What Is the Obsession with 'Obsession'?

A week after writing about the resurgence of the word-of-mouth hit at the box-office, we’ve been blessed with yet another example: Curry Barker’s Obsession. The film was made for around $1 million (or less), opened with an impressive $17 million despite a relatively small marketing budget, and — improbably — rose over 30 percent in its second weekend and scored $28 million at the box office over the long Memorial Day weekend. Worldwide, it sits at $80 million after 11 days, or 80 times its budget. During a summer box office where it’s had to compete against the Michael Jackson biopic, the Devil Wears Prada sequel, and a new Star Wars movie, that is not just insane but completely unheard of. Even The Blair Witch Project — the original viral horror movie — took three weekends before it completely caught fire.

But why did this little horror flick catch fire? Honestly, I could only hazard a guess. TikTok and social media are a huge reason it catapulted in its second weekend, but what is it about Obsession specifically that appeals to that demographic? It’s not particularly original; there are no big stars in it; the acting is uneven; and it’s not even particularly scary.

Honestly, I think all of that is exactly why it took off. The premise — a guy makes a wish that a girl he likes will fall madly in love with him, with disastrous results — is as simple and relatable as a Sabrina Carpenter lyric. The fact that it didn’t star anyone of note — aside from Andy Richter, familiar to Gen Z from Dancing with the Stars, in a small role — probably also helped lend the film some mystery. It hadn’t been talked to death by its stars on the press circuit before it arrived, and the absence of any huge names maybe made it all the more relatable.

But mostly, it’s because Obsession felt new — maybe not to anyone who has been watching movies for 20 or 30 years, but definitely for an audience that is probably exhausted with iterations of the same IPs: Insidious, The Conjuring, Halloween, Scream, et al. It’s probably why Nic Cage’s Longlegs took off in 2024, too.

Moviegoers are dying for something different. Not necessarily new, but different. Something that feels authentic rather than pandered. There was no massive marketing campaign making it feel like it was being foisted upon them, no algorithmic inevitability to its existence.

And who doesn’t want to see the devastating consequences of “be careful what you wish for” play out on screen? There are probably plenty of lovesick Gen Z’ers who have wished, in their darkest moments, that an unrequited love would just fall madly for them. But the mopey, forlorn protagonist, Bear (Michael Johnston), learns the (very) hard way that unearned love is not just meaningless — in this case, it’s terrifyingly deadly. It’s the kind of movie capable of breaking the spell of even the most insane one-sided crush.

It also happens to be well executed, even if it felt like exactly what it was: a short film beefed up into a feature.

Inde Navarrette — who plays Nikki — will almost certainly break out as a future horror star (Obsession may as well have been her audition tape for Smile 3), and I hope Curry Barker can continue the trend of horror filmmakers who break out in the only real genre remaining that consistently rewards originality. If only the rest of the industry could learn from the likes of Barker, the Philippou Brothers, Zach Cregger, and Osgood Perkins that audiences will turn out for a clever, creative idea, even one as seemingly simple as Obsession.

And hopefully Kane Parsons can pull it off again this weekend with A24’s Backrooms, which already sounds more appealing and interesting than a Masters of the Universe film or even Supergirl later this summer.