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A24 went into a competitive auction, beat out Blumhouse, acquired one of the most difficult pieces of IP in the genre, and then gave the job to a director with one feature film to his name. That is a wild risk to take on such a young talent. But also, it’s Curry Barker, so we get it.

Curry Barker is writing and directing a reimagining of the 1974 original created by Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel. As we have talked about before, A24 announced the acquisition back in February with no director attached. At least we have that figured out.

Who Curry Barker Is

Barker got here through Obsession, a film he made for under a million dollars that played TIFF Midnight Madness and sold to Focus Features for north of $14 million. He built the career that got him into that room starting on YouTube, which is the kind of origin story that should not end with A24 handing you a legacy franchise before your first wide release even opens. And yet, here we are.

The Franchise and the People Behind It

The 1974 original has since produced eight sequels and remakes. Some are far better than others. The franchise has been a problem for a long time and everyone who has touched it since the original has found a different way to confirm that.

A24 formally announced the acquisition earlier this year after winning the rights in a competitive bid. The producers are Roy Lee, Steven Schneider of Spooky Pictures, and Kim Henkel through Exurbia Films. Henkel co-created the original with Tobe Hooper.

One More Thing

There is also a separate Texas Chainsaw Massacre TV series in development at A24 from JT Mollner. Different project. The film and the series are happening at the same studio simultaneously, which means A24 now has more Leatherface in development than anyone has since the franchise was actually relevant. Barker’s film has no release date yet. Obsession opens May 15.

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No one would blame you for looking at ITCH and filing it under zombie film. Because it is. The outbreak spreads person to person. People stop being people. The world ends a little bit. You know how it goes.

What Bari Kang actually made is something with a different mechanism at its center. The contagion does not spread through biting. It spreads through scratching. You scratch yourself. This makes you sick while it is happening. You scratch because someone near you scratched and something in your brain said that looks right.

I talked to Kang about it. Turns out it was not a deliberate subversion. “It was never meant to be a zombie film,” he told me. “That happened along the way.” The idea came during COVID. He watched someone scratching in a store and could not stop thinking about it. “What if that’s how something spreads?” He started writing from there and somewhere in the process the zombies arrived. “All of a sudden I had these zombies running around.” He went that route without going that route.

Why the Scratch Works

We all get how zombies work. They bite, someone hides their bite, sometime later everyone is dead. Kang’s instinct was that the scratch would do something different. “It’s really visceral and contagious,” he said. “I figured if I could lean into that, that might work well.” He was right.

There is something about watching someone scratch that is harder to look away from than watching someone get bitten. You feel it on your own skin. The sympathy itch is real and ITCH knows it and uses it without being cute about it. That is craft. For a film Kang wrote, directed, produced, and starred in himself, that is not a small thing.

Who Is Bari Kang

The short version: he decided he wanted to be an actor, spent a year auditioning and booking nothing, and then casting director Judy Henderson, who was in the middle of casting Homeland at the time, told him to go write his own stuff. “I was like, oh, you can do that,” he told me.

He said: “Nobody’s coming to give you a hand. There’s no handouts. It seems like we need permission or something to do it, but you just gotta get out there.” Yeah. That.

The Rule About Lore

There were versions of ITCH that explained what the itch was, where it came from, who started it. Kang cut all of it. The less he showed, the more the film asked audiences to do the work themselves. And audiences who do the work are more scared than audiences who are shown everything.

ITCH does not explain itself and it does not need to. A film about a contagion that spreads through something you cannot stop yourself from doing, made in the aftermath of a pandemic everyone lived through, does not require a mythology breakdown. It requires you to sit with what it is suggesting. Which is worse.

ITCH is available now.

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A new platform is stepping into the streaming space, but instead of trying to become the next Netflix or TikTok, ShoStak is built around a much bigger idea.

“Cinema does not need another platform. It needs a new model.”

ShoStak operates across two sides of its ecosystem. ShoStak.tv is the viewer-facing platform where audiences can watch content and discover new series. ShoStak.world serves as the creator hub, where filmmakers can develop projects, submit ideas, and take part in programs designed to help bring those stories to life.

Together, they form what ShoStak describes as a cinematic ecosystem. A space where stories are not treated as disposable content, but as worlds that can grow, evolve, and sustain themselves over time.

Instead of chasing algorithms or studio approval, the platform is built around a simple but ambitious goal. Give creators ownership of their work, their audience, and the revenue they generate from it.

The Competition Offering a First Look

As part of its early rollout, ShoStak is hosting a creator competition where audiences can vote on which projects move forward, giving fans a rare shot at directly influencing what actually gets made.

Projects are introduced as series concepts or pilots, with creators competing across multiple rounds. Audience participation helps determine which entries gain traction and continue developing.

Ownership at the Center

One of the platform’s defining ideas is simple but powerful. Creators should own what they create.

ShoStak emphasizes a model where filmmakers:

• Retain ownership of their intellectual property
• Build and grow their own audience directly
• Earn revenue tied to engagement and support from that audience

This removes a layer that has traditionally stood between creators and success. Instead of relying on studio approval or algorithmic luck, filmmakers have a clearer path to building something of their own.

It’s a shift that could be especially meaningful for independent creators who are used to giving up control just to get their work seen.

Building a New Kind of Pipeline

ShoStak is not just focused on hosting content. It’s working toward building a system where ideas can grow from concept to fully realized projects.

Through its creator hub and development programs, filmmakers can:

• Introduce new story worlds directly to audiences
• Build a following around those stories
• Expand their projects over time without losing ownership

It creates a pipeline that feels more open than traditional systems. Instead of waiting for approval behind closed doors, creators can develop their work in front of an audience and grow it organically.

Why This Matters for Horror

Horror has always lived a little outside the system.

Some of the most memorable films in the genre came from creators taking risks, working with limited resources, and finding ways to connect with audiences on their own terms.

ShoStak’s approach could give horror filmmakers a new kind of playground:

• Test ideas as short-form series
• Build loyal fanbases around original concepts
• Expand those concepts into larger projects over time

For a genre that thrives on originality and experimentation, having more control over both the creative process and the outcome could make a real difference.

ShoStak is not just trying to launch another streaming service. It’s trying to rethink how stories are created, shared, and sustained.

By focusing on ownership, long-term world-building, and direct connection between creators and audiences, it’s offering a different path forward.

Whether that model succeeds remains to be seen.

But if it does, it could give filmmakers something that has been increasingly difficult to hold onto.

Control.