Curry Barker, the filmmaker behind this year's horror hit Obsession, has dropped a brand new horror short film online, and it's another reminder that he hasn't abandoned the YouTube channel where he first built his following.
Titled Mama Bear, the short runs for just 4 minutes and 58 seconds and premiered on October 29 through Barker's That's a Bad Idea YouTube channel, which he runs alongside longtime collaborator Cooper Tomlinson. Barker wrote, directed and edited the short, which was made in collaboration with Microsoft Windows.
The story follows Floyd (Jon Lee Richardson), who wakes up to a rather alarming series of phone calls warning him that someone named Lacey (Katie Sarife) is coming to kill him. Floyd has no idea what's going on, but things quickly get worse when he discovers there's someone else in the house who looks exactly like him. The short also stars Ericka Kreuz and Joshua Snyder, who plays Floyd's doppelgänger.
There's a possible connection to Obsession here too, with the short seemingly playing around in the same One Wish Willow universe, although it's not presented as a direct sequel, but there are some familiar elements for anyone who watched Barker's feature, particularly the idea of someone ending up in a situation they really don't understand.
Barker has come a long way since making horror shorts for YouTube. His feature Obsession became a major breakthrough this year, while his earlier film Milk & Serial and short The Chair helped establish his reputation among horror fans before Hollywood came calling. He's also preparing his next feature, Anything But Ghosts, a horror comedy co-starring Cooper Tomlinson, which is scheduled to arrive in cinemas in May 2027.
It's good to see Barker still making these shorter projects alongside his feature-film work, especially when YouTube was where so many horror fans discovered him in the first place, and with Mama Bear arriving just before Halloween, it's a pretty timely return to the format.
Watch Mama Bear below.
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