Curry Barker has given horror audiences a reason to be excited the next time they hear his name attached to a movie. Obsession turns Bear’s entitlement to Nikki’s affection into something horrifying, stripping her of control over her own body to satisfy what he wants. Its most disturbing element is the violation at the center of that wish, with Inde Navarrette‘s performance making Nikki’s suffering impossible to ignore.
Following a movie like that comes with expectations. Barker’s next movie, Anything But Ghosts, will release with an audience eager to see what else he can do and ready to measure it against Obsession. But there’s an important wrinkle in that comparison: he had already finished filming it before Obsession opened wide.
During a new interview with Collider’s Maggie Lovitt, Barker discussed following Obsession with a movie he had already wrapped before his horror hit had its wide theatrical release earlier this year to great success. Asked about the pressure surrounding his next release, he said, “I think it’s a fair question, and I do think that that exists in me.” He continued:
“And I’m just like, I want to prove everyone wrong, that that pressure won’t affect my work. And I really hope that it doesn’t, because I get it. And I think we’ve all seen that happen before. And I think I’m gonna get a free pass with Ghosts because I didn’t have that pressure, you know.”
“And I’m just like, I want to prove everyone wrong, that that pressure won’t affect my work. And I really hope that it doesn’t, because I get it. And I think we’ve all seen that happen before. And I think I’m gonna get a free pass with Ghosts because I didn’t have that pressure, you know.”
Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath
your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what
it would leave behind.
Your nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you
to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever
won that particular argument.
Freddy is horror’s cruellest idea: a threat that lives in the one place you cannot
guard, cannot lock, and cannot avoid forever.
You are the one who is fine during the film and wide awake at two in the morning. Your
own head is where this does its damage.
These films understood exhaustion as a horror engine. The kids on Elm Street do not lose
because they are weak. They lose because they are tired.
You can lock every door in the house. You still have to sleep.
Your nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the
person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it.
Chucky works precisely because he is absurd. That is the trap: the more accurately you
describe him, the less anybody is going to believe you.
You are the one shouting at the screen because the characters are not listening. You
know that feeling from real life too.
The franchise is at its best when the adults in the room are the real obstacle, and you
have met those adults.
By the time somebody finally believes you, you will have handled most of it on your own.
Your nightmare has your number, knows your name, and has almost
certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them.
Scream is the only one of these where the killer takes the mask off and turns out to be
somebody who was at the party.
You are the person who calls the twist out loud before it lands. You watch people the
same way you watch films.
The franchise made the rules of horror part of the plot, which means the survivors are
the ones paying attention. You would be paying attention.
Everybody is a suspect, including the person who just offered to walk you home.
Your nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people
asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving.
The Conjuring films are domestic horror. The house, the family, the perfectly ordinary
room that quietly stops feeling ordinary.
Your instinct is to get everybody into one room. Your fear is protective rather than
personal, which is rarer than it sounds.
This is the one franchise where belief is the weapon. The people who come through it are
the ones who are not alone and refuse to be.
Whatever is here did not come for you. It came for the household, and you are the one
standing in the hallway.
Could Curry Barker Bring His Horror to Television?
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Image via Focus Features
A new movie isn’t the only possible next step for Barker. Horror has plenty of room on television, where a disturbing premise can have an entire season to get under an audience’s skin. The format also presents a different commitment for a filmmaker, whether they’re developing a series or coming aboard to direct an episode, and the premise of the universe of Obsession and the nature of the One Wish Willow would be a natural place to start with a miniseries. Asked about his interest in television, Barker said:
“I think it is [something I’m interested in]. And only because I love telling stories, and some stories are perfect for an hour and 30 minutes, some stories need two hours, and some stories need eight hours. You know, a season, and some stories really need to be delved into a little more.”
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“I think it is [something I’m interested in]. And only because I love telling stories, and some stories are perfect for an hour and 30 minutes, some stories need two hours, and some stories need eight hours. You know, a season, and some stories really need to be delved into a little more.”
There’s a substantial difference between leaving a character at the end of a movie and returning to them across several episodes or seasons. A series can spend years developing the consequences of a decision that a movie might have only 100 or so minutes to explore. On that subject, Barker added: “I think watching a character arc from Season 1 to Season 3 is always something that’s really interesting, and I would never want to box myself out of those opportunities, you know?”
For anyone hoping that means a Barker television project is imminent, the interview didn’t come with a series announcement. “But I do think that, for now, film really is interesting to me,” he said. “I think I might stick around film for a while.” He also noted, “And it really would come down to working with my schedule if it came to a TV show or something like that.”
Curry Barker Has Thoughts About Being Called a Gen-Z Filmmaker
Success also comes with people trying to explain where a filmmaker fits, sometimes before they’ve made more than a handful of projects. For Barker and Kane Parsons, the director behind Backrooms, that conversation has included the label of Gen-Z filmmakers. It’s an easy shorthand for a headline, although a birth year can only tell an audience so much about the person behind the camera. Lovitt asked whether Barker found that framing limiting. “I think it’s really trendy talk,” he said. He added, “Luckily, it doesn’t actually affect the opportunities that I’ve been getting in the industry.”
The question of labels also led to how Barker has been treated by the people he works with. “I think I’ve been treated with respect, you know, and really treated as an equal to these people and not necessarily treated as a lesser or younger version of anybody so far,” he said. Then came one final qualification: “So far.”
Anything but Ghosts opens in theaters May 7, 2027. Stay tuned at Collider for more.
Anything But Ghosts
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