{"id":1859,"date":"2026-05-18T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/05\/18\/obsession-filmmaker-curry-barker-just-released-his-first-hit-movie-hes-ready-to-get-back-to-his-bedroom-and-edit-the-next-one\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T19:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T19:00:00","slug":"obsession-filmmaker-curry-barker-just-released-his-first-hit-movie-hes-ready-to-get-back-to-his-bedroom-and-edit-the-next-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/05\/18\/obsession-filmmaker-curry-barker-just-released-his-first-hit-movie-hes-ready-to-get-back-to-his-bedroom-and-edit-the-next-one\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Obsession\u2019 Filmmaker Curry Barker Just Released His First Hit Movie. He\u2019s Ready to Get Back to His Bedroom and Edit the Next One"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\t \t \t\t<\/svg>\t\tLogo text<\/span> \t<\/a> <\/p>\n

\tFew directors shoot their debut movie, land it in a big fest, and find themselves at the center of a bidding war<\/a>. It\u2019s the sort of thing that could mess with your head, especially if you\u2019re in your twenties and your biggest successes to date have been posting shorts to YouTube.<\/p>\n

\tBut Jason Blum says that Curry Barker<\/a> seemed surprisingly calm when they met in person for the first time, a day after the filmmaker\u2019s Obsession<\/a><\/em> screened at Toronto International Film Festival to a rapturous response. The $750,000 film would go on to sell to Focus Features<\/a> for around $15 million in the following days. \t<\/p>\n

\t\u201cA lot of times, someone in that position is in shock and off their game,\u201d says Blum. Not so with Barker, who was 25 during September\u2019s TIFF. \u201cHe was so grateful and modest, but not falsely modest. He was very clear about what he wanted to do next, and this wasn\u2019t going to change his mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tWritten and directed by Barker, Obsession<\/em> tells the story of Bear (Michael Johnston<\/a>), who uses a mysterious novelty item called \u201cOne Wish Willow\u201d to wish that his longtime crush Nikki (Inde Navarrette)<\/a> would love him more than anyone in the fucking world. His wish comes true to horrifying results that have won over critics, who gave it a 94 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It dramatically over-performed this weekend<\/a>, where it grossed $17.2 million domestically, up from projections in the $10 million range. Its word of mouth has been strong, with the film declining just 11 percent from Saturday to Sunday, a hold rarely seen.<\/p>\n

\tBarker has already shot his follow-up film, the horror-comedy \u5e7d\u970a\u4ee5\u5916\u306a\u3089\u4f55\u3067\u3082<\/a><\/em>, based on a spec he wrote and stars in with his creative partner, Cooper Tomlinson. As positive buzz about Obsession<\/em> swirled before TIFF, Blum and fellow horror titan Roy Lee both wanted in on Ghosts<\/em>. But in an unusual move, rather than try to outbid each other, they decided to team up for the first time in their history to acquire the package together. \t<\/p>\n

\tAnd as Obsession <\/em>hit theaters last week, Barker closed his deal to write, direct and produce his take on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre<\/a> <\/em>for A24, a movie he landed without having to jump through hoops, thanks to the TIFF halo around Obsession<\/em>. His deal grants him an extraordinary amount of creative control, especially for a young director on a big IP project.<\/p>\n

\tIt\u2019s all part of a wild, nine-month period that has seen Barker go from relative obscurity to the most in-demand 20-something director in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

\tFor Lee, who produces both \u5e7d\u970a\u4ee5\u5916\u306a\u3089\u4f55\u3067\u3082 <\/em>and Texas Chainsaw<\/em>, Barker reminds him of another prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Barbarian <\/em>and Weapons<\/em> filmmaker Zach Cregger.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cSome people just have that ability: What they create is cinematic,\u201d says Lee, who was instrumental in Barker getting the Chainsaw<\/em> job. \u201cHe\u2019s going to be following in the footsteps of Zach, just a few years behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t \t\t\t\t\tCurry Barker on the set of Obsession<\/em>.<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tManny Liotta \/ \u00a9 2026 FOCUS FEATURES LLC<\/cite> \t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\tAs much as things have changed for Barker, many key things have stayed the same. Those close to the filmmaker describe him as both impressively productive and single-minded in his focus, disappearing into whatever project he\u2019s working on. \u201cObsessed\u201d might be the right word.<\/p>\n

\tBarker confirms this, and one of the first things he says when hopping on a Zoom with \u30cf\u30ea\u30a6\u30c3\u30c9\u30fb\u30ea\u30dd\u30fc\u30bf\u30fc <\/em>is he\u2019s really itching to get into the edit on \u5e7d\u970a\u4ee5\u5916\u306a\u3089\u4f55\u3067\u3082<\/em>, as soon as this week. (In addition to directing and writing, he serves as editor on his movies.) \t<\/p>\n

\tHe plans on editing Ghosts <\/em>\u2014 a horror comedy about two scammy paranormal investigators who are caught up in real ghostly activity \u2014 in his bedroom in the apartment he shares with creative partner Tomlinson. It\u2019s the same place where he also served as the editor of Obsession.<\/em><\/p>\n

\tUnlike what you might expect from a 20-something who is the toast of Hollywood, you are unlikely to find Barker hitting Los Angeles hotspots late at night. Case in point: A childhood friend from Barker\u2019s native Alabama attended May 11\u2019s Obsession<\/em> premiere and wanted to go out after, but it wasn\u2019t in the cards for the filmmaker, who had a day of press and other duties ahead of him.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI\u2019m always letting down my friends that love to go out and hit the town, because I go to bed at 10 p.m.,\u201d he says with a laugh. (To be fair, that\u2019s not always true. THR<\/em> left the Obsession<\/em> party after 10 p.m., and Barker was still there, posing for photos with Tomlinson and friends.)<\/p>\n

\tBarker came to Los Angeles from Alabama for film school, where he met Tomlinson and quickly dropped out to build their sketch channel, That\u2019s a Bad Idea. The duo wrote \u5e7d\u970a\u4ee5\u5916\u306a\u3089\u4f55\u3067\u3082<\/em> the same way they write their sketches, which take simple concepts to extreme places.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWe hook our laptop up to our TV, and we let the story unfold and see where things take us,\u201d says Tomlinson. \u201cCurry doesn\u2019t like to be constrained to an outline. That puts you in a box. We like to see where the story goes, and so many fun things come out of it.\u201d \t<\/p>\n

\tBarker\u2019s The Chair<\/em>, a 2023 horror short about a young man (Anthony Pavone) who takes home an antique chair he finds on the side of the road \u2014 and, in Barker fashion, it wrecks his life \u2014 got him on the radar of 47 Meters Down<\/em> producer James Harris of Tea Shop Productions.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cYou can go on TikTok and you can find 8,000 filmmakers making kind of cool shit, right? But some of it, you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, that looks like you made it in your house and you just used some filters,\u2019\u201d says Harris. Barker\u2019s stuff was different. It looked like a real movie. Harris recalls thinking, \u201cI can feel you have the cinematic language \u2014 and if we just give you more money and get you to do the same thing, that\u2019s actually really interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tBarker pitched Harris a few concepts, and the producer chose Obsession,<\/em> lining up financing for a 20-day shoot while Barker wrote (and rewrote) the script.<\/p>\n

\tCollaborators say that Barker knows what he wants and often goes with his gut feeling. Casting director Skyler Zurn, who cast Obsession<\/em> and \u5e7d\u970a\u4ee5\u5916\u306a\u3089\u4f55\u3067\u3082<\/em>, recalls having many conversations about how Barker wanted the actors to make him feel \u2014 that\u2019s what he cares about, more than if a performer is famous.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cCurry provided a freedom to discover that was really refreshing,\u201d says Zurn. \u201cSo we really could search for the feeling. We were waiting to be moved by each person, and that\u2019s what led our casting decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t \t\t\t\t\tInde Navarrette and Michael Johnston in Obsession<\/em>.<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFocus Features\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/cite> \t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\tBarker built his career by playing moneyball, finding ways to stretch a dollar and enlisting strong collaborators who weren\u2019t yet too expensive. Now, Barker will have more options than ever. If he wanted to hire a seasoned, name-brand cinematographer for Texas Chainsaw<\/em>, he could, for example. \t<\/p>\n

\tBut as he gets bigger, he does not feel the need to rethink who his partners are; he seems to have already found his creative soulmates, using cinematographer Taylor Clemons as an example when asked about having the resources to hire so-called bigger names in the field.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cTaylor is going to be a name in the space,\u201d says Barker. \u201cTaylor is a genius, and I actually think that he\u2019s going to be one of the greats.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tJust as Barker represents a new generation of filmmakers who came up on YouTube, the team he has assembled behind the scenes is next gen as well. The oldest member on his UTA team is 35. His manager at Underground is in his early 30s. These are people who perhaps have a different understanding of the business than their more established peers.<\/p>\n

\tAnd, of course, he is taking in advice from the elder statesmen of the horror genre, like Blum and Lee, melding it all together. Blum paraphrases a passage from Lena Dunham\u2019s memoir to describe Barker\u2019s approach.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cJudd Apatow says to her, \u2018You should listen to people a lot more,\u2019 and Noah Baumbach says to her, \u2018Don\u2019t listen to anybody,\u2019\u201d Blum says with a laugh. \u201cAnd the thing is, both are true. The challenge when you\u2019re young is figuring out how much to do of each one. It\u2019s really, really hard to do \u2014 and I think Curry has done that incredibly well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tLee Barker up with Cregger, to talk over the things he will have to navigate now that he is becoming a name brand director. The two bonded over screenwriting, and Cregger gave him some advice after reading \u5e7d\u970a\u4ee5\u5916\u306a\u3089\u4f55\u3067\u3082<\/em>: cut down the page count. \t<\/p>\n

\t\u201cHere\u2019s me being stubborn because I was like, \u2018No, I\u2019m not gonna do that.\u2019 It\u2019s funny because looking back at it, I\u2019m like, \u2018Damn, Zach Cregger was right, because it was so stressful,’\u201d Barker says with a laugh. (Cregger was worried Barker was biting off more than he could chew in the number of days he had to film, but it all worked out.)<\/p>\n

\tBarker re-iterates he is stubborn when it comes to his vision, and his collaborators recall multiple Obsession<\/em> moments he fought that others others doubted. But collaborators also recall people throwing out ideas on set that he incorporated into the movie.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cYou\u2019re guiding the ship. You know what the voice of the movie is, you know what you\u2019re chasing and you should know the story better than anyone else,\u201d Barker says. \u201cBut any person can come up with a good idea and being open to that \u2014 I think it\u2019s really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tMoving forward, he could see Obsession<\/em> becoming some sort of anthology series, where it\u2019s a different wish for every episode. And he could also see himself launching a horror banner, ala Jordan Peele\u2019s Monkeypaw.<\/p>\n

\tBut for now, he\u2019s really ready to get into his bedroom and edit \u5e7d\u970a\u4ee5\u5916\u306a\u3089\u4f55\u3067\u3082<\/em>. He says he has ADHD, and while for some creatives, that means multitasking, for him it manifests in becoming obsessed with one thing at a time. But he\u2019s already scribbling out ideas for Texas Chainsaw<\/em>, something he hopes will feel like an original movie rather than simply an IP extension.<\/p>\n

\tSays the filmmaker: \u201cI like to create worlds that have an iconicness to it. I\u2019m always thinking, \u2018What\u2019s the Halloween costume?\u2019\u201d \t<\/p>\n

\t***<\/p>\n

\tObsession\u00a0is now playing in theaters<\/em>.\u00a0Check out all of\u00a0<\/em>\u30cf\u30ea\u30a6\u30c3\u30c9\u30fb\u30ea\u30dd\u30fc\u30bf\u30fc\u2018s\u00a0coverage here<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Logo text Few directors shoot their debut movie, land it in a big fest, and find themselves at the center of a bidding war. It\u2019s the sort of thing that could mess with your head, especially if you\u2019re in your twenties and your biggest successes to date have been posting shorts to YouTube. But Jason Blum says that Curry Barker seemed surprisingly calm when they met in person for the first time, a day after the filmmaker\u2019s Obsession screened at Toronto International Film Festival to a rapturous response. The $750,000 film would go on to sell to Focus Features for around $15 million in the following days. \u201cA lot of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[499,112,617,2,164,60,1082],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blumhouse","category-curry-barker","category-focus-features","category-hollywood","category-movie-features","category-movies","category-obsession"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}