Anything But Ghosts Will Supercharge the Twisted Obsession Universe, Director Teases

Well, that did not take long. After crashing the party with his microbudget shocker 'Obsession', writer-director Curry Barker is already back with a new nightmare called 'Anything But Ghosts' — and yes, it quietly links back to 'Obsession' in a way fans are going to clock immediately.

The new movie, the hook, the cast

'Anything But Ghosts' is not a straight sequel. Different story, new characters, same taste for nasty supernatural fallout. The setup: two con artists run a fake ghost- hunting racket until they blunder into the real thing and everything spirals. Barker co-wrote it with his longtime collaborator Cooper Tomlinson, and both of them show up on screen alongside the leads. The cast is legit: Aaron Paul, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Violet McGraw. And here is the fun part — per a recent industry tease, Barker has already shot the movie. No, we do not have a release date yet, but this one is not a theoretical project on a whiteboard.

The sly crossover

During a post-screening Q&A for 'Obsession', Barker confirmed 'Anything But Ghosts' drops a direct reference to the first film: a news report about a woman who committed a triple homicide. That is not random flavor — it is a pointed nod to Nikki’s violent end in 'Obsession'. In that film, the spell on her is eventually broken, but the damage she leaves behind clearly lingers into the next story. It is a small, eerie bridge between two otherwise separate nightmares.

'There is a news article thing in the next movie where you hear a news anchor talking about a triple homicide by a woman,' Barker said during a post-screening Q&A.

Why Barker is suddenly everywhere

'Obsession' is the reason. Made for about $1 million, it has hauled in roughly $95.8 million worldwide — a wild multiple for a first feature and the kind of success horror accountants dream about. Even stranger: its second weekend jumped by 30% in wide release, which almost never happens in this genre. The movie itself is a dark modern fable: Bear, a lonely guy, wishes for his longtime crush Nikki to love him, gets exactly what he asked for, and pays for it in the worst possible way.

Before that, Barker and Tomlinson built a cult audience on YouTube with their shoestring viral horror project 'Milk & Serial'. 'Obsession' premiered in TIFF’s Midnight Madness, turned into a festival breakout, got scooped up by Focus Features, and then just kept hitting. He is 26, already lined up to reboot 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' at A24, and, according to trade chatter, has been offered eight figures in Hollywood without even needing to pitch. When the momentum is this fast, someone always starts building a universe. In Barker’s case, he basically just did.

What we know so far

• 'Anything But Ghosts' is already filmed and set in the same world as 'Obsession', but it is not a traditional sequel.
• The crossover is a background news report nodding to Nikki’s triple-homicide fallout from 'Obsession'.
• Story: two scammy ghost hunters face a very real dark entity.
• Team: written by Curry Barker and Cooper Tomlinson; both appear in the film.
• Cast: Aaron Paul, Bryce Dallas Howard, Violet McGraw.
• Context: 'Obsession' cost about $1 million, earned roughly $95.8 million worldwide, and posted a 30% second-weekend jump — which helped rocket Barker to TIFF-to-Focus success, an A24 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' reboot, and reportedly eight-figure offers.

So, is he building a shared horror sandbox?

Looks that way. The nod is subtle, but it connects the dots: actions in one story ripple into the next. And swapping love-gone-wrong for grifters-meet-their-match suggests Barker is more interested in stitching together consequences than repeating a formula. If 'Obsession' was romance as a curse, 'Anything But Ghosts' sounds like karma kicking down the door.

I am in for the cast alone. The rest — the scale, the release plan, how deep the connective tissue goes — we will know soon enough.