Curry Barker is moving fast. Focus Features and Blumhouse-Atomic Monster have dated the filmmaker's next project, the horror-comedy "Anything But Ghosts," for May 7, 2027. Focus holds worldwide rights to the film, with Universal Pictures International handling distribution overseas.
The film has already wrapped production in Vancouver. Aaron Paul leads the cast. Barker directs from a script he co-wrote with his frequent collaborator Cooper Tomlinson.
Although plot details are being kept under wraps, the film has test screened, several times, with strong scores. The story seems to follow two con-artist ghost hunters who swindle grieving families, often older women and single dads, with fake paranormal tricks like shaking tables and flickering lights. The scam works until they run into a real and very dangerous dark entity.
Barker and Cooper Tomlinson play the two leads themselves, and Tomlinson has described the tone as Key & Peele stumbling into "Hereditary." Paul, Bryce Dallas Howard, Violet McGraw and Chris Reinacher round out the cast. Barker has also said the film is set in the same universe as "Obsession," that film's triple homicide referenced in “Anything But Ghosts.”
Focus's bet on Barker began with "Obsession," the breakout horror film the studio picked up out of TIFF's Midnight Madness section for more than $15M, a serious number for a midnight title. That buzz has turned into a $500M box office hit, and Barker into one of the most sought-after genre voices around.
Barker has also been tapped to write and direct a new take on "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" for A24. Like a handful of other young horror filmmakers lately, he built his following on YouTube before making the jump to cinema, and the industry is paying attention.
"Anything But Ghosts" opens May 7, 2027.
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