Curry Barker made the headlines of this publication by making a Slash of functionality length called “Milk & Serial” for $ 800, by publishing it to monitor free on YouTube and watching it become a viral sensation. A year later, many things have changed. “Milk” has never slowed down, with more than two million views of the year since he made his debut. Meanwhile, Barker opens his latest film at the Toronto Film Festival this year.
“Obsession”, in which a guy in love with the name of Bear (Michael Johnston) spoils with the supernatural to attract the romantic attention of his friend Nikki (India Navarrette), should make his debut on Friday as part of the midnight festival section. As you can expect, things are not going as planned, and a new turn on the classic monkey paw / “pay attention to what you want” was born.
Barker admits that inspiration has struck an improbable period and place. A group of friends had come to check an episode of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” in which he participated, but his mind started running during the series, an old replay “Simpsons”.
“Bart gets a monkey leg and causes a bunch of chaos,” says Barker. “I thought I have never seen a crazy and crazy horror where … we have seen” pay attention to what you want “tons of times. But we have never seen my version. I immediately started to think about what I could do with that. ”
The idea drew the attention of producer James Harris, who worked on horror tubes like “Fall” and “47 meters down”. Its TEA Shop Productions banner was soon on board for the film, and Barker suddenly was able to make his film with a more conventional crew, compared to the amazing ultra-plus “Milk & Serial”. The ability to do things like building a whole has proven to be revolutionary for Barker.
“This time, I had a much larger playing field,” he says. “I have never had the resources to create a house. We found this little little house in Burbank and transformed it into a bear house. It looks like nothing that when you see it for the first time. It was a change of game, that’s for sure. I remember my first day on the set and I saw the whole built by [production designer] Vivian [Gray] And people paint the walls. And then I went down to the camera department and everyone installs this, and I remember, “Oh wow, I run the ship.” It struck me that it is much larger than I would never have been part. »»
Despite the influx of help, the specificity of Barker’s vision inspired him to keep some of his many hats, such as choosing to modify “obsession” himself. However, he says that he found a new joy to work with others on the set to give life to his vision.
“This film taught me to collaborate with more people,” says Barker. “I have always been afraid of leaving too many people because I am very precious about my vision. But I learned that if you can pass your vision and passion, they tend to return it, and then it becomes a power of people passionate about the same thing. This is what we had here.
This vision is certainly specific. Barker, as well as his creative partner Cooper Tomlinson (who has a role in “obsession”), have training in sketch via their online work because it is a bad idea. This dark sensitivity often submits to their horror projects, with key moments to make the line between frightening and funny.
That said, Barker always focuses on the right look for the right medium, whether it is their flashy and funny viral sketches or the creativity of the images found of “Milk & Serial”. For “Obsession”, he worked with the director of photography Taylor Clemons to win the film in a very specific way.
“I wanted to shoot this composed center and have an additional head space because I wanted it to feel uncomfortable in its solitude,” explains Barker. “There is something about Center composed that forces you to look at yourself and attract yourself so that the traditional composition cannot. I have seen many horror filmmakers that I recently seek to shoot in this way.”
Even if he is about to make his “obsession” debut, Barker is already reserved and occupied with his next project, entitled “Everything except Ghosts”. Barker is about to make and play in the film, and co-wrote the script with Tomlinson, who will also play in the film. The project also has two of the largest horror producers – Jason Blum and Roy Lee – signed on board.
While keeping details close to the chest, Barker teasing that these are “con artists posing as ghost hunters”, which seems to be a perfect adjustment for the frightening sensitivities of the duo.
As for another “obsession” on the whole line? Barker says it is always a possibility, especially given the amount of trope “be careful what you want”.
“I don’t think you will see a film again with these characters, but it would be cool to extend this world with different characters,” he said, leaving the door open.
