Milk & Serial

"Milk & Serial" is a 2024 found footage horror film that explores the dark side of online fame and the dangers of crossing lines for content. The film follows two roommates and social media influencers, Milk and Seven, who push the boundaries of their pranks to increasingly dangerous levels. When a birthday prank goes horribly wrong, the pair find themselves entangled in a terrifying and deadly game with a mysterious entity.

The film effectively uses the found footage format to create a sense of immediacy and realism, immersing the viewer in the escalating chaos. The performances are strong, particularly from Curry Barker who plays Milk, capturing the character's descent into obsession and desperation.

"Milk & Serial" is a chilling exploration of the thin line between entertainment and exploitation, and the consequences of prioritizing views and likes over human decency. It serves as a cautionary tale about the potential dangers of social media and the importance of ethical content creation.

Is this movie amazing on its own? No, there are tons of better movies out there. Is it amazing considering it was made at home by non-professional filmmakers and on a very low budget? Yes, I don't think many people could pull this off. It's also better than some professionally made movies out there.

The only critique I can think of is that there are parts of it that feel slow or dragged out. But for the most part, it's an engaging, creepy movie with good actors, genuinely frightening/weird moments, and an interesting, well crafted plot. Not a huge fan of the found footage format, but it does it well.

A friend recommended I watch this, and I'm really glad he did. In an age of vacuous YouTube influencers and vloggers, this is a brilliant concept: take the format that I personally find pretty repulsive, and spin it on its head by putting the iPhone in the hands of a Gen Z psychopath.

The whole thing sucks you in by being extremely believable, thanks to some eerily well acted early scenes. The twists keep coming and thanks to some really snappy editing this film hits you right between the eyes.

Like a found-footage version of Man Bites Dog, this is a really exciting find, which is completely free on YouTube. The fact that this thing is available on the very platform it is slyly critiquing is a brilliant twist in itself, however it's the plot developments in this short film that will have you watching it for a second time almost immediately.

Hollywood must surely beckon for the cast and director.

A lot of found footage horror movies over the years would have been a lot better served had they leaned into a shorter runtime. 90 minutes of footage is a seriously long time to justify someone keeping a camera running for. If 'Milk & Serial' had tried to push for an extra half an hour it could have undone all the great work this little gem of a film had created. This was a good one.

This was everything I like in a good found footage film. It's dark and constantly twisting and we know it is all building up to a treacherous ending. As far as this sub-genre goes, the acting is pretty good as well.

For a film available free on YouTube this was a great little treat. 9/10.

I was unfamiliar with Curry Barker and his YouTube channel where he and his team have made several short movies in the past, however Milk & Serial had quite a lot of people talking and therefore I needed to check it out.

The movie is made with a a budget of $800, which is astonishing because they managed to make a pretty good movie, which was seriously entertaining and quite enjoyable overall. The acting was really convincing which surprised me because low budget productions often suffer from really bad acting, however Curry Barker, Cooper Tomlinson and the rest of the cast all do a commendable job. The movie offers quite some twists and therefore definitely is able to keep the audience's attention which also shouldn't be that big of a task with about an hour of runtime, however there were multiple moments where I was thrown off guard for a second because the story switched up. There are movies out there with similar themes so it's not completely original but nonetheless it managed to be quite unique with its narrative. Obviously there are no massive special effects or gruesome gore, but that kept the whole atmosphere really realistic, which is another element that worked really well. The found footage aspect, the believable acting and the realistic narrative really gave this movie a scarily realistic feeling. Obviously this movie was far from perfect and there are flaws as well, however I think they can be mostly overlooked and I would definitely like to see more from these young filmmakers. This was by far better than many of the latest Hollywood projects, especially when it comes to horror. However you have to keep in mind that this really low budget is the crucial argument for this movie's success and love. If you take away this aspect the movie is still a well done Horror-Thriller but nothing groundbreaking and while it grabs your attention in the moment, it lacks the depth to remain memorable. [5,6/10]