Milk & Seriesthe first feature film by the creative duo That’s a Bad Idea, is one of the most successful films of the year. horror Jewels, but you won’t see it in theaters or on Netflix or anything. The feature film has been in the dark corners of YouTube since its premiere on August 8 on the official channel of comedy duo Curry Barker and Cooper Tomlinson. The 62-minute film is a great showcase of the creativity of comedians venturing into horror territory with a solid approach to the “influencer horror” subgenre that 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 play a social media team that is constantly playing pranks on other people and each other. First, Seven prepares a prank for his friend Milk, who has a birthday. It may be in poor taste, but Seven’s plan is to get a gun with blanks so he can scare Milk to death. But there’s more to this than meets the eye. You can watch the full film below:

It is not the Milk & Series is a highly original film, but it’s effective and makes excellent use of the found footage format. It could easily have gone in the direction of “one prank goes too far and everything goes haywire” but what they’ve achieved is a disturbing exploration of more contemporary and sociological ideas and the limits of human decency.

It also feels like an exciting continuation of the comedy duo’s evolution into real horror writers (apparently they are following the path of Jordan Peele). The film follows their successful horror short film, The Presidencywhich has garnered 5.5 million views on YouTube since last year. They knew there was room for improvement and they are responding with rapid development.

Hidden horror gem Milk & Serial could be the start of something big

If Barker and Tomlinson’s series sounds familiar, it’s because you’re probably thinking of Australian duo RackaRacka, also known as Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou. The Philippou brothers are YouTubers who set big goals for 2022 and made their dream come true: making their first horror film. Talk to mewhich was eventually acquired by A24 after making a big impression at the Sundance Film Festival. Their work was so good that a sequel was greenlit, proving that shooting videos and uploading them to YouTube can be a path to something bigger for real artists, especially if horror is your thing.

Don’t hug me, I’m scared is a great example of a YouTube project that then became a television series. But you don’t necessarily have to move to television to make great art and build a fan base. YouTube has been a haven for horror movies since its inception, and some of the scariest videos and series have been released on the platform. ARGs (Alternate Reality Games) came into being in the 2000s and 2010s with a variety of DIY horror series that captivated viewers around the world. EverymanHYBRID, Marble Hornets, Hello, I’m Mary Mary, Petscopand other series of horror videos have proven that Great horror doesn’t need an existing franchise or millions of dollarsand that’s why we love these titles so much.