Curry Barker
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Curry Barker’s Obsession is presently setting box office records, single-handedly ushering in this changing of the guard.
Curry Barker’s excellent Obsession exploded this aesthetic into the mainstream only a few weeks ago…
…not every reviewer is as sure you’ll be as “obsessed” with The Backrooms as you may have been with the recent Obsession release…
The previously mentioned Iron Lung and Obsession are proof of that.
…most recently punctuated by the bloody, highly profitable explosion of Curry Barker’s spine-chilling Obsession (2026)…
Like Curry Barker, the 26-year-old behind the box-office phenomenon Obsession, and Danny and Michael Philippou, the brothers behind Australian breakout Talk to Me, Backrooms director Kane Parsons is a creature of the internet.
…a horror version of Fatal Attraction…
The switch in vocal intensity and her incredible physical contortions (and those rubbery facial expressions) earn her a spot in the loopy ladies of terror “hall of fame”, right next to Glen Close as Alex of FATAL ATTRACTION and Jennifer Jason Leigh’s Hedy in SINGLE WHITE FEMALE.
There’s no moment at which she’s simply a Fatal Attraction-esque bunny boiler.
…this is more than just a Fatal Attraction story of deranged, obsessive behaviour…
Obsession can look like that Fatal Attraction-style movie where a crazy woman goes nuts for a guy, with insane over-the-top antics making her a villain, that forces us to feel sorry for the man who just wanted a full-time girlfriend.
…the sort of extreme possessiveness that would put Fatal Attraction’s Alex to shame…
You may recall that just earlier this year, we saw Amy Madigan win an Oscar for her chilling turn in "Weapons," marking a rare instance where the Academy acknowledged a horror performance.
Obsession updates your classic monkey’s paw fable for the age of Zach Cregger’s riotously funny and unpredictably gross masterpieces Barbarian and the now Oscar-anointed Weapons.
…ranks up there with Zach Cregger’s Weapons as one of the best horror films of the decade so far…
The magic in “Obsession” feels related or adjacent to the magic in “Weapons” (2025).
"Obsession" deserves to reach the acclaimed heights of "Weapons,"…
“Obsession” still ranks below other top-tier horror efforts, like “Sinners,” “Weapons” and moments from “Longlegs.”
…highlighting how an Annie Wilkes-style sociopath (see the 1990 film Misery) lurks just below the surface of a romantically idealized trope.
Navarrette’s performance as the wish-possessed Nikki is a marvel of facial contortions and screeching Jekyll-and-Hyde meltdowns just like its obvious antecedent, Kathy Bates’ Annie Wilkes in Misery.
Misery, but the stalker is the crush.
Her spellbinding performance is the best and scariest of its calibre since Kathy Bates in Misery.
…a parody in itself of countless Twilight Zone episodes…
…not to mention W. W. Jacobs’ “The Monkey’s Paw” short story from 1902, many “Tales From the Crypt” comics and episodes, “The Twilight Zone” installments…
It’s a classic Twilight Zone-style premise about being careful what you wish for.
The story of "Obsession" is a typical Monkey's Paw tale and was even inspired by an episode of "The Simpsons" that puts its own spin on that narrative tradition.
Classic short story The Monkey’s Paw provides the basis of its plot via inspiration from an episode of The Simpsons…
…it wasn’t Tales from the Crypt that Barker cited as his source of inspiration for the story, but The Simpsons episode “Treehouse of Horror II,” which also aired in 1991…
Barker has admitted that The Simpsons’ “Treehouse of Horror” series directly inspired Obsession, specifically a season 3 segment in which Homer gets a monkey paw.
He himself got it from The Simpsons’ “Treehouse of Horror” episode with the monkey’s paw…
…prolonged, manic smiles that echo the absolute worst of the likes of Smile, Truth or Dare or The Shining…
At times it channels the delirium of The Shining in its gradual explosion of an abusive relationship linked to psychosis.
…his opinion on Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" notwithstanding…
…in the same vein as Zach Cregger’s Barbarian and Weapons in how it combines humour, shocking violence, and a stylised retro aesthetic.
Obsession updates your classic monkey’s paw fable for the age of Zach Cregger’s riotously funny and unpredictably gross masterpieces Barbarian…
Zach Cregger made it a pattern with “Barbarian” and “Weapons,”…
Barbarian ended with a smirk.
CONCLUSION: ‘Obsession’ feels like a dark-magic witch’s brew of Together, Fede Álvarez’s 2013 Evil Dead, and Big…
Obsession is the end result of what would have happened had Stephen King and George A Romero collaborated to make Big.
…captured through the dark and grungy sheen of films such as It Follows or Bodies Bodies Bodies.
Add into that the DNA of various erotic thrillers of the ‘90s (that heavily featured an obsessive “crazy” woman), “It Follows,” and works of Ari Aster…
…and even ALADDIN (Robin’s Genie can’t zap Jasmine into loving that “strett rat”)…
The “be careful what you wish for” trope dates back (at least) to the fabled King Midas. And wishing for others to fall in love with you is so frowned upon that not even the Genie in Aladdin would grant it.
…prolonged, manic smiles that echo the absolute worst of the likes of Smile, Truth or Dare or The Shining…
…whose creepy grin could star in "Smile"…
…having learned nothing from the countless tales of curled monkey's paws…
Sketch comedian turned horror filmmaker Curry Barker (Milk & Serial) wrings blood-curdling terror from a classic Monkey’s Paw wish fulfillment scenario in Obsession.
Add someone as pathetic as Bear and you don’t need a monkey’s paw to see where things are going.
The switch in vocal intensity and her incredible physical contortions (and those rubbery facial expressions) earn her a spot in the loopy ladies of terror “hall of fame”, right next to Glen Close as Alex of FATAL ATTRACTION and Jennifer Jason Leigh’s Hedy in SINGLE WHITE FEMALE.
…prolonged, manic smiles that echo the absolute worst of the likes of Smile, Truth or Dare or The Shining…
It calls to mind Fede Álvarez’s 2013 Evil Dead, and Jane Levy’s performance in particular, which similarly communicated paranormal psychosis and insanity alongside a much more interior, restrained terror.
The film has a calm, Dawson’s Creek–type setup as we are introduced to four close friends.
Making Bear a kind of Dawson Leery to her Jen Lindley, especially since the latter is also deemed slutty a.k.a. “freaky.”
However, unlike “Wolf Man” (2025) or “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy,” Barker and cinematographer Clemons have a strong handle on the shadows and use them incredibly effectively.
Wolf Man notoriously had complaints from moviegoers about how visually dark the presentation was during the movie’s finale.
There’s a key thematic link with this year’s The Drama in that depicting male fears about emotional females is a given…
From The Drama to Over Your Dead Body to Ready or Not 2: Here I Come.
…the kind of disturbed precision that joins her with Naomi Scott in Smile 2 and Nell Tiger Free in The First Omen on a very short list of recent horror leads who threw themselves entirely into a role.