The Viral $800-Budget Horror Film You Can Watch for Free

2024 is shaping up to be an exceptional year for horror, with movies like Longlegs earning over $100 million and Late Night with the Devil achieving an impressive 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the breakout horror film of the year might just be an $800 project currently available for free on YouTube.

Milk & Serial is a 62-minute found-footage horror created by YouTuber Curry Barker. Despite its modest budget, the film is both ruthlessly effective and wonderfully authentic. Within two weeks of its release, it has garnered 348,000 views, buoyed by rave reviews on Reddit that have since crossed into mainstream media. Bloody Disgusting called it “one of the year’s best-kept secrets,” and Barker was recently interviewed by Variety.

Part of the film’s allure is its compelling backstory. Barker is credited as the film’s writer, director, producer, editor, cinematographer, composer, and star. The $800 budget was primarily allocated for hiring an actor and purchasing a camera, which was later sold for a $100 profit, bringing the production closer to breaking even. This rags-to-riches story is likely to result in a significant return on investment, a narrative that Hollywood loves.

More importantly, Milk & Serial is an excellent film. It follows a pair of insufferable YouTube pranksters whose attempts to torment each other for clicks go horribly wrong when one reveals a much darker capacity for torment. The result is a grisly, creepy, and gripping hour-long experience that feels deliberately grungy and horribly believable.

The film taps into a fertile subject matter: the vast subculture of tedious YouTube prank videos where friends, seemingly trapped in arrested development, make each other’s lives miserable for the sake of views and take perverse delight in it. These prank videos often feel like a joyless, charmless version of Jackass, revealing a chilling pathology coupled with a compulsion to capture everything on camera.

Milk & Serial takes this pathology to its logical extreme, drenching it in blood while keeping the core motivations intact. The film’s authenticity is underscored by its lack of precision in photography, carelessness in staging, and a blunt-knife approach to editing, mimicking the hurried and careless production style of many YouTube prank videos.

Found footage is a fitting format for Milk & Serial. The horror genre has long exploited emerging formats, with Blair Witch leveraging videocameras and Paranormal Activity using home security cameras. Curry Barker taps into the endless self-absorption of YouTube, creating a film that’s both timely and resonant.

The film includes some finely observed moments, such as the main character’s description of gaslighting as “when you prank somebody but make them think it’s their fault.” Even though the cast seems to come from Barker’s circle of friends, each character is well-matched to their roles, playing to the strengths of the actors.

As a calling card, Milk & Serial is unbeatable. Barker has announced himself as a filmmaker to watch, doing so in the smartest way possible. The film will likely remain on YouTube, free for audiences indefinitely. He doesn’t need to navigate the festival circuit or push for distribution; the film is proof he knows exactly what he’s doing.

Bigger names are starting to notice Barker. According to Variety, he’s already collaborating with Fall producer James Harris on his next project, telling the publication, “I’ve never had a budget in my life.” Depending on how this venture goes, it could mark the beginning of a promising career.

Or perhaps it won’t. With Milk & Serial, Barker has shown he can craft compelling, effective horror films and turn a profit by delivering them directly to audiences for free. Now, he faces a choice: join Hollywood or help disrupt it?

Source: Variety, Bloody Disgusting