How To Watch Obsession Director Curry Baker's First Movie For Free

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• Horror Movies

"Obsession" is a bonafide cultural phenomenon. Director Curry Barker's blockbuster smash has had unprecedented staying power at the box office for a horror movie, and it's easy to see why: It's an incredibly low budget film that nevertheless feels big. More so, it takes a simple concept and twists it to the point of being horrifying. The whole thing plays like the grown-up version of a "Goosebumps" story, only way gnarlier and darker.

The movie follows Bear (Michael Johnston), a pathetic sad boy who buys a novelty item for his co-worker crush Nikki (Inde Navarette) that's supposed to grant a wish. When Bear uses it to wish Nikki would love him more than anyone else in the world, his wish turns into an inescapable nightmare featuring some of the best scares of 2026 so far.

Thanks to "Obsession," Barker has established himself as a horror voice you need to pay attention to. He's already thrown his name in the hat to make a new "Nightmare on Elm Street" movie, while his next confirmed project is set to be vastly different from "Obsession." Titled "Anything but Ghosts," the film is expected to be more comedic in nature. It also reunites Barker with Cooper Tomlinson, who teamed up with Curry to co-create the sketch comedy YouTube channel "That's a Bad Idea" earlier in their careers.

To prepare for "Anything but Ghosts," the best thing you can do is to go back and watch Barker's first feature-length directorial effort, which he made with Tomlinson. The film in question? "Milk & Serial," a 2024 found footage movie starring Barker and Tomlinson, which you can actually stream for free on the That's a Bad Idea YouTube channel.

Milk & Serial showcases Curry Barker's low-budget skills

"Milk & Serial" centers on Marshall "Milk" (Curry Barker) and Steve "Seven" (Cooper Tomlinson), two YouTubers who are also best friends and roommates. The duo run a prank channel together and try to one-up one another in order to grow their online fanbase. Unfortunately, for Seven, it turns out that Milk has a bit of a sociopathic streak to him, which becomes all too clear when he sets out to create the ultimate prank video.

The film runs at just over 60 minutes and was made, rather impressively, on an $800 budget. In spite of this, it looks good thanks to its found footage format, which allows its story to do the heavy lifting. Indeed, the film features a rather simple yet clever narrative that offers some poignant commentary on YouTube culture, prank videos, and the hunt for fame. Curry and Tomlinson are legitimately great actors to boot, and they carry the film with compelling performances that make its balance of horror and comedy work.

Now, comedians becoming horror filmmakers is nothing new. To be sure, creatives like Zach Cregger and Jordan Peele had already shown that artists with a background in sketch comedy can sometimes make for spectacularly effective horror storytellers. However, what makes Barker unique is how low-budget, and inherently Gen Z, his work feels. On top of making projects for cheap, he's meeting his audience where they're at. 

Case in point: The creepiest moment in "Obsession" is straight out of a viral TikTok trend, while the movie itself was filmed in an aspect ratio that feels like a video being watched on a phone. Similarly, "Milk & Serial" resembles a lost YouTube project and focuses heavily on the world of prank videos. It's worth a watch, for sure.