{"id":806086,"date":"2026-07-16T17:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/806086\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T17:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:18:09","slug":"from-the-father-of-the-guy-who-made-obsession-is-the-nepo-dad-the-new-nepo-baby-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/806086\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018From the father of the guy who made Obsession\u2019: is the nepo dad the new nepo baby? | Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

A generational shift is happening in Hollywood. The two big breakout films of the spring \u2013 Backrooms<\/a> and Obsession<\/a> \u2013 were made by a pair of plucky young YouTubers who found themselves granted the keys to the kingdom<\/a>. Both of these films took more money than the most recent Star Wars<\/a>, the most recent superhero movie (Supergirl<\/a>) and the most recent Spielberg<\/a>. It is arguably the biggest shake-up of the film industry since the rise of New Hollywood in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

But perhaps the biggest change is tangential to all of this. This week it was announced that Jeff Barker \u2013 the father of Obsession direction Curry Barker<\/a> \u2013 is making a film of his own. Medium Rare<\/a> is a horror short that will shoot this summer and star Dane Cook and the Oscar-nominated actor Leslie Ann Warren. This will come hot on the heels of Good Tape, another horror short of Barker\u2019s that is currently in post-production.<\/p>\n

The thing is, if you look at Jeff Barker\u2019s IMDb page, those are his only two projects. He worked as a script consultant on Obsession (and had an uncredited cameo as a trivia bar host), but otherwise that\u2019s it. At least in terms of getting stuff made, Jeff Barker only got a break when Curry Barker became successful. In other words, there is a very good chance that we\u2019re looking at a nepo dad here.<\/p>\n

Typically, of course, Hollywood is best known for producing nepo babies<\/a>. Lob a stone at a premiere and it\u2019s bound to hit the son or daughter or a more established star, whose access to fame has been lubricated by their parent\u2019s proximity to power and influence. We don\u2019t need to name names here \u2013 because a comprehensive list of nepo babies would run to thousands of words \u2013 but they\u2019re easy enough to spot, primarily because of how defensive they get when you say the phrase \u201cnepo baby\u201d around them.<\/p>\n

But a nepo parent is a far rarer thing. This is someone who watches their child achieve wealth and fame from a standing start and, prompted by either possibility or jealousy, decides to cut a slice off for themselves.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The most notable case of this is Rob Grant<\/a>. Grant is the father of Lana Del Rey<\/a>; a man who worked in advertising and property development until his daughter got famous, at which point he decided to release an album of his own in 2023. Happily, Grant was self-aware enough to make a point of his family connections, going as far as selling T-shirts<\/a> bearing the phrase \u201cNepo Daddy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, there are others. Mitch Winehouse always seemed like one of the biggest beneficiaries of his daughter Amy<\/a>\u2019s fame, leveraging her notoriety into an album of his own, entitled Rush of Love. And sometimes a nepo baby can create an endless feedback loop of nepotism, which is what happened in 2022 when Margaret Qualley<\/a> (the nepo baby of Andie MacDowell<\/a>) lobbied for McDowell to get a role in her TV series Maid<\/a> as a way to kickstart her mother\u2019s fading career.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to single out the true nepo parents. You might accuse, say, Tom Holland<\/a>\u2019s dad Dominic of being a nepo dad, because his standup sets routinely include segments on what it\u2019s like to be Spider-Man\u2019s dad. But I would argue that this doesn\u2019t quite cut it. Holland senior was a comedian long before his son became famous, and the Spider-Man stuff feels like an effort to acknowledge the elephant in the room rather than an attempt to cash in.<\/p>\n

Tom Holland with his father, Dominic, at the Edinburgh fringe festival, 2017. Photograph: Murdo Macleod\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, at least what characterises all of these nepo parents is that they possess a modicum of actual talent. Jeff Barker wouldn\u2019t have written a horror short if he couldn\u2019t write, just as Rob Grant and Mitch Winehouse wouldn\u2019t have released albums if they couldn\u2019t sing. In that respect, their children should be breathing a sigh of relief, because things could always be much worse.<\/p>\n

Because sometimes a parent is so bedazzled by their offspring\u2019s fame \u2013 and so overtly lacking in talent \u2013 that their only recourse is to get a reality TV show. And this is a universally bad look. Think about Lindsay Lohan<\/a>, whose first rush of fame was marked by both of her parents scrambling to be noticed. Her mother, Dina Lohan, appeared on The Real Housewives of New York City and a squalid E! Show entitled Living Lohan.<\/p>\n

Her father, Michael Lohan, meanwhile, managed to go even lower. After trying his hand at acting, with a cameo in a weird, impossible-to-find film called Horrorween<\/a> (apparently featuring co-stars like Jenna Jameson, Flava Flav and Donald Trump), he then resorted to appearances on Celebrity Rehab and an episode of Trisha entitled Is Lindsay Lohan My Sister?<\/p>\n

So, it could always be worse. If Jeff Barker wants to piggyback on his son\u2019s reputation, and if Curry Barker has given his blessing, then there\u2019s nothing wrong with nepo parenting. The best-case scenario is that people will watch Medium Rare and understand why Curry Barker is like that. That has to be preferable to watching Celebrity Rehab and understanding why Lindsay Lohan is like that.<\/p>\n