Curry Barker was 26 when he made Obsession, but the film arrived with the confidence of someone who had already figured out how to make an audience squirm. The former sketch comedian turned horror filmmaker has turned a no-budget internet following into a theatrical breakthrough, and Obsession is now in theaters everywhere.
The film has been both a critical and commercial success, and it drew reviews better than any other horror film of the year. For Barker, that kind of reception marks a sharp rise from his earlier work with the sketch comedy duo That’s a Bad Idea and the no-budget YouTube sensation Milk & Serial, which Variety included on its list of the best horror films of 2024.
Barker has spent much of his career in comedy, but he says the shift to horror is less of a pivot than it looks. “I feel like there’s a darkness in comedy. So you see those [horror] sensibilities there already,” he said. “As a comedian, you’re constantly studying the human condition, you’re constantly studying ‘how can I make fun of humans?’ When you’re always studying the psychology of why people do things, [those skills] lends itself really well to horror.”
That route helped make Milk & Serial feel like a calling card rather than a one-off. Barker said he still finds it hard to believe the film is mentioned alongside major theatrical releases. “I can’t believe [Milk & Serial] is being compared to movies with huge theatrical releases… There was zero budget for it, it was a hobby project. Not only did it not feel like a real movie to me, it felt like an old movie [Barker sat on the movie for a year]. Posting it online was like a ‘whatever.’”
Obsession started as a short film concept before Barker pitched it to producer James Harris as a feature. Barker said Harris told him to write the script and they would see. The gamble paid off. The movie’s success has put Barker in a new position, with the filmmaker also tapped to write and direct a Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie for A24.
That larger spotlight may also be the reason Barker’s latest comments are drawing attention. In an interview about the film, he said he may have bigger plans for Obsession’s version of a monkey’s paw, the One Wish Willow. “When we created the One Wish Willow, it was something that I kind of thought ‘wouldn’t it be cool if it became a thing?’” he said. “And now, [the One Wish Willow] is almost an IP.”
The line fits the way Barker talks about the story’s central idea. “Any wish is kind of selfish,” he said. “So there’s a lot of stories to explore with that.” That is the tension now surrounding Obsession: whether a movie that began as a small concept can become something much bigger without losing the grim, comic edge that got Barker here in the first place.
For now, the answer is already visible on screen and in theaters. Obsession is not just a breakout for Barker. It is the moment his low-cost comedy instincts, horror instincts and audience instincts all landed at once.
