MILK AND SERIAL
****
Directed by Curry Barker.
Starring Curry Barker, Cooper Tomlinson, Jonathan Cripple.
Horror, US, 62 minutes, Unrated.
Available on YouTube
Quietly making a name for himself over the past few years, it seems that writer/director/actor Curry Barker is about to break out of the online ghetto with his latest, and longest work MILK AND SERIAL. After winning a small legion of fans with his short films, a near equal mix of comedy and horror, Barker has made the brave move of forgoing a distributor for his first feature length work by releasing it through his own YouTube channel That’s A Bad Idea, straight to his loyal audience for free. Budgeted at only $800 it is a move that Barker could easily afford, especially after making his money back by reselling the Sony camcorder he made this film with for an extra $100 after filming. However, it seems that by turning his back on the studio system Barker now has them ready to eat from the palm of his hand.
Clocking in at just over an hour, MILK AND SERIAL is a wickedly entertaining found footage look at the toxic relationship between a pair of online video pranksters: Seven, played by Barker’s regular collaborator Cooper Tomlinson, and Milk, Barker in one of his many duties he’s played for the film. As a treat for their online audience, Seven decides to stage a prank on Milk during his birthday involving blood squibs and a gun bought on the black market. There is a sense right from the beginning that all is not what it seems but to say anymore would spoil the twisted and increasingly nasty path the film leads its viewers down.
Barker has shaved the film down to the bone from a near ninety minute running time but he still manages to pack the film with a wicked plot and characters that have much to say about the callous nature of online prank culture, gaslighting and the ever pervasive threat of a deranged male ego warped by the camera lens and a perceived audience. That Barker packs this all in underneath an ever evolving narrative that offers a large number of surprises and shocks and in such entertaining fashion just proves what a talent he has not only for the genre but big screen storytelling as a whole.
His comedy skills are put to great use also, but to a far more unnerving effect. Barker delivers a live wire performance that gradually broadcasts his off kilter nature, whether it’s from a seemingly off the cuff confession during a party game or his gleeful yet dead-eyed stare delivered straight down the camera to the viewer during the film's more sinister moments.
In a month that has seen cinema screens dominated by tired revisits to fan-favourite franchises, as well as stories of upcoming Hollywood blockbusters with out of control budgets driven by over-inflated salaries, MILK AND SERIAL really is a gift. Especially when it is offered for free on YouTube, which seems like an ideal platform for its illicit online nature. Barker has delivered the best found footage feature since 2020’s HOST, a film which also captured lightning in a bottle with its own limited resources. Now working on his next feature, with an actual proper budget, it will be interesting and exciting to see what Barker has next in store for us all.
Iain MacLeod
