2024 is already shaping up to be a banner year for horror, with Longlegs grossing over $100m and Late Night with the Devil earning a shocking 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And yet the opening horror of the year just might be an $800 project that’s currently available to watch for free on YouTube.
Milk & Serial is a 62-minute found footage horror film by YouTuber Curry Barker, and it manages to be relentlessly effective and utterly authentic. Amassing 348,000 views in the two weeks since its release, it’s been popularized by raves on Reddit that have since overtaken traditional media. Bloody Disgusting called it “one of the best kept secrets of the year” and this week Barker was interviewed by none other than Variety.
Part of the reason for this is that it’s just a good story. Milk & Serial’s credits list Barker as writer, director, producer, editor, cinematographer, composer and star of the film. In addition, the $800 budget was spent mainly on hiring an actor and buying a camera (which was then sold for a $100 profit, bringing the production closer to the black). This is the kind of rags-to-riches story that Hollywood loves, especially since the movie is likely to show a huge return on investment.
But more than that, it’s just a really good movie. Milk & Serial follows a pair of insufferable YouTube pranksters as they try to torture each other for what happens. But, without giving too much away, everything goes wrong when one of the two reveals that their powers of torture are greater than their partner’s. It’s an ugly, creepy, fat-free hour; deliberately grungy and terrifyingly believable.
Of course, it helps that the film’s content is ripe for the picking. A large subsection of YouTube is devoted exclusively to crazy, tedious videos, in which groups of friends caught up in arrested development spend a considerable amount of time and money making as much misery as possible in each other’s lives, and then making fun of it.
Watching these videos is like watching a joyless, charmless version of Jackass that seems to double as a psychopath’s manual. There is a cold pathology to them, along with a compulsion to record everything on camera, to maximize all possible content. Milk & Serial pushes this pathology to its logical endpoint by dousing it in the blood, but keeps the core motivation intact.
And, for the most part, it feels real too. There’s a lack of precision in the photography, carelessness in the staging and a blunt butchery approach to editing that’s becoming a hallmark of funny videos like this, as if the creators are afraid endless descriptions will slow down their output. into basic things like care.
It makes sense for Milk & Serial to be a found footage film as well. More and more, that’s where horror goes to take advantage of a new form. Blair Witch did it with video cameras, Paranormal Activity did it with home security cameras. Host Rob Savage was very quick to hit the mark when it came to pandemic-era video chats. And so it is with Curry Barker, and the endless self-absorption of the YouTube series.
As a film it is excellent. There are some very neat moments observed, for example when the main character describes gaslighting as “when you betray someone but make them think it’s their fault”. Additionally, while the casting seems to be drawn from Barker’s own social circle, each character seems to be written to each individual’s strengths.
As a calling card, however, you feel that Milk & Serial will be unbeatable. Curry Barker announced that he is a film maker to tackle, and he has done it in the smartest way possible. The film will probably live for free on YouTube forever. He doesn’t have to filter it around the festivals, or break his back pushing for distribution. It’s there, and it’s proof that he knows exactly what he’s doing.
Bigger names are already coming for Barker. According to Variety he’s already working with Fall producer James Harris on his next film – telling the publication “I’ve never had a budget in my life” – and depending on how that goes, it could this will be the start of a smart career. .
Or maybe not. With Milk & Serial, Barker has proven that he can make smart, compelling horror films – and turn a profit – by delivering them straight to audiences for free. That seems to be the choice he now faces. Is it part of Hollywood, or does it help kill it?
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