Curry Barker and Cooper Tomlinson are stepping out of the paranormal-investigation racket and straight into something considerably worse. "Anything But Ghosts," the duo's upcoming horror-comedy, has been locked in for a May 2027 theatrical release, Hollywood Buzz News has confirmed.
Barker directs the feature and stars as Mouse, one half of a two-man team of con artists whose entire business model revolves around staging phony paranormal investigations. Tomlinson plays Eddy, Mouse's partner in the grift. The premise turns on a familiar genre hinge: the pair's manufactured hauntings collide with an actual dark entity, dragging them into a nightmare that no amount of cold-reading or hidden wiring can explain.
The film is being positioned as an English-language Hollywood production and carries a dual horror-comedy designation, a classification that fits Barker's increasingly visible profile as a filmmaker who likes his scares served with a straight face and a crooked grin.
A Cast That Punches Above the Usual Micro-Budget Weight
What separates "Anything But Ghosts" from the typical indie horror-comedy rollout is the names attached beneath its two leads. Bryce Dallas Howard, Aaron Paul, and Violet McGraw are all on board, giving the project a level of marquee recognition that few first-time directing showcases can claim. Matty Finochio appears as Scoot, while Chris Reinacher and Kristina Matisic round out the ensemble, with Matisic credited as a News Reporter - a role that suggests the film's phony ghost-hunting operation may draw some on-camera media attention before the real horror arrives.
For Barker and Tomlinson, who have built a following through self-made genre shorts and an internet-native approach to comedy, the presence of established actors marks a significant leap in scale. Howard and Paul in particular bring credentials that span blockbuster franchises and prestige television, and their involvement signals that the film is aiming beyond the niche audience that typically finds projects like this in the first weeks of release.
The Con-Artist Setup Is the Joke and the Trap
Horror-comedies about fake ghost hunters are not new territory - the subgenre has been mined repeatedly, often with diminishing returns. Where "Anything But Ghosts" appears to be placing its bet is in the specificity of its two leads: Mouse and Eddy are not bumbling enthusiasts who stumble into danger, but deliberate fraudsters whose livelihood depends on convincing strangers that the supernatural is real. That characterization gives the film a moral architecture to play with. When an actual dark entity enters the picture, the men who have spent their careers exploiting other people's fear of the unknown are forced to confront the thing they have been faking.
The setup also hands Barker and Tomlinson a natural comedic engine. Watching two experienced liars try to talk their way out of a genuine haunting offers the kind of escalating desperation that the best entries in this lane have relied on, and the director-star arrangement gives Barker control over both the pacing of the jokes and the timing of the scares.
No Trailer, No Runtime, No Rating Yet
Beyond the release window, details remain thin. A runtime has not been disclosed, nor has the studio specified a marketing timeline or a firm day within May 2027. The film's TMDb rating sits at 0/10, which reflects the absence of audience votes rather than any early critical judgment - a number that will shift once the movie reaches viewers.
That lack of concrete information is normal at this stage for a release still roughly eight months out, but it does leave several open questions. Chief among them is tone: whether Barker is aiming for the broad, crowd-pleasing horror-comedy that performs well in spring slots, or something nastier and more committed to the horror half of the equation. The involvement of performers like Paul and Howard suggests a production with enough resources to deliver real scares, not just suggestion.
What May 2027 Looks Like for This Kind of Film
May is traditionally a launchpad for tentpoles and franchise sequels, which makes it an unusual home for an original horror-comedy with no established IP behind it. Counter-programming is the obvious logic: as summer blockbusters begin to saturate the marketplace, a smaller, weirder genre entry can carve out space by offering something the big movies aren't. Horror has consistently proven viable in that role, and the comedy element broadens the potential audience beyond dedicated scare-seekers.
Whether "Anything But Ghosts" can convert its recognizable cast and its well-worn but sturdy premise into a genuine theatrical success will depend largely on execution - and on whether Barker, working behind and in front of the camera simultaneously, can keep both plates spinning. For now, the film has a date, a cast, and a hook. The ghost business, fraudulent or otherwise, is open for May 2027.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
