This is the start of the fall season (in other words August has ended) and as a result I have a reason to focus more on horror films. Not that I have ever focused exclusively on one genre, but you know, its nice to have a rationale.
But now let’s go back to discussing the reason you came here for, which is a bit different type of film Milk & Serial. Not to worry, if you haven’t seen it yet, there’s no need because the whole video is available on YouTube for free! Milk and serial is a low budget found footage flick which was written and directed by and starring Curry Harry Barker. Barker was known in the indie horror genre for having directed The Chair (and if you haven’t seen it, you should), but Milk and Serial has been generating the right amount buzz over the more sinister parts of the web. The movie follows two roommates who run a prank channel and starts off with lighter humorous antics from the roommates before revealing the trouble that lurks beneath their activities.
A few things about Milk & Serial stood out: I am always partial to social media horror, found footage, and even well done gore. It was also made by the well-known Polish slasher, who despite being made with a small budget, always manages to put together a captivating film.
However, based on the final product, there are both the high-quality visual effects we expect from the genre, a strong narrative with edits that make the final cut shine, and, most importantly, a gripping story and direction! All of which are fairly difficult to come by in the current horror cinematic landscape. If there were budgetary constraints, they were negligible the fourth wall technique concealed slight imperfections, if any at all.
The film generally presents itself as a thriller as implied by its tagline yet I walked in thinking we’d be entertained by much more than just sickening moments which this film is filled with. What persuaded me that Curry Barker had common sense both on and off the camera was his ability to switch different tones effortlessly in the movie. Its got elements of Coen brothers and Paul brothers, its got ready wits that justify the accumulating uneasiness of the head rather than releasing it. The prank channel premise crosses the entire film in a weird, nonsensical way when one character is so out of the box that nobody seems trustworthy, even the ones one is for ever seeing. The film goes back on itself, each member keeps rotating the same shots but start taking away layers; slowly but brilliantly making sense. You get discomforting feelings as a viewer as to who to support and it shouldn’t be the most pleasant of places to be, but it’s certainly the most fascinating one.
Yet, the best for me is Curry Barker himself, or the main Milk character – what he brings to this character is so compelling that there is a kind of enthusiasm for his work which sees no difference in the levels of pranking that one can do to change a pillow case and demolish someone’s head with a brick. This performance goes without saying as one of my favourite this year so far, a strange, slippery garner of a person and one semester who Barker actually inspires to be a multidimensional character.
Milk & Serial is fun to watch an original, well made horror thriller with a nice lead that could go up against even the greatest slasher villain. And, if this is anything to go by, it is a good beginning in the feature area for Curry Barker, whom I, for one, cannot wait to see again.
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