama—similarly changed his consciousness of what fearfulness could do.
A24, which produced “Hereditary,” has enlisted Barker to nonstop a “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” reboot. When I raised it, helium became, briefly, much guarded. “Dude, I person to beryllium so cautious present with what I accidental successful public,” helium said. He was inactive smarting from the (modest) backlash to a remark he’d made, a fewer days earlier, astir the archetypal being “really bully for its time.” But helium grew animated again arsenic helium explained his involvement successful the science of the household astatine the bosom of the story. “What benignant of idiosyncratic bash you person to beryllium to termination arsenic nonchalantly arsenic the Sawyers do?” He invoked a country successful which 2 brothers promote their decrepit patriarch to decorativeness disconnected their latest victim, cheering him connected arsenic helium struggles to assistance a hammer they’ve placed successful his hands. “It tells you that this aged antheral has been sidesplitting his full life, and this is amusive for this family. That’s so fucked up,” Barker said. “But determination was lone a small spot of that successful the original, and the remainder of the remakes were just, like, Leatherface with a chainsaw! We’re gonna person that, too. But we person to gain it.”
Barker’s archetypal imagination was to beryllium an actor. When helium was eighteen, helium near location to survey astatine New York Film Academy’s field successful Los Angeles. During his archetypal week of classes, helium met a fellow-student named Cooper Tomlinson; they started making videos unneurotic that weekend, which they posted connected YouTube. “It became our movie schoolhouse extracurricular of movie school,” Tomlinson told me. Barker, who’d spent his elder twelvemonth of precocious schoolhouse teaching himself astir the properties of assorted camera lenses and microphones to marque his sketches consciousness “cinematic,” insisted connected shooting horizontally, alternatively than tailoring their worldly to Instagram oregon TikTok. (Eventually, helium allowed vertical video.) The skits, which Barker writes with and acts successful other Tomlinson, thin to impact an abrupt crook from observational drama into darker oregon much surreal territory. In a video astir an erratic Uber driver, a recognizable dynamic—awkward tiny talk, impatience to acceptable off—escalates into a life-threatening one. Another sketch revolves astir a feline failing to substance his person erstwhile helium gets location safely; aft a sleepless nighttime waiting for word, the spurned bro descends into madness.
The precocious accumulation values and predominant genre-hopping were inspired by the sketch-comedy duo Key and Peele, whom Barker grew up watching religiously. Emulating them required a genre-savvy shorthand: the quality to conjure up the consciousness of a bull amusement oregon a sci-fi drama successful minutes. (Barker deploys this quality to large effect successful “Obsession,” interspersing moments of genuine fearfulness with, say, an idyllic falling-in-love montage.) Barker and Tomlinson had been astatine it for a twelvemonth erstwhile the pandemic started, and their classes migrated to Zoom. They dropped out, moved successful together, and committed to making films. Barker worked astatine Starbucks and spent each escaped infinitesimal penning and shooting. “He’s a elemental man,” Tomlinson told me. “There was nary Plan B.” Their YouTube channel, That’s a Bad Idea, gradually gained traction, amassing upward of a cardinal subscribers. One of Barker’s fearfulness shorts, “The Chair,” attracted involvement from Hollywood producers.
Another turning constituent came successful 2024, erstwhile the brace released “Milk & Serial,” an hour-long slasher they’d made for 8 100 dollars. Barker wrote and directed it, starring alongside Tomlinson and different friends who were consenting to enactment for free, and changeable respective scenes successful their shared bedroom. (The 2 inactive unrecorded together, though they present person rooms of their own.) He bought a Sony camcorder to seizure the precise look helium wanted, past sold it astatine a markup erstwhile they were done. The effect was a found-footage flick with a meta twist: the characters are YouTubers themselves, engaged successful a prank warfare that goes violently awry. Variety named it 1 of the champion fearfulness films of the year, ranking it a fewer notches beneath “The Substance.”
The sketch-comedian-to-horror-auteur pipeline is amazingly robust: aft Peele came Zach Cregger, the writer-director of “Weapons,” who got his commencement arsenic a founding subordinate of the Whitest Kids U’Know. Barker’s different heroes see Nathan Fielder and Tim Robinson, comics whose enactment contains an undeniable acheronian streak, and who stock his prankster’s tone and precocious tolerance for unease. For Barker, arsenic for many, the 2 genres spell manus successful hand. “My breadstuff and food is uncomfortable conversations. That’s what I emotion to write,” helium told me. “So erstwhile I spell to a barroom oregon I person a weird acquisition with a waiter, I’m ever reasoning astir however it could beryllium a skit,” helium said. “Being alert of the mode radical interact with the satellite is comic and scary—and it’s a tool.” The vibe of the ensuing sketch could spell either way. As Peele erstwhile enactment it, “The quality betwixt drama and fearfulness is the music.”
When Barker and I returned to the entranceway of the Mystic Museum, the clerk greeted america cheerfully: “Welcome back! Congratulations connected surviving!” Barker was polite, but I got the consciousness that the acquisition had not passed the eye-roll check. After we near and stepped retired into the sunlight, helium explained his disinterest successful inexpensive thrills elicited by abrupt noises oregon alarming imagery. “To me, it’s each astir making you consciousness uneasy, and little astir a leap scare,” helium said. “And the mode you execute that is with the unknown, oregon not knowing someone’s intentions.” He likes to fto a country tally long, without the benignant of merchandise audiences person been primed for. Inevitably, there’s thing to marque you squirm—but often it’s what’s not happening alternatively than what is.
“Do you privation to get pizza?” Barker asked. Over heavy dish, we discussed his upbringing successful Mobile, wherever helium was, arsenic helium enactment it, “a straight-C and -D student.” He made up for it with extracurriculars, playing successful the marching band, landing gigs astir municipality with his stone band, Culture Shock, and appearing successful “all the section plays,” including a prima crook arsenic Oliver successful “Oliver Twist.” As a teen, helium launched a YouTube transmission with his small member and immoderate friends. (“We had, like, a 1000 subscribers—we thought we were blistery shit.”) He founded a movie nine and got progressive with his precocious school’s broadcast-news association. Even there, helium thought successful presumption of sketches: helium developed a conception wherever helium approached different students arsenic though for a existent interrogation earlier asking nonsensical questions, willfully misinterpreting their answers, oregon feigning a breakdown mid-taping.
Barker speaks of his household with evident pride, and seems determined to bring them on arsenic his prima rises. His mom, a graphic designer, helped to make the look of the One Wish Willow. His dad, inspired by Barker, precocious discontinue his occupation arsenic a psychiatric caregiver practitioner to go a full-time screenwriter. “We wrote a screenplay unneurotic called ‘Deep Snow,’ which I really bash program connected 1 time pursuing,” Barker told me. (His begetter besides contributed a monologue to “Obsession.”) His older brother, Jeffrey, was a P.A. connected “Obsession”; his younger member Riley shoots each of his and Tomlinson’s sketches, and aspires to go a cinematographer.
His ain aspirations person pulled him successful respective directions. “I’m the busiest I’ve ever been,” helium said. He’s penning a TV amusement (“a hard comedy, which is so different”) acceptable successful a somewhat heightened satellite akin to that of Tim Robinson’s “The Chair Company,” arsenic good arsenic entering postproduction connected “Anything but Ghosts,” whose formed includes Bryce Dallas Howard and Aaron Paul. The caller movie follows a brace of faux ghostbusters who don’t judge successful ghosts astatine all, scamming their clients and justifying it to themselves arsenic a mode of “bringing peace” to the tormented oregon bereaved. Then, arsenic successful “Obsession,” a rupture occurs: for the archetypal time, they brushwood a existent spirit, and 1 who’s decidedly unimpressed by their act. Barker stars alongside Tomlinson, with whom helium co-wrote the script. The collaboration recalls their earliest sketches, though Barker noted a “welcome change”: alternatively of identifying him arsenic a YouTuber, radical are starting to telephone him a filmmaker.
Barker displays a winning premix of self-deprecation astir what he’s achieved truthful acold and ultimate assurance successful what he’ll bash next. He called his archetypal short, “Real World,” “pretty bad,” noting its “stupid title”; already, helium sees the flaws successful “Obsession,” oregon astatine slightest feels the lack of the shots helium couldn’t afford. But he’s inactive precocious connected “Anything but Ghosts,” and connected the reboot looming aft that. “There’s astir nary imaginable mode to marque everybody blessed with ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre,’ ” helium said. “But if I couldn’t spot myself bringing thing caller to it, I wouldn’t person said yes. If I were like, Well, thing beats the original, past the statement becomes: should it beryllium astatine all? So I’m striving to marque the implicit champion mentation that anyone’s ever seen. That’s an breathtaking pursuit. And it’s worthy the scrutiny that comes with it.”
Before we parted, helium reflected connected different aboriginal love: “Scare Tactics,” a hidden-camera prank amusement connected Syfy. Tracy Morgan, the host, conspires with the unwitting “victim” ’s friends and household to enactment them successful horror-movie-esque scenarios: a location invasion, a haunting. The bid was often ridiculous; it besides terrified 1 unfortunate truthful severely that she had to beryllium hospitalized, aft which she promptly sued the producers, the network, and 2 of the actors involved. “I don’t adjacent deliberation this amusement would beryllium allowed to happen nowadays,” Barker said. (Incidentally, it concisely was—in 2024, it was revived for a azygous play by Jordan Peele.) Barker had rediscovered the bid arsenic an adult, and had travel to admit it arsenic a corrective for the “bullshit Hollywood version” of fear: a showcase for our sometimes embarrassing, sometimes damning reactions to what we don’t understand. “You tin larn a batch from watching radical respond to crazy, scary things,” helium told me. “Most radical don’t adjacent scream. They conscionable publication it. There’s thing truly comic astir that—but it’s besides the astir genuine you tin be.” ♦
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