Curry Barker’s Mama Bear premieres on YouTube today, with Windows as sponsor
The Obsession director goes back to YouTube two days before Halloween, after a path from an $800 feature to a $500 million-plus gross.
The tea in 3
- "Mama Bear", a short Curry Barker wrote, directed and edited, premieres live on his YouTube channel today, Oct 29, sponsored by Windows.
- The premiere page has no synopsis. iHorror lists Jon Lee Richardson, Katie Sarife, Ericka Kreuz and Joshua Snyder in the cast.
- His feature "Obsession" passed $500M worldwide. "Anything But Ghosts" follows from Focus Features on May 7, 2027.
Curry Barker is putting a new short film on YouTube today. “Mama Bear” premieres live on his channel on Oct 29, two days before Halloween, according to Tubefilter, iHorror and Dread Central.
Windows is sponsoring the short, and the Windows Instagram account announced the premiere with a teaser. The film comes from the director of “Obsession.”
What we know about Mama Bear
Barker wrote, directed and edited it, per iHorror. The YouTube premiere page is titled “MAMA BEAR (Directed by Curry Barker)” and has a reminder button but no synopsis. Dread Central notes the announcement gave no runtime either.
The story is still under wraps, so there is nothing to say about the plot yet.
Jon Lee Richardson plays Floyd. Katie Sarife, who was in “Annabelle Comes Home,” plays Lacey. Ericka Kreuz plays Ms. Wilson, and Joshua Snyder is billed as Floyd’s doppelganger.
How he got here
Barker built this career on YouTube. iHorror says “The Chair,” a short he posted in 2023, passed 10 million views and led producer James Harris to ask him to turn it into a feature. That pitch became “Obsession.”
Before that, his found-footage feature “Milk & Serial,” made for about $800, went a year without a distributor. Barker then released it free on “that’s a bad idea,” the sketch channel he runs with Cooper Tomlinson, in August 2024, and iHorror says it went viral.
- “Milk & Serial” goes free on his channel
- “Obsession” premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival
- “Obsession” opens in US theaters through Focus Features
- “Obsession” arrives on Netflix in the US
- “Anything But Ghosts” hits theaters
Why a short on YouTube?
Tubefilter frames it as a creator going back to his roots. Plenty of horror creators now have Hollywood deals, it says, and some go quiet on YouTube once they reach theaters. Barker, it says, needs no box office to reach his audience here: the short is free, on his own channel.
Tubefilter’s read is that he is keeping his autonomy as a filmmaker while giving fans what they want. That is the outlet’s take, not something Barker has said.
What comes next
“Anything But Ghosts” is his third feature, and Focus Features releases it on May 7, 2027. iHorror says Barker directs, co-writes and co-stars, with Aaron Paul, Bryce Dallas Howard and Violet McGraw in the cast. Dread Central says he and Tomlinson play con artist ghost hunters whose fake investigations turn real.
iHorror also reports he is attached to a “Texas Chain Saw Massacre” reboot at A24 and an original horror film at Universal.
For now, the short is the thing. It premieres today on Barker’s YouTube channel, and the comments will tell you fast what people think.
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Where this story comes from. We link primary posts and the outlets that reported them.
- Tubefilter — Creator horror is everywhere this October, but Curry Barker is reminding us that YouTube still matters 2026-10-28
- iHorror — Curry Barker's 'Mama Bear' Premieres on YouTube October 29 2026-10-28
- Dread Central — 'Obsession' Director Returns to YouTube With Surprise Halloween Short 'Mama Bear' 2026-10-27
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