Obsession Fans Need To Watch Director Curry Barker's Free Found Footage Movie

"Obsession" continues to do gangbusters business at the box office, grossing nearly $150 million worldwide against a budget of around $750,000. The film is receiving rave reviews from audiences and critics alike, with a 94% and a 96%, respectively, on Rotten Tomatoes, leaving fans wanting more. There are plenty of movies to watch like "Obsession," but for those looking for more of director Curry Barker's work, there is another project they can turn to: He released a free-to-watch horror film called "Milk & Serial."on his YouTube channel, "that's a bad idea," in 2024.

The found footage project follows Barker as Milk and "Obsession" cast member Cooper Tomlinson as Seven, two friends who run a prank video channel. They are always increasing the stakes, including making it look like a random man has killed one of their friends at Milk's birthday party. What seemingly starts as a simple contest of escalating pranks turns into something more when the point of view shifts to Milk and his extracurricular activities. No spoilers here, but Milk is keeping a pretty big secret from his friends. 

Curry Barker initially tried to secure a distribution deal for "Milk & Serial," but eventually decided to release the film on his own. Barker was concerned that fans wouldn't easily be able to see the movie and decided to put it where they would look for it: his YouTube channel. "We just wanted the best home for it," the director told Variety. "So even though we worked really hard for a year trying to get distribution for this thing, we said screw it and threw it on YouTube." 

It turned out to be the best way forward. The film became popular on social media, and today has 2.8 million views. But this wasn't the first time Barker had a project go viral on YouTube. In 2023, the director posted "The Chair," a short film about bringing a mysterious chair home. It went on to garner 9.9 million views on the platform and led to Barker getting the opportunity to pitch "Obsession" to executives and land a film deal.

Barker also isn't the only YouTuber to make the jump to the big screen recently. Kane Parsons, known as Kane Pixels on the platform, created a web series based on the creepypasta "The Backrooms," turning it into the hit 2026 movie "Backrooms." YouTuber Chris Stuckmann secured a distribution deal with Neon for his horror film "Shelby Oaks" in 2024 after teasing it with a collection of videos, while the directors of 2022's "Talk to Me," Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou, used YouTube to develop their filmmaking skills for their first feature. YouTube is helping catapult the next generation of horror directors, and watching "Milk & Serial" should be your first stop to see more of Barker's work.