Movie Review: Milk & Serial
Some post-Halloween thoughts
I wouldn’t call myself a lover of horror movies. Quite the opposite, really—I tend to avoid it at all costs. But recently, I watched a horror movie that may have made a fan out of me. If not forever, then for at least as long as the film lasted.
The film is called “Milk & Serial”, directed by Curry Barker, about a YouTube channel’s prank gone horribly wrong. Barker has his own sketch comedy YouTube channel, and “Milk & Serial” was released for free on YouTube, just over an hour long. The film is made entirely from found footage, like the Blair Witch Project, and features a pair of friends making cringey YouTube prank videos.
“Milk & Serial” is quietly self-aware. It is very “meta” — there are “pranks” inside of “pranks” inside of “pranks”, so the viewer is left wondering what is real until the last, horrible second. This echos the ethos of the internet itself, and being online today. The slippages between what is virtual what isn’t have never been so pronounced as they are now, and the ever-presence of screens can easily make online feel just as real as off. This derealizing theme, which could easily have been too much, or confusing, is grounded completely by the film’s bizarre and terrifying horror elements.
It makes sense that Barker also dabbles in comedy. The line between comedy and horror is thin, in my opinion. Both ask you to momentarily suspend reality in order experience a thrill. But what makes “Milk & Serial” so gripping is how close to reality it comes; how real it feels. This is not only because the film uses found footage, or the contemporaneous subject matter, but because the acting and development of the main character, Milk, feels achingly, terrifyingly precise and true.
In one moment, Milk and his friend Seven are having a conversation and Seven asks, “What’s gaslighting?” to which Milk responds, “It’s when you prank somebody but make them think it’s their fault.” Milk as a character seems caught in his own psychopathy, but strangely aware of it. Even the prop he uses to scare his victims reflects a kind of self-appraisal: a plastic translucent mask with certain features drawn-on. He isn’t trying to shield himself completely from being perceived, just obscure it enough to terrify the women he chooses to torture and murder. My favorite bit may have also been the most terrifying part—he stares at his victim, behind his plastic mask, and looks at her. “This isn’t a prank,” he says sadly, soberly. “Life isn’t fair. You got unlucky.”
This is a powerful bit of dialogue, in my opinion. While traditional horror movies ask you to suspend what is real so you can experience that rush of adrenaline, nothing is more terrifyingly true than this little fact.
What was so exciting to me about “Milk & Serial” was not necessarily its commentary on contemporary society—though it did a great job of that—but the psychology behind its gripping terror. Particularly in a post-election world, and particularly as a woman, nothing feels scarier right now than knowing that you are not in control, careening towards something that may be chaotic, knowing that there is evil in the world you are unable to stop. Some things may be pranks; may come out to have some catharsis—we all laugh in the end. But sometimes, life isn’t fair. You get unlucky. Obviously, this is true in the everyday sense. We experience small inconveniences every day, and this friction to life can be exhausting.
Taking these stakes all the way up to 11, though—unlucky to the extreme—was a suspension I was not prepared for, and it thrilled and horrified me. I am excited to watch Barker’s career flourish, as this video has launched him viral on the internet.
You can watch “Milk & Serial” for free at this link here.