MILK & SERIAL (2024)

Studio:   That's a Bad Idea
Director: Curry Barker
Writer:   Curry Barker
Producer: Cooper Tomlinson, Curry Barker
Stars:    Curry Barker, Cooper Tomlinson, Adlih Torres, Sterling L. Pope, Jonnathan Cripple, John Simmonds, Gloria Karel, Andy Dubitsky

Review Score:

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Summary:

A gruesome secret gets exposed when two online influencers attempt to prank each other only for the situation to dramatically spiral out of control.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

MARCH 13th

Social media personality Seven, who runs a YouTube channel called "Prank Bros." with his best friend and roommate Milk, enlists their friends Link and Naomi to help pull a prank on Milk for his birthday. After obtaining handgun blanks from a shady arms dealer and getting Seven's acting class friend Jason to play the part of a gunman, the group stages a scene where it looks like Jason kills Naomi during Milk's birthday party. Initially shocked, Milk is ultimately amused by the prank.

Milk and Seven's strange neighbor Greg Harris comes over to complain. Later that night on a walk to a bar, Milk runs into Greg and condescendingly knocks his hat off his head, even though Link and Naomi insist he is not part of an ongoing prank.

MARCH 14th

Milk and Seven wake in the morning to find Greg in their living room. Greg disturbingly mutters about hearing a woman inside his head before suddenly attempting to shoot himself with the handgun containing blanks. To calm Greg down, Milk agrees to have dinner at his place later that evening. Meanwhile, Naomi comes over and cries that her girlfriend Lara, who was at Milk's birthday party, unexpectedly broke up with her via text message.

Milk and Seven go to dinner at Greg's apartment. After Greg tells a shocking story about his father feeding him his mother's blood as a child, Milk and Seven fall unconscious from Greg having secretly drugged their wine.

Greg takes Milk and Seven to the desert. When they regain consciousness, Greg continues behaving bizarrely as he points a gun at the duo while frantically demanding they choose one of them to die. Greg opens fire, prompting Seven to recover a nearby handgun that he uses to shoot Greg.

Milk proudly reveals Greg was an actor he hired and everything that happened with him was part of a long prank Milk had been pulling on Seven. However, Milk and Seven discover Greg actually died. Milk claims he planted the gun supposedly loaded with blanks, so Seven assumes the arms dealer must have mixed in live rounds with his purchase.

Footage from March 11th shows Milk hiring Greg as he prepares the prank for Milk. Milk also tells Link about Greg's involvement in his plan. Footage from March 13th then shows Milk secretly stealing Lara's jacket, which Milk uses to arrange a post-party trip to Lara's place, supposedly to drop it off.

Milk reveals himself as a secret serial killer when he abducts and imprisons Lara in a remote location. Milk dons a plastic mask to taunt Lara, uses her phone to text the breakup message to Naomi, and mutilates her to add a memento to his collection of victim body parts and blood vials. Additional footage shows Milk intentionally loading Seven's gun with real bullets and arguing with Greg about drugging Seven.

Back in the desert, Milk proposes burying Greg's body, but he realizes he forgot to bring shovels. Milk becomes concerned when he drives to Home Depot so Seven can purchase shovels, and Milk is briefly questioned by a cop who writes him a citation for parking in a handicapped spot. Following that encounter, Milk and Seven return to the desert where they bury Greg's body

MARCH 15th

Link tells Naomi that Greg was part of a prank Milk had been playing on Seven. Link and Naomi find Seven despondent when they try asking him how the prank turned out. The revelation that Milk told Link and Naomi about Greg inspires a fistfight between Seven and Milk. Afterward, the duo declares an end to their creative partnership.

Milk returns to Lara, who remained captive for two days without food or water. Milk ends up beating Lara to death. Milk also uses texts from Greg's phone along with other tricks to gaslight Seven into thinking he is losing his mind.

Greg's adult son Frank comes to Milk and Seven's apartment looking for his missing father. Milk initially convinces Frank that Greg spontaneously left for Vegas, but the Find My Phone feature later brings Frank back. Milk changes his story to get Frank to leave, but he convinces Seven they need to kill Frank.

Curious about what happened between Milk and Seven, Link and Naomi investigate their apartment. Link and Naomi learn Milk is a serial killer when they discover his hidden box of mementos, which also contains an address and a key. Link and Naomi drive to the remote location where they discover Lara's dead body.

Milk and Seven devise a plan that ends with Milk stabbing Frank in his throat. Milk tries to get Seven to help dispose of the body, but Seven dejectedly pleads for Milk to either turn him in to the police or kill him.

Milk records a confessional video where he proclaims he wants to be known as the greatest serial killer in history. Milk adds that Seven will coincidentally be his seventh victim, but he believes he engineered events so creatively that Seven will kill himself without Milk having to take direct action. However, Seven enters the room and shoots Milk, then shoots himself.

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Review:

Word of mouth generally doesn't do much for me. In a world increasingly interconnected through digital channels, it takes modest effort to separate genuine groundswells of grassroots support from manipulative marketing engineered to impersonate waves of overwhelming praise. Buzz is no longer organically built to turn people on to something they ordinarily wouldn't be aware of. It's often fabricated to fool people's perceptions so they'll jump on a bullsh*t bandwagon that gaslights them into believing that thing is far better than it really is.

Being a natural skeptic to boot, I immediately rolled my eyes when word of "Milk & Serial" spread past the threshold where it couldn't be completely ignored. Strike one? The 62-minute film was available for free on YouTube. You get what you pay for, and when the price is $0 on a platform available to anyone, expectations can comfortably go in the gutter. Strike two? The movie starred Curry Barker and Cooper Tomlinson, two online personalities I'd never heard of. Not knowing internet influencers isn't unusual for someone born in the 20th century, but I've been through enough forgettable fright flicks featuring social media "celebrities" to know those phony folks tend to be insufferable, and the same goes for their emoji-abusing fans who obnoxiously drool over everything they do like they're legitimate Hollywood stars. Strike three? "Milk & Serial" was purportedly produced for just $800. I don't know why any indie would enthusiastically wear its thin budget like a badge of honor. I also questioned the amount. Not that it should be higher. Rather, I wondered what a "found footage" film made with friends, limited to small locations, and not containing intensive action would even need to spend that much money on.

I was ready to write off "Milk & Serial" sight unseen until a Variety headline joined the chorus of cheers championing the project. I didn't even read the article, but I'd seen the title "Milk & Serial" repeated enough that I cracked my knuckles and begrudgingly decided to finally check out the film for myself.

I'm too level-headed to ever hock up hyperbole like "OMG! Better than anything the big studios put out!" or "Easily among the best B-movies this year and possibly one of the best 'found footage' films of all time!" Back down on Earth, I'll instead say this about "Milk & Serial." Speaking as someone who regularly watches DIY horror, and who has seen more "found footage" films than I can remember, "Milk & Serial" defies the odds that are usually against both of those formats. The first-person frame fits the context. The performances are believable. And the story's swerves remain relatively grounded so the film flies by as engaging entertainment even though its material is shockingly grim.

Not a whole lot needs to be said to summarize the basic plot, which is good since revealing too much might spoil small surprises. Best friends Milk and Seven are roommates as well as creative partners on a YouTube Channel famous for pulling pranks. For Milk's birthday, Seven enlists other pals, along with a shady arms dealer met in a Ross parking lot, for an elaborate prank where it appears as though someone shoots one of their friends during Milk's party. The gag more or less goes according to plan, but its ending is only the beginning. Even though it's all fun and smiles once Milk finds out the truth, odd events keep happening, leading more than one of them to wonder if there's another prank being played, or possibly something more sinister going on.

Almost immediately, Milk (Curry Barker) and Seven (Cooper Tomlinson) come across as personable people. Well, maybe not Milk so much considering where his character goes. Yet after being wholly prepared for a pair of self-important punks cut from the clout-chasing cloth of internet infamy, it is a welcome change of pace to see two affable guys you can willingly watch without wanting to poke out your eyeballs.

Barker and Tomlinson can genuinely act too, as exhibited by a wide range of scenes that call on them, and their supporting cast, to convincingly cry, scream, become despondent, behave disturbingly, act suicidal, and get physically aggressive. Quality acting seems like a "no duh" inclusion when talking about a movie's value. But it can be taken for granted since poor performances are par for the course in homemade horror where family members and rank amateurs fill out the roster. Authentic acting ability already puts "Milk & Serial" one giant leap ahead of its microbudget peers.

It may not be consciously intentional, but "Milk & Serial" also contains a meta-message about how easy, and frightening, it is for something to spin wildly out of control simply for the sake of likes and subscriptions. That's probably part of why "Milk & Serial" struck such a chord in 2024. Someone may come across the movie in ten years time, maybe even within one year, and wonder what the hubbub was about since the film is so specifically tied to this time in content creation. It won't do his film any future favors, though that's another feather in writer/director/star Curry Barker's creative cap that he can tap into a cultural zeitgeist to make his movie more meaningful.

At a time when so many indie horror hucksters are still shoving "Amityville" into their titles, or missing the point of camp by intentionally being ridiculous, it's inspiring to see Barker putting in real work and daring to get dark with an original effort. The wheel doesn't get reinvented. It just spins smoothly thanks to keeping ambitions achievable, and not getting overly fancy in delivering a captivating creeper. "Flavor of the month" might as well be synonymous with "flash in the pan," but Barker and Tomlinson showcase surprising talents that suggest they've barely begun to break into the genre space.

Review Score: 75

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