'Obsession' Director Curry Barker Returns to YouTube With Horror Short 'Mama Bear'
Seven Lights
Curry Barker, whose short film “Obsession” became a theatrical phenomenon earlier this year, released a new horror short, “Mama Bear,” on Thursday morning on the That’s a Bad Idea YouTube channel he co-runs with comedian and “Obsession” actor Cooper Tomlinson. The five-minute film, which Mr. Barker wrote, directed and edited, had drawn more than one million views by Friday.
The film follows Floyd, played by Jon Lee Richardson, a professional house cleaner whose mid-work nap is cut short by a startling phone call from a friend warning that danger is heading his way. Katie Sarife, Ericka Kreuz and Joshua Snyder co-star. The project was sponsored by Microsoft, a sign of the commercial reach now available to independent online film.
The release is a homecoming for Mr. Barker, who built his audience on YouTube before Hollywood came calling. His 2023 short “The Chair” attracted the attention of Tea Shop Productions and its founder, James Harris; that partnership, together with the fan reception for his 2024 found-footage feature “Milk & Serial,” also posted on YouTube, paved the way for “Obsession’s” historic theatrical run earlier this year. Mr. Barker reunites on “Mama Bear” with costume designer Blair James and production designer Vivian Gray from that production.
The short also signals a demanding schedule ahead of his studio features. “Anything But Ghosts,” a supernatural comedy for Blumhouse-Atomic Monster and Spooky Pictures, was completed before “Obsession” even opened and reaches theaters in May 2027; Mr. Barker co-stars in it with Mr. Tomlinson, Violet McGraw, Chris Reinacher, Bryce Dallas Howard and Aaron Paul. He has a new feature lined up at Universal, reported to be an eight-figure deal, and a project he has said he always wanted to make: a reimagining of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”
No film school, no festival circuit: Mr. Barker’s route to the studio system ran through a sketch channel and self-financed shorts posted online. “Mama Bear” suggests the pipeline remains open in both directions. His next studio release arrives in May; the next YouTube short, by the look of this week, need not wait.