Obsession: Curry Barker on Crafting Horror’s Newest Creepy Nightmare

Alabama native, Curry Barker started his career writing sketch comedy called That’s a Bad Idea alongside long-time partner Cooper Tomlinson. He made a 62-minute found footage horror film called Milk & Serial for the princely sum of $800 which went viral on YouTube – clearly that was not a bad idea. It scored over 2 million hits – and counting. This was followed up by the creepy The Chair which made the industry notice Barker’s signature sense of horror.

Eventually, James Harris from UK-based Tea Shop Productions scheduled a meeting with Barker  to discuss a feature version of The Chair. But Curry’s creative cauldron was bubbling with a side project called Obsession. So he pitched that instead. The film stars Michael Johnston as Bear, Inde Navarette as Nikki, and Cooper Tomlinson as Bear’s friend Ian.

Curry spoke with Creative Screenwriting Magazine about his rapid rise to the realms of young horror filmmakers to watch.

Pitch Meeting With Producer James Harris

“I had been working really hard on a feature script of The Chair. That was like my everything. I was determined to make a feature version of it. All of a sudden, I had this idea for Obsession. I shocked myself because James Harris said he wanted to do a feature version of The Chair,” Barker recollects.

Torn between two projects, Curry Barker followed his instincts and asked to pitch Obsession instead. Harris, impressed by Barker’s enthusiasm, obliged.

Curry began by stating that he wrote a short film script called Obsession, which he later sent him. His manager also asked him to put together a one-pager. The filmmaker pitched the overall premise, how far he’d go with it, and the overall creepiness of the film.

Curry Barker. Photo by Sela Shiloni

The next step was for Curry to put together a look book. He took photos of his friends to make it look like a film worth making.

Elevating The Horror Film Genre Through Character

Obsession is spacious, creepy, and infused with impending gloom. Comparable movies like Hokum and The Monkey hadn’t been released yet, but certainly capture the tone of Barker’s movie. But scares aren’t Curry’s main concern.

“I can only strive to bring the psychology and humanity to the genre. It’s very character-driven, motive-based, shocking and disturbing. Every character must have a goal in every scene and things can’t just happen for the sake of it.”

Curry quotes the Matt Stone/ Trey Parker South Park adage to illustrate his writing process:

This… but then… therefore

Each scene must logically and naturally flow into the next. That’s how you have a compelling movie.

Is The ‘One Wish Willow’ Really Magic?

Obsession rests on the premise of One Wish Willow – the supernatural kitschy toy that will grant the timid Bear one wish when he breaks it in two – that Nikki who only sees him as a friend will become obsessed with him. He musters all his courage and makes his wish. Nikki is transported from the Friend Zone to the Forever Zone.

Another aspect of the story that the filmmaker grappled with was how to stretch the premise from a short to feature length without being repetitive. “I really stretched this premise as far as I think it can go.”

Curry Barker toyed with how much of the Willow’s lore to reveal. How did it work and what (if anything) could reverse it? At one point, he considered using a monkey’s paw to tell his “be careful what you wish for” story. (The Monkey’s Paw is a 1902 horror short story by English author W. W. Jacobs.)

Is Nikki’s behavior due to magic or madness?

Bear is constantly uncertain whether his wish is real or if Nikki’s back on molly. At some point, he’s convinced that magic is involved and has to find a way to reverse or counter the spell. Curry balances this with where the audience is at. He takes his time to deliver an answer. Perhaps both factors are in play?

Barker states that this was ambiguous in earlier drafts, but would ultimately confuse audiences. Nikki has a troubled past, she had a drug problem, her mother was in an asylum and she had issues with her father. Eventually, Barker decided that this rabbit hole would be a distraction and settled on the ‘One Wish Willow’ being mystical and controls Nikki’s outlandish behavior.

Barker spent months of writing figuring out the logistics of the mechanics of the ‘One Wish Willow.’

Curry Barker referenced Aaron Sorkin’s masterclass to tell Obsession’s backstory – both for the toy and the characters.

“The only backstory that matters is whatever is important to the story now. Whatever our characters are learning now is way more important than whatever happened to them 20 years ago. Unless whatever happened to them 20 years ago is relevant to the story now and is coming back to them.”

This was sage advice for Curry Barker. Too much unnecessary backstory would ruin the flow and logic of his writing process.

Bear (Michael Johnston), Sarah (Megan Lawless) and Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) Photo courtesy of Focus Features

Why Does Bear Stay With Nikki?

Bear and Nikki are in a liminal headspace – together – but alone and isolated.

Bear is still grieving his grandmother’s death. “We don’t know really how long she died. To me, it was only a few weeks before the movie starts. She has some oxycodone still lying around from when she was alive. We see elliptical machines in her room,” Barker notes.

Bear is vulnerable and lonely. His friendship with Nikki may have been misinterpreted because she was there for him.

“There’s this desperation when we first see Bear. He’s clinging on to her. When he finally gets her, you can see that his first instinct is not to just run away, but to try to find some sort of way to make it work.”

It’s a gamble. He’s projecting a positive outcome with Nikki rather than escaping her, despite the evidence. Bear knows Nikki’s acting crazily and she’s dangerous, but he’s hopeful their relationship can work. If only things could get back to how they were.

Curry’s Favorite Scene in Obsession

“The scariest thing to me is when Nikki is in the corner and she’s whining in the room. She’s so dark in the shadows and she looks really disturbing. That imagery haunted me for a while,” Curry concludes.

by Staff Writer

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