Joey Magidson
The Sunday Scaries are upon us once again! Yes, as the weekend concludes, most of us feel an oncoming sense of anticipatory dread about the week ahead. Anxiety about work manifests itself into a feeling that’s known as the Sunday Scaries. However, we at Awards Radar are here to combat that, by taking back the name. Now, we want you think about a horror-centric piece on the site when you hear the term. So, let us continue on with another installment of the Awards Radar Sunday Scaries! Today, we’re turning our attention to a current horror obsession, as it were…
There’s a changing of the guard in horror going on right now. Not only are a pair of indie horror movies in Backrooms and Obsession all the rage, they represent a whole new type of filmmaker. The former’s Kane Parsons and the latter’s Curry Barker are young storytellers who broke big on YouTube before getting to make their feature debuts. Now, they’re setting screens on fire with their fright flicks, which could be a start of a whole new trend.
Backrooms does feature some recognizable actors in the leads with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, but its creepypasta origins are a whole new way to generate interest in a fright flick. Whereas something like the Slender Man movie comes off as a cash grab, this feels like something that people are just gravitating toward on their own. We don’t know the full box office haul just yet, but it’s looking at a stunning domestic weekend of over $80 million. In all likelihood, it’s going to be the biggest opening weekend in A24’s history. Imagine that?
I haven’t seen the movie yet, so I can’t comment on its quality, but the fact that this is such an organic hit bodes well for the genre. It’s also a sign that horror doesn’t need to just be remakes and sequels. An original idea can still capture the imagination of audience members when it worms its way into their brains. How far this one goes remains to be seen, but it’s going to end up with an insane final box office total.
As for Obsession, never let it be said that I can’t separate fact from opinion. There is no disputing the fact that it’s the latest horror phenomenon, pulling in shocking holds at the box office. Now, my opinion is different than most, in that I didn’t care for the film, but this isn’t about my feelings. My review is here for anyone looking for my take. No, this is about how the movie is proving to be one of the horror hits of 2026.
Obsession has done some things at the box office that are truly incredible, especially when it cost only $750,000 to make. An opening weekend debut of $17.2 million was already notable, but it’s what happened last weekend that’s really notable. Its second weekend haul of $23.9 million represents a 39.4% increase, which is unheard of. In fact, outside of the Christmas frame, which is its own thing, it’s the biggest second week increase in box office in the modern era. It’s now at nearly $70 going into this weekend, and while this piece was written prior to the new set of figures, it’s likely to be approaching $100 million before long.
While I still have my issues with the film, it has been one that talking about certainly benefits. That there’s even this much discussion about a little horror flick is actually really nice to witness. I’ll even admit that I’m thinking more about the movie than I would have otherwise, given how much people want to engage on it. The praise for Inde Navarrette, while unlikely to end up in an Amy Madigan style Oscar win, is also potentially giving us a new genre star, and that’s plenty exciting as well.
Next up for Barker is a new take on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as well as a bidding war for his next original project. You have to feel like the former is now in good hands, or at least very interesting ones, and it won’t take much for the latter to be like Weapons was for Zach Cregger after Barbarian. Barker is clearly breaking big, the question is just…how big can he get?
Whether you love Obsession or found it lacking, there’s no denying that it’s a full on box office phenomenon at this point. That alone is worth respect, as well as opening up a potential world of possibilities for Barker. Even if this one didn’t work for me, I’m excited to see what he does next, both with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and beyond. Clearly, he’s a horror filmmaker who can connect with the audience, and those talents are worth cultivating…
Stay tuned for another Sunday Scaries installment next week!
The success of Obsession (which I liked more than you did, though in a “this is a promising debut from a talented upstart” way vice a “this is a genre-defining masterpiece” way) and Backrooms tells me two things:
1) If you are an aspiring filmmaker looking to get your foot in the door, the days of formally studying the craft and building insider connections to land an opportunity to make a “proper” film are over. The competition pool is just too large and the technological barriers for entry are too low for that to be a feasible path these days. Kane Parsons got his first big movie deal before he was old enough to legally drink alcohol because he just made stuff at a young age and put them out online. Just make stuff. Pick up an iPhone camera, record some short films, and publish them on your channels. Most of them will suck. Most of them will go unseen. That’s fine. The important thing to is to start and just keep putting out stuff until something lands. That’s the new paradigm.
2) The days of seriousness and thematic ambition being a selling point for mid-budget horror movies is also over. People weren’t being sold on Obsession as A Strained Metaphor For Toxic Relationships (lookin’ at you, Midsommar), it was sold as “Check it out, Sarah Cushing from Superman & Lois is freaking out!” Backrooms didn’t sell itself with The Rooms Are A Metaphor For Trauma, the rooms were sold as uncanny and weird and creepy in the way that liminal spaces have become generally unsettling in the modern world. If a studio can find the “hook,” be it a performance or a specific craft element, it’ll sell to general audiences.
Unfortunately, the status quo of “Hey let’s take a unique creative upstart filmmaker and assign them to one of our tired-assed intellectual properties to try to revive” remains undisturbed. Seriously, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre? We’re still pretending that thing isn’t decades past its sell-by date? Christ…
I think you’re probably right, for better and/or worse…