As you may or may not know, I love a good found footage movie, but I have seen almost all of the ones currently on Tubi (my preferred source). My journey to this review started while I was on Reddit yesterday and saw some people were hyping up Curry Barker’s newest release Milk & Serial. I knew almost nothing about the guy, but did know he had a YouTube channel where he posts his comedic skits with his friend Conner. It’s been my experience that there is not a lot of great found footage movies released directly on YouTube (some exceptions), but I was bored and had nothing else to watch, so I gave this a spin.
SYNOPSIS:
A surprise birthday party prank takes a turn for the worse when a popular social media duo must deal with the reality of the dark events that unfold that night.
THE 411:
There’s been plenty of found footage movies with this similar premise, but Milk & Serial is very different. The first 15 mins make you think this is going to be a rip off of Jokesters (great movie as well), but after the initial prank is revealed, this movie takes a hard right turn into hell! Milk and Seven are buddies who have a very successful YouTube career as pranksters. In order to make Milk’s birthday extra special, Seven plans a prank by hiring a guy who does special effects and is able to realistically shoot himself; That is where this movie takes a left turn into some dark ass territory. I can’t really give any more details without spoilers, but I’m telling you if you like found footage, you will love this movie.
WRAP UP:
Curry Barker wrote, directed, edited, and stars (Milk) in this excellent little low budget gem. You can tell that the whole cast and crew were totally committed to making this movie. The acting is surprisingly good with Cooper Tomlinson (Seven) and Curry Barker (Milk) really driving the story. The gore FX were pretty great and the story is told in a non-linear style, so this movie really has no slow parts. All killer and no filler, as they say. My only question is the version I watched on YouTube was 62 mins long, but on IMDB it says the running time is 80 mins. Not sure what was cut or if that is a typo on IMDB’s part. Milk & Serial is currently available on Curry’s YouTube channel, “That’s a Bad Idea”. Check out his other horror shorts, as well. I would love to see what this guy could do with a good budget.
MY GRADE:
A+
