Why Obsession Director Curry Barker Is Making Very Different Horror Movies Next [Exclusive]
by Bill Bria · /FilmCurry Barker's debut theatrical feature, "Obsession," hits theaters this weekend amidst a flurry of positive buzz. A majority of us here at /Film are in love with the movie, and we're far from the only ones. As proof, Barker's next couple projects have been lined up: the original horror comedy "Anything But Ghosts," and a feature film reboot of "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" for A24, which apparently will exist alongside the previously announced TV series from JT Mollner and Glen Powell. And during the press cycle for "Obsession," Barker has also expressed affection for "A Nightmare on Elm Street," publicly throwing his hat in the ring to do something with that franchise as well. With all this, it's clear that Barker isn't planning on stepping away from the horror genre any time soon.
The question is whether there's more to that decision than pure typecasting or trend-following. After all, horror movies are having a moment right now, helping bolster the box office and winning major awards. They also seem to be catnip for a new generation of filmmakers coming from unexpected spaces, whether it's the comedy world (as with Jordan Peele and Zach Cregger) or internet fame (as with the Philippou brothers, Kane Parsons, and Barker himself). When I had the opportunity to talk to Barker one-on-one recently, I asked him point blank what it is he sees in the genre as an artist. The answer was not only enlightening, it also indicated that Barker plans on making very different horror movies from here on out. He sees the genre as having near-limitless potential, and that's a quality which he seems most keen on exploring.
Curry Barker knows not to put the metaphorical cart before the horse
"Obsession" is not a frivolous horror movie. In fact, it's chock full of social commentary and addresses topics like abuse, agency, self-harm, and more. Yet Curry Barker is not the type of artist to put the cart before the horse and begin his films with a list of themes or messages in mind. As he explained:
"I try not to write with the message in it too much, because then instead of being focused on telling a good story, you're focused on, 'How can I push the message?' [...] If you try too hard to come at it like, 'Oh, in 'Texas Chain Saw,' I'm going to make this the message,' the story's going to suffer."
One way Barker seeks to avoid letting the story suffer for his next films is by pivoting to material which has a different feel than his previous work. When it comes to his next picture, "Anything But Ghosts," Barker was adamant that the entire tone of the piece should be distinct from "Obsession," yet would still retain a lot of what people are loving about his work so far:
"After doing 'Obsession,' I quickly started writing 'Ghosts' with Cooper [Tomlinson] because I was like, 'I want to do something that's so different than Obsession.' [...] It was so exciting to tackle something that was so different than 'Obsession,' but you can still expect it to have that weird tone, and you can still expect it to be scary. The comedy shouldn't change the horror. So it's so different."
With this, Barker appears to demonstrate a healthy and fertile creative outlook. He's not cynically chasing success or notoriety, but is looking to tell stories with depth that he's personally passionate about.
Barker sees the horror genre as limitless
What's especially exciting for us horror fans, and more specifically fans of Curry Barker's work so far, is that he isn't interested in exploring only one type of horror film. Like the greats before him, Barker understands that the horror genre has a breadth unlike any other genre. When I asked him what about horror inspires him, Barker explained:
"I think that the horror genre is so vast. It's almost one of the only genres with no rules. A romance has rules. You can't do this, you can't do that because then it's a horror. You can't do this, you can't do that because then it's rated R, whatever, right? Whereas this genre could be anything. You could make a pirate movie that's a horror movie. You could make a romantic movie that turns into a horror movie. You could make a spy movie that turns into a horror movie. That's weird, but you could, right? There's no real limits. So this genre is so exciting to me."
Barker's thoughts on the genre seem to indicate that he's not going to lazily repeat himself. Nor is he going to censor himself, either, as he pointed out:
"Making [Obsession] felt like a bunch of kids getting together and no adult supervision and kind of waiting for someone to be like, 'You guys can't do this,' but no one ever came. And so we're like, 'I guess we're just going to do it.' [...] And I've kind of kept that mentality with all of the next projects I'm doing. I'm just going to go as far as I want, and then we'll see."
As you can see, Barker makes it sound like he's going to be thrilling us for a long while.
"Obsession" is in theaters everywhere.