If you’ve seen Obsession, chances are you’re… well, obsessed. Curry Barker’s studio debut is a top-notch horror that proves a major new talent has arrived – no wonder he’s been handed the keys to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre by A24 (plus he’s already shot upcoming feature Anything But Ghosts for Blumhouse, due in 2027). As you’ve likely heard, Barker rose up via a YouTube channel – named ‘that’s a bad idea’ – alongside collaborator Cooper Tomlinson. The good news is, that means he has plenty of pre-Obsession films which are freely available for you to watch online.
From an all-out feature to ultra-creepy shorts, it’s worth burrowing down the digital Curry Barker rabbit-hole – especially if Obsession got your blood pumping – and seeing the formative works that turned him into one of the most exciting new filmmaking talents around. Here are five other Curry Barker films you can watch right now, for free.
Milk & Serial (2024)
It’s on the short side for a full-on feature (roughly 60 minutes), but if you’re looking for a second helping of Curry, then make Milk & Serial your first port of call. Made for just $800, this smart, twisty found-footage horror takes the ‘YouTube prank video’ format and warps it to sinister ends. (Frankly, all YouTube pranks are sinister.) Curry stars alongside Tomlinson, playing ‘Milk’ and ‘Seven’, respectively – two roommates who host a prank channel together. The film slyly blurs the boundaries of what is and isn’t a practical joke as the duo attempt to out-do each other, with seriously dark ends. Of all his early work, Milk & Serial is the project that most shows what Curry would be capable of with a feature film.
The Chair (2023)
This short – which runs at about 25 minutes – is more akin to Obsession, since it depicts a relationship torn asunder by supernatural meddling. And it’s also a ‘cursed object’ film, in which Reese (Anthony Pavone) brings home an old wooden chair he finds in the street, much to his girlfriend Julie’s (Haley Schwartz) disdain. Her creep-factor with the freaky furniture might be justified though: Reese suddenly finds that a week of his life has disappeared from his memory, and his nightmare has only just begun. It’s creepy stuff, packing a lot into a brief runtime – while Julie switching between sweet and sinister has shades of Obsession’s Nikki.
Warnings (2023)
This atmospheric 20-minute chiller has a great hook: Sean (played by Barker) finds an ominous Sharpie-written note – ‘I’M BEGGING YOU TO STOP’ – on his car on Halloween, and soon finds his grip on reality unravelling as he finds other notes appearing elsewhere too. There are some particularly eerie dream sequences in Warnings, and it boasts the spookiest on-screen walk since Reese Shearsmith emerged from that tent in A Field In England.
Enigma (2023)
Here’s something much sweeter, albeit with an apocalyptic bent – billed as a psychological thriller, Enigma is more of a bittersweet melancholic character drama, as Adam (Tomlinson, who penned this one too) stews away in his apartment while the days tick down to the end of the world. Despondent and unsure how to spend his final days – ordering Papa Johns and eating buckets of Ben & Jerry’s isn’t the worst shout, to be fair – he finds a modicum of hope in the embers of a lost relationship. The result is on a different tonal register to Barker’s other shorts, with a heartfelt core.
Heavy Eyes (2022)
Barker’s shortest short takes one of his signature moves – the uncanny dream sequence – and lets it play out across five minutes. He plays Seth, applying for jobs at home while his mum works late at the hospital. Except, odd noises in the house suggest he’s not alone, and there are more nightmarish implications at play. While maintaining a strong psychological bent, this is Barker playing at pure horror tropes, and succeeding in short form; proving he can do nuts-and-bolts spookiness in a matter of minutes.
