Things have been going scarily well for 26-year-old film-maker Curry Barker.<\/p>\n
The past 18 months have seen him level up from lo-fi YouTube comedy skits to an $800 horror short that went viral<\/a> to a breakout feature picked up for $15m to being handed the reins of one of the most legendary franchises in Hollywood. It\u2019s almost too good to be true.<\/p>\n Fittingly, Barker\u2019s big-screen debut Obsession<\/a>, out this week, is all about what happens when a wish gets granted. The film, which premiered at last year\u2019s Toronto festival, currently rests at 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, the best-reviewed horror of the year so far.<\/p>\n \u201cLuckily for this project, it\u2019s been really, really positive,\u201d Barker tells me over Zoom the week before release. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen very many negative reactions which can also be scary because then the one negative that you do see sticks out like a sore thumb and all you think about is that.\u201d<\/p>\n Will he keep looking even as the film edges toward release? \u201cI feel like I\u2019m going to look,\u201d he confesses. \u201cIf it starts to hurt me psychologically or emotionally maybe I\u2019ll try to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n Barker would be right to feel a little scared. Festival-loved horror films have increasingly struggled to convert positive early buzz into audience interest \u2013 recent disappointments include Shelby Oaks, Undertone, Bone Lake, Together and Dangerous Animals \u2013 plus he\u2019s also made a film about what actually happens when your dream curdles into a nightmare. But Obsession, one of the most impressive horror debuts I\u2019ve seen in recent years, should continue its run of good luck all the way to the box office and beyond. Made for less than $1m, it\u2019s tracking to make a great deal more.<\/p>\n Partly inspired by a Simpsons episode involving Bart based on the horror short story The Monkey\u2019s Paw,<\/a> Obsession is a conceptually classic yet grounded fable of a guy who makes a wish. Bear, played by newcomer Michael Johnston, has feelings for his co-worker Nikki, a barnstorming breakout turn from Inde Navarrette, but can\u2019t bring himself to do anything about it. \u201cI can definitely relate to having a crush on someone and not knowing how they feel back or not having the courage to tell someone how I feel,\u201d he says, but that\u2019s when things get a little harder to relate to.<\/p>\n When Bear\u2019s courage once again fizzles, he uses a mysterious \u201cone-wish willow\u201d purchased at a local boutique and utters words he will live to regret: I wish Nikki Freeman loved me more than anyone in the entire world.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n To his shock and then joy, it comes true and Nikki transforms into devoted girlfriend in an instant, all the intense passion, insatiable sexual desire and physical closeness he\u2019d been craving. But Barker\u2019s grim little fairytale invites us to revisit Bear\u2019s cursed choice of words \u2013 more than anyone in the entire world \u2013 and shows us what that kind of love really looks like. Spoiler: it\u2019s not pretty.<\/p>\n In fact things get so ugly that Barker ran into trouble with the censors, his film initially receiving an NC-17 in the US, a dreaded rating that\u2019s known as the kiss of death at the box office. A horribly effective head-smashing was in need of a few fewer smashes to get the movie an R rating.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was definitely a scary moment for me as a director,\u201d he tells me. \u201cEspecially as I had just watched the movie in Toronto with a crowd that really reacted to that scene. Hearing the news that I might have to cut it down was quite devastating at first. But we cut it down and I feel like the integrity of the scene is still there \u2026 I\u2019m actually surprised at how much they let us keep in.\u201d<\/p>\n The violence of the film is effectively jolting but it\u2019s the gender dynamic at the film\u2019s centre that will really give you nightmares. Obsession might be more refreshingly straightforward than the majority of so-called \u201celevated\u201d trauma horrors but there\u2019s still something interesting to unpack. Bear is an on-paper nice guy \u2013 apologising too much, stumbling over his words, caring for his cat \u2013 but the reality of his wish turns him into an unlikely aggressor, trapping Nikki in a non-consensual relationship that robs her of any agency. When we do see what\u2019s happened to the real Nikki, trapped underneath the version wished upon her, it\u2019s in frightening glimpses, screaming for release and injuring herself to try to break free (in the film\u2019s most chilling scene, she begs Bear to kill her). But his response alternates between shock and offence (\u201cIs being with me really that bad?\u201d) and it\u2019s already led to the term \u201cincel horror\u201d being used online, the character summing up a certain brand of male entitlement that\u2019s become more and more familiar online.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t think of it that way when I wrote it,\u201d he admits. \u201cHe just makes some bad decisions but I think it starts from a really innocent place. It\u2019s what he chooses to do after that that\u2019s bad. Embarrassingly, I wasn\u2019t even familiar with the term incel until someone brought it up to me.\u201d<\/p>\n He is quick to point out that Bear is far from a hero, though, and Nikki, as the violently possessed obsessor, is far from a villain, more of an unusual victim. It\u2019s a journey that puts Navarette through the wringer, the kind of all-guns-blazing performance that\u2019ll have you making a mental note of her name, and Barker was aware he was \u201casking a lot\u201d from her.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was such a good sport,\u201d he says. \u201cI really think that the best kind of atmosphere to have on set is one that\u2019s playful and kind of silly and we can all kind of laugh so mess-ups don\u2019t feel like they\u2019re devastating. If her voice cracked or if she said a line kind of weird, like not not putting too much pressure on that one take.\u201d<\/p>\n Inde Navarrette and Michael Johnston in Obsession. Photograph: Courtesy of Focus Features<\/p>\n It\u2019s one thing to direct an actor with only a handful of credits but Barker has just had to manage stars who have worked with everyone from Clint Eastwood to Ridley Scott. He recently finished production on his follow-up, darkly comedic thriller Anything But Ghosts starring Aaron Paul and Bryce Dallas Howard as con artists pretending to be paranormal investigators (he refers to it having a Scooby Doo vibe but \u201cgrounded\u201d).<\/p>\n \u201cI was really scared at first,\u201d he says. \u201cI remember telling my dad that I was nervous to direct these stars that have a very specific way they\u2019re used to doing things and what if they don\u2019t like the way I run a set or whatever? He said that you\u2019re going to disappoint them if you don\u2019t direct them. You\u2019re going to disappoint them if you don\u2019t give them feedback. That really resonated with me.\u201d<\/p>\n Both Paul and Howard proved to be easy to work with. \u201cThey had no ego, like they were just ready to go and play,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n It\u2019s Barker\u2019s project after that which has been sparking the most conversation online, with the news that he will be shepherding a new take on defining 70s slasher The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. He\u2019s \u201cso excited\u201d but already learning the hard way that its fans are passionate. \u201cI opened my mouth a lot about what I\u2019m planning on doing but I haven\u2019t even written the script yet,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople will latch on to anything you say and turn it against you.\u201d<\/p>\n He points to a comment he made, referring to Tobe Hooper\u2019s original as \u201cgood for its time\u201d which was criticised \u201cout of context\u201d he says. He\u2019s now trying to keep his head down, \u201csoft prepping\u201d by rewatching all nine films and trying to avoid online discussion. \u201cI feel like that could be the killer of any creativity if I dive into that stuff too much,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Barker is among a new generation of young horror film-makers with online origins, his film released just two weeks before Backrooms<\/a> from 20-year-old Kane Parsons and four months after Iron Lung<\/a> from Mark \u201cMarkiplier\u201d Fischbach, both of whom started their careers on YouTube. I wondered how the old guard would be taking this new group of gen Z upstarts. \u201cEveryone\u2019s very welcoming,\u201d he tells me. \u201cI mean, at least they are to my face \u2026 I never even thought that people might feel threatened by us.\u201d<\/p>\n Curry Barker, Inde Navarrette and Michael Johnston. Photograph: AdMedia\/MediaPunch\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n For his Directors Guild of America application, he needed three signatures and was lucky enough to call on Longlegs\u2019 Osgood Perkins, Weapons\u2019 Zach Cregger and Ari Aster, who has been \u201creally supportive\u201d.<\/p>\n One thing the old guard seem a little more mixed on is the use of AI in their work. There have been those such as Guillermo del Toro who would \u201crather die<\/a>\u201d than use it and then others like Steven Soderbergh who have already started<\/a> to openly embrace the new technology. Barker makes it clear which side he\u2019s on.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m scared of AI for sure,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to replace us as quickly as people think it is and I\u2019m not an expert but just based off of my gut, I feel like there\u2019s going to be AI content and there\u2019s going to be our content and it\u2019s going to be well, where\u2019s the demand at?\u201d<\/p>\n Concerns over whether AI will kill Hollywood have slowly replaced those over whether we all might simply by not going to the cinema enough. Last year might have been another year that failed to take the industry back to pre-pandemic totals but so far 2026 has been off to a bumper start, thanks largely to gen Z, who have been shown to be the most frequent moviegoing demographic<\/a> according to a recent study. Barker praises it as a \u201czero effort\u201d alternative.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re getting sick of the phones,\u201d Barker says. \u201cThe movie theatre is such an escape for me, like especially in a world where we are on our phones so often. You put your phone away for an hour and 45 minutes and hopefully can just escape into a movie with whatever friends you want to go with. So I actually think the theatre is going to stick around.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Things have been going scarily well for 26-year-old film-maker Curry Barker. 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