Rating: NR | Runtime: 62 minutes
Release Date: August 9th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: YouTube
Director(s): Curry Barker
Writer(s): Curry Barker

What do you mean you don’t like it?

I love the idea of two YouTube pranksters escalating their schtick to the point of no return via an unintended murder. So, when writer/director Curry Barker decides to subvert that subversion by introducing a subplot of intended murder … it’s impossible not to feel like he bit off more than he could chew.

Not because it doesn’t work, but because the fallout becomes more of an excuse to reintroduce two characters otherwise swinging in the wind than augment the overall terror. Either embrace the short format by focusing solely on Milk (Barker) and Seven’s (Cooper Tomlinson) dynamic or expand things further to fully envelop the rest of the cast.

Bad math aside (if an unplanned killing means the next planned kill will be one number later on your list, you probably should remember you literally just killed a third person in-between), Naomi (Adlih Alvarado) and Link (Sterling L. Pope) are pawns. Giving them more to do without providing authentic depth only exposes how inconsequential they are.

I’d argue the serial killing aspect is too if it’s not solely being used as a punch line twist. Barker lets the cat out of the bag so early that he creates room for dueling tones to drag the pacing down. Because the character enduring an emotional breakdown is so much more interesting than the one reveling in the chaos. The latter’s comedy distracts from the former’s drama.

It’s still a fun concept with some cool narrative swings, though. I just wish they weren’t all spent in the first half since the second becomes rote without any. Barker mistakenly thinks the psychopath is the payoff despite the film’s entire premise revolving around the gray areas of complicity. He’s merely the showboating catalyst. His shell-shocked, unwitting accomplice is the real draw.

---

Jonnathon Cripple and Curry Barker in MILK & SERIAL.