Hollywood wasn’t holding its breath for Obsession. The film that starts like a rom-com and quickly turns into something far darker was made on a budget of around $750,000, shot in three weeks with no known actors, was helmed by a first-time writer-director—and still managed to ignite a bidding war before it was picked up by Focus Features. The director, Curry Barker, was previously known as one half the YouTube sketch comedy duo That’s a Bad Idea, with creative partner Cooper Tomlinson. The pivot to horror came when they dropped Milk & Serial on their channel in August 2024, a slasher Barker wrote, directed, and starred in. It went viral, drawing the attention of major studios.
Now Obsession has clocked a jaw-dropping $300 million in domestic sales so far and a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score. Barker’s next project is a horror-comedy called Anything but Ghosts, with Aaron Paul and Bryce Dallas Howard, followed by a reimagining of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for A24, which he’s writing and directing. Barker is just 26 years old—a year younger than Steven Spielberg was when he directed Jaws. Draw your own conclusions. Here, he explains his vices and virtues, and how he manages the stress of becoming a really big deal.
