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The fanfare surrounding the aptly dubbed dark-horse hit Obsession isn’t shocking—it’s right on time.
The supernatural psychological horror flick is one of two “surprise” genre hits—alongside internet-born nightmare fuel Backrooms—grabbing attention, timelines and ticket sales. But if audiences suddenly seem eager to spend ~two hours being emotionally wrecked, perhaps it’s because lately, reality has been doing its own convincing impression of horror.
Give us wars, AI anxiety, alien sightings, climate disasters, a potential Ebola pandemic, gas prices that have people debating hawking a kidney, an election cycle gearing up to feel like a Love Island finale, and a daily feed that increasingly feels written by a diabolical screenwriter—and suddenly, a dose of fictional terror starts to feel… comforting.
After all, horror has always functioned as a cautionary tale. For its part, Obsession taps into anxieties surrounding control, toxic infatuation and the unsettling realization that not every self-proclaimed “nice guy” actually is one. Meanwhile, Backrooms transforms eerily empty hallways, fluorescent lighting and internet-era liminal spaces into a meditation on isolation and the fear of the unknown.
In other words, the monsters may be different, but the dread feels familiar. And it’s hardly limited to these two spine-chillers (Weapons, anyone?). Horror continues to dominate streaming queues, book clubs and box-office conversations because it gives viewers a way to process uncertainty from a safe distance. The stakes may be life-or-death, but the credits eventually roll. Reality, unfortunately, doesn’t come with an end scene.
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