Obsession (Curry Barker, 2025, USA)

Obsession is the latest film and first studio-distributed feature from comedy YouTuber and new horror wunderkind Curry Barker. The film, which has now grossed over $300M worldwide on a budget of purportedly around half a million, has - along with Backrooms - proven the appetite of Gen Z for new and original horror stories. Obsession is effectively a “Monkey’s Paw” tale for Gen Z - a be careful what you wish for tale.

While the film’s success may ultimately be attributable to a clever marketing campaign, one can’t deny that certain attributes make it stand out from the average horror film. Notably, the two lead performances are exceptional - it is hard to imagine the film succeeding without those performances. Inde Navarrette, in particular, is a revelation, and her performance has been going viral for good reason. Without her, the film could easily become forgettable, or even worse - laughable. And while there is a great deal of dark humor in the film - Curry Barker comes from a background in comic YouTube shorts - there is unrelenting grimness to the film that echoes Ari Aster’s films. There is a sense of grief that permeates the film from its very opening.

The quality of the film is also amplified by the cinematography of Taylor Clemens, which is bathed in darkness - sometimes making things hard to see and owing a great deal to J-horror. The soundtrack by Rock Burwell, an often serene and melancholic synthesizer-based score, lends gravity and an emotional center to the film. While Obsession is by no means a masterwork, its success in an era of franchises and reboots must be commended and is no small feat. Whether Curry Barker can sustain this level of success is an interesting question - he is already working on a Texas Chain Saw reimagining.

7/10