"Though it may make some older generations want to jump out of their skin, the future of horror is on YouTube. With his leap from the social platform to the big screen, the internet sketch comic Curry Barker has joined Talk to Me's Michael and Danny Philippou and 20-year-old Kane Parsons, whose highly anticipated debut Backrooms is due in cinemas later this month, to form a new frontier for the genre - one that's as brutal as it is savvy."
"Gone is any feeling of Gothic tenderness, of the misunderstood going bump in the night. Here, the generation exposed to what feels like only the very worst of the world has responded in kind, with horror in which punishment is swift, nasty, and arguably well deserved."
"Barker made his debut with the 2024 found-footage, prank-themed horror Milk & Serial, shot for $800 and uploaded directly to YouTube, while Obsession riffs on episodes of The Twilight Zone and WW Jacobs' classic short story The Monkey's Paw. It's built as a shock to the system for the self-declared "nice guys" of the world."
"Bear (Michael Johnston), a music-store employee with dark, soulful, vinyl-record eyes, has been quietly bearing a crush on his co-worker Nikki (Inde Navarrette). He's too timid to tell her, even when she asks him directly (and kudos to Johnston for making his denials physically painful to the ears). He's not too timid, however, to pop into his local new age shop and pick up a "One-Wish Willow," a novelty toy that does, as it turns out, grant a single wish to whoever snaps it in two, with the usual nefarious caveats if you haven't worded said wish carefully."
Horror is moving toward YouTube and internet-made filmmaking, replacing Gothic tenderness and misunderstood fears with swift, nasty punishment. New works emphasize brutality paired with savvy, reflecting a generation shaped by harsh realities. Curry Barker’s YouTube debut Milk & Serial was made for about $800 and uploaded directly online, while Obsession draws from Twilight Zone episodes and The Monkey’s Paw. Obsession centers on Bear, a timid music-store employee who secretly loves Nikki and chooses a wish-granting novelty toy, the One-Wish Willow. His wish is worded to make Nikki love him more than anyone else, and the story builds slowly as Nikki stays longer while her adoration mixes with unsettling behavior.
Read at The Independent
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