Milk & Serial, the first feature film by the creative duo That’s a Bad Idea, is one of the year’shorrorgems, but you won’t see it in theaters, or on Netflix, or anything like that. The feature film has been hiding in thedark corners of YouTubesince its premiere on Aug. 8 onthe official channelof the comedy duo Curry Barker and Cooper Tomlinson. The 62-minute film is a great display of creativity by comedians who are stepping into horror territory with a solid approach to the"influencer horror" subgenrethat blends well with the found footage format.
As mentioned in the description of the YouTube video, the found-footage film was written and directed by Barker and produced by Tomlinson, and has a meta twist. They star as a social media team that constantly pranks people as well as each other. At first, Seven is preparing a prank for his friend, Milk, who is having his birthday. It may be in poor taste, but Seven’s plan is to acquire a gun with blanks so he can scare Milk out of his pants. But there is more going on here than it seems.you may watch the full film below:
It’s not thatMilk & Serialis an extremely original movie, but it’s effective and makes great use of the found-footage format. It could have easily gone that path of “a prank goes too far and everything goes haywire,” but what they accomplished is an unsettling exploration of more topical and sociological ideas, and the limits of human decency.
It also feels like an exciting continuation of the comedy duo’s development into bona fide horror auteurs (they’re taking the Jordan Peele path, apparently). The film follows their successful horror short,The Chair, which has gotten 5.5 million views on YouTube since last year. They knew there was room for improvement, and they are acting on that with rapid development.
Hidden Horror Gem Milk & Serial Could Be the Beginning of Something Great
If Barker and Tomlinson’s streak sounds familiar, that’s because you’re probably thinking of the Australian duo RackaRacka, also known as Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou. The Philippou brothers are YouTubers who aimed high in 2022 and made their dream come true: they made their first horror film,Talk to Me, which was eventually acquired by A24 after making a great impact at the Sundance Film Festival. Their work was so good that a sequel was greenlit, proving that shooting videos and uploading them on YouTube can be a path to something bigger for actual artists, especially if horror’s your thing.
The 20 Best Free Horror Movies on YouTube
Tired of the same old movies circulating your streaming services? Check out these 17 free horror movies on YouTube.
Don’t Hug Me I’m Scaredis a great example of a YouTube project that then became a TV series. But you don’t have to move to television to make great art and develop a fanbase. YouTube has been a haven for horror since it began, with some of the scariest videos and series debuting on the platform. ARGs, or Alternate Reality Games, took off in the aughts and 2010s, with a variety of DIY horror series that got audiences involved across the world.EverymanHYBRID, Marble Hornets, Hi I’m Mary Mary, Petscop, and other series of horror videos have proven thatgreat horror doesn’t need to rely on an existing franchise or millions of dollars, and that’s why we love these titles so much.
you’re able to watchMilk & Serialfor free on That’s a Bad Idea’s channel on YouTube.
