Barker, 26, rose to Internet fame alongside creative partner Cooper Tomlinson (who plays Bear’s friend Ian in Obsession) as the duo behind the YouTube sketch-comedy channel “that’s a bad idea,” before transitioning into longer-form horror with the 62-minute, micro-budget slasher Milk & Serial. The found-footage-style fright flick, which Barker wrote, directed, and starred in, went massively viral after the pair released it on their channel for free in August 2024, attracting the attention of major Hollywood studios. Now, Obsession, which was acquired by Focus Features for a reported $14 million last year following a buzzy festival debut, is heading into its opening weekend with a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score, while Barker is being touted as one of the next big names in horror. His slate of forthcoming projects not only includes Blumhouse horror-comedy Anything But Ghosts, a collaboration with Tomlinson that stars Aaron Paul and Bryce Dallas Howard, but also A24’s new reimagining of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which Barker says he plans to take in “a very different direction than the last six or seven movies we’ve seen [in the franchise].”
