With Backrooms arriving tonight and poised to dominate the conversation, the past two weeks have been all about Obsession, Focus Features’ latest release from YouTube filmmaker Curry Barker.
As discussion surrounding Obsession continues, attention has also turned toward Barker’s next project, Anything But Ghosts, which is currently in post-production and scheduled for release through Focus Features next year.
What’s particularly interesting is a revelation Barker made during a post-screening Q&A. According to the filmmaker, Anything But Ghosts takes place in the same universe as Obsession. In the process, he also appeared to reveal Nikki’s shocking fate following the events of the smash hit Obsession.
Spoiler Warning: “There’s like a news article thing on the next movie where you hear a news anchor talking about a triple homicide [by] a woman,” Barker told an audience during a recent post-screening Q&A.
It’s a fun Easter egg we hope will actually end up in Anything But Ghosts, but the bigger takeaway is what this revelation means for Nikki. Barker’s comments imply that Nikki is ultimately blamed for the deaths and faces prosecution in the aftermath of Obsession‘s events.
What makes that detail so interesting is how perfectly it fits the film’s central “monkey’s paw” concept. Throughout Obsession, every wish comes with a price. By the film’s conclusion, Nikki ends up making the same wish that Bear did, despite not necessarily acting of her own free will or even being fully conscious of the choice she’s making. If Barker’s comments are any indication, her prosecution becomes the cost of that wish.
It’s a dark but fitting extension of the film’s mythology. Nikki may get what the wish grants her, but, as with every other wish in Obsession, the consequences are inescapable.
Putting those implications aside, Anything But Ghosts is shaping up to be one of next year’s most intriguing genre releases.
Here’s everything we know about the film so far….
ANYTHING BUT GHOSTS
Curry Barker is currently celebrating a Cinderella moment with his smash hit Obession, which is heading into its third week against the mighty Backrooms.
While the horror film is searching for its ceiling, Barker is already in post-production on his third feature film, Anything But Ghosts, which is being produced by Blumhouse-Atomic Monster, Spooky Pictures, and Divide/Conquer for release through Focus Features.
The film has a starry cast, including Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad, Last House on the Left), Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World, The Village), and Violet McGraw (M3GAN, The Haunting of Hill House), but sources close to the film tell us that the real leads are, in fact, Barker and Obsession co-star Cooper Tomlinson.
This is fun because, as hardcore horror fans know, Curry and Cooper co-star in the duo’s indie gem Milk & Serial, which is still streaming for free on YouTube.
Speaking about Anything But Ghosts, Barker recently revealed the first plot details:
“It’s about these two con artist ghost hunters who basically prey on old women and single dads,” he told CBR. “But they’re really good at it. They can make tables shake, lights flicker — they’ve got all this special equipment, and they really know how to put on a show.
“Everything changes when they run into a very real, very dangerous dark entity,” he adds.
Interestingly, the setup sounds a bit reminiscent of Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners, the 1996 horror-comedy starring Michael J. Fox. In that film, Fox played Frank Bannister, a paranormal scam artist who secretly worked with real ghosts to con grieving families into paying him to “cleanse” haunted homes.
Barker’s new film appears to play in a similarly fun space before things spiral into something much darker.
Anything But Ghosts is produced by Jason Blum (Blumhouse), Roy Lee & Steven Schneider (Spooky Pictures), Adam Hendricks & Greg Gilreath (Divide/Conquer), in association with Image Nation and That’s a Bad Idea. Executive producers are Barker, Tomlinson, and Image Nation’s Ben Ross.
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