When Curry Barker moved to Los Angeles a few years ago, he thought getting his shorts on the festival circuit would be his path to becoming a filmmaker. But he soon found that uploading his movies directly to YouTube caught his attention. His 2023 horror short film The chair got him representation in Hollywood and a deal to direct a $1 million movie, Obsession. Then, in August, it released the $800 service Milk and serieswritten, directed and performed by him. It exploded online, attracting 1 million views.
“It just catapulted the amount of meetings I was taking,” says Barker, who notes that he met with virtually every studio and major horror producer in town.
Barker, also known for his sketch comedy on YouTube, is part of a new class of directors who honed their skills on YouTube before making it in Hollywood. The platform allows them to flex their creative muscles without having to deal with studio politics and allows them to build a direct relationship with their audience.
Case in point: Comedy YouTubers Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou were one of the surprise box office success stories of 2023 when A24 released their horror feature Talk to me at $92.8 million globally against a budget of $4.5 million. Veteran producer Samantha Jennings spearheaded the independent production and notes that the twin brothers have an unusual understanding of their audience. “They can basically tell you who's in the third row, what they're wearing, when they're paying attention, what they're laughing at,” says Jennings, who is also producing Bring her backthe duo's sequel for A24.
Fellow Australian filmmaker Michael Shanks built a following on YouTube more than a decade ago with a comedy channel featuring video game parodies. Along the way, he worked quietly Time trapa time-bending short film that he said was too good to simply download on YouTube. But when a Star Wars parody he posted blew up, he decided to use that momentum to drive more views for his passion project, which showcased his humor and visual effects skills.
“The next day, I started getting calls from people in Los Angeles agencies and production companies,” says Shanks, who is represented by WME. “He took me to the room.” One of those rooms was with Dave Franco, who agreed to read his horror script Together. He eventually embarked on an acting career, along with his wife Alison Brie. The film is currently in post, with Strays the producer Picturestart among the supporters.
James Harris, producer of Mandy Moore's hit 47 meters below, consider YouTube a place to look for untapped talent. “The upside of horror can be quite large,” he says. That's how he discovered Barker, with whom he is working Obsession. Harris believes the 25-year-old director could move on to bigger films later if he wanted to. “Once he has a $1 million movie under his belt, then you can make your $5 million movie. Then go make the $10 million movie.
This story appears in the Oct. 23 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to sign up.