Milk & Serial

A couple years back that kid from stranger things released a found footage horror movie called Spree. It's about a murderous, incel, wannabe influencer that goes on a killing spree. It was so bad that I made people watch it, not because it was funny-bad, but because I needed to share my anger with others---- this is like if that movie was good.

In general, I find found-footage to be boring and unimaginative. I gave this a shot, because I think Curry Barker & Cooper Tomlinson are funny in sort of a GreatValue™ I Think You Should Leave way. I was ready for this to be bad. Almost expecting it - but I was pleasantly surprised. It's fairly straightforward - Maybe a little bit derivative or predictable at times, but Barkers performance is what sells it. I was not prepared for him to be 1) good at acting 2) actually horrifying. Worth the watch. An impressive directorial debut.

Is this movie amazing on its own? No, there are tons of better movies out there. Is it amazing considering it was made at home by non-professional filmmakers and on a very low budget? Yes, I don't think many people could pull this off. It's also better than some professionally made movies out there.

The only critique I can think of is that there are parts of it that feel slow or dragged out. But for the most part, it's an engaging, creepy movie with good actors, genuinely frightening/weird moments, and an interesting, well crafted plot. Not a huge fan of the found footage format, but it does it well.

Curry Barker who plays Milk, has delivered a very unique piece of entertainment surrounding a cunning serial killer. Milk & his best friend Seven have a YouTube channel called 'prank bros' and they have some pretty serious pranks that's they play on each other. The film begins with the making of a prank, Seven is clearly the more serious one of the two of them, and plans to play a rather cruel prank on Milk, on his birthday of all days. The prank all goes slightly sinister when what appears to be a neighbour shows up at the door complaining about the noise and acting very sketchy. The film sounds simple but ends up full of twists and turns, with a bit of welcomed unpredictability. For a short movie, filmed on purpose in a kind of amateur way deliberately, it was really good. Definitely worth watching as it trumps the amount of entertaining you get from most films in a shorter amount of time. Also the acting from Milk was remarkable, I will now be checking out his other short movies and hope to see more of Curry Barkers name in the future.

Attempting a big social media prank, a group of friends try to continually get one over on each other as the experience draws them into the long-hidden psychopathic intuitions of one of the group's depressed past that sets them off into a race against time to stop their unhinged plans from coming true.

Overall, this was a solid enough indie genre effort. One of the finer aspects with this one is the engrossing and likable setup that features quite a lot of likable elements to it. The initial setup with the friend-group who are going around setting up the exploits of their channel and relationship with each other by setting up elaborate and harmful pranks on each other for a birthday surprise gets this established quite nicely so that the later exploits are far more believable. Not knowing whether or not the series of crazed incidents, from encountering the stranger in the apartment to the suicide attempts by the figure they come across, and the bizarre kidnapping scheme that quickly goes array, there's a genuinely thrilling and immersive experience that all builds up a fantastic showcase for the eventual devolution into insanity that comes about as how he treats his friends over time helps this out immensely. Beyond this, though, there's not much to this one that stands out. The type of setup featured here generating vicious and somewhat illegal pranks on people for the sake of views on their video channel makes the group so unlikable it's hard to get invested in what's going on with the friends barely being worth investing this much time into. As this is due to the prank-video nature of the channel so no one can be believed or trusted, that just adds even more to what's going on here There's also the fact that there's so many obvious instances in which psychotic behavior becomes quite underwhelming to see play out as too many obvious red flags are ignored for the sake of moving a story along that's quite cliche and familiar. As well as a lackluster finale that makes for so many rule-breaking moments of found-footage throughout here, these all manage to bring this one down overall.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.

A friend recommended I watch this, and I'm really glad he did. In an age of vacuous YouTube influencers and vloggers, this is a brilliant concept: take the format that I personally find pretty repulsive, and spin it on its head by putting the iPhone in the hands of a Gen Z psychopath.

The whole thing sucks you in by being extremely believable, thanks to some eerily well acted early scenes. The twists keep coming and thanks to some really snappy editing this film hits you right between the eyes.

Like a found-footage version of Man Bites Dog, this is a really exciting find, which is completely free on YouTube. The fact that this thing is available on the very platform it is slyly critiquing is a brilliant twist in itself, however it's the plot developments in this short film that will have you watching it for a second time almost immediately.

Hollywood must surely beckon for the cast and director.