Sunday Scaries: ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’ Didn’t Work For Me (And That’s Okay) But Offer Up a Pair of Exciting New Filmmakers

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 talking more about two new horror hits, as well as some rather questionable behavior online…

Yes, this is about Backrooms and Obsession once again. I’ve already reviewed both films, as well as talked about their financial might. Today? This is about how it’s okay not to like them, as well as how people need to learn to deal with differing opinions. This isn’t even about me, though I’ll get to that situation in a bit. Essentially, whether horror or otherwise, a variety of opinions is welcome. Moreover, I’m a bit baffled by how annoyed some people seem to be about my issues with the titles, especially when I’ve gone out of my way to praise Obsession’s Curry Barker and Backrooms‘ Kane Parsons.

Two weeks ago, I even dedicated a Sunday Scaries column (here) to the box office phenomenon of both flicks, as well as the exciting new filmmakers that Barker and Parsons. Even if my reviews weren’t positive, shouldn’t a fan of the movies be thrilled at how supportive I am of their successes? Isn’t that better than a three star review? For me, it would be. Then again, I suppose I’m nuts. Now, to the actual reviews.

In my Backrooms review (here), I felt I was very evenhanded, as I started it off like so:

Almost regardless of how Backrooms turned out, the fact that it’s a professionally made film from someone as young as Kane Parsons makes it a work deserving of some praise. That it, on a visual level, is actually rather impressive, is even more worthy of praise. The thing is, as a whole production, the movie comes up a bit lacking. Now, it has me very curious about Parsons and eager to see more from him, but for a debut feature, it comes up just a little short.

Backrooms is, at least visually, quite striking. The issues mostly reside with the dialogue and narrative, though the actors aren’t as well supported as you’d like. What begins as an unsettling and mysterious work eventually becomes ponderous and self-serious, ultimately collapsing on itself when it should be blowing your mind. These are first film type of problems, so it’s clear Parsons will be on an upward trajectory with his career. Still, it means this flick is only a taste of what he can offer.

As for my Obession review (here), I was a bit harsher, admittedly, writing the following:

I truly hate being a severe outlier. Especially with a basically universally acclaimed horror title (I have a weekly horror column in Sunday Scaries, after all), it would give me nothing but pleasure to add my voice to the praise of Obsession. Unfortunately, I just did not see the same film that everyone else did. While I do think the filmmaker has a future (more on that below), this movie did not work for me, nearly at all. I did not care for it one bit and actually found it rather cruel, as opposed to fun. This is one of the bigger disappointments of 2026 for me, which I legitimately hate to say.

Obsession wants to be a crowd-pleasing fright flick, without question, but it just left a real bad taste in my mouth. I was on board for this monkey’s paw type tale, but as it progressed, it started to get particularly icky. There’s a cruelty towards the female characters that I don’t believe is intentional, but certainly colored things for me. What aspires to be a Zach Cregger style work can only gaze longingly at what Barbarian and Weapons managed to pull off.

Again, I’m really interested in seeing what these budding auteurs do next, even if their debut features didn’t work for me. Both of them are ahead of the curve with their direction, as opposed to anything else. Parsons didn’t write his film, but his handle on a whole production is still evolving. Barker both wrote and directed, and elements of both have grown on me, but on the whole the admittedly good performance from Inde Navarrette is the best part.

Now, this brings me to my other point, which is that “fans” of both films on the internet, especially X (shudder) are just being the worst. The Obsession review here at Awards Radar has a comments section basically divided down the middle between agreeing and disagreeing with me. That’s fine, and why I have it there in the first place. But, for that and Backrooms, to have people on social media essentially demand that I defend my take? C’mon. That’s just not how this works, beyond being incredibly dickish behavior.

So…be better people. Just, be better. Even if you don’t respect the fact that a critic is going to sometimes not like the thing you do, why not light a match, instead of cursing the darkness? I’ll never understand that sort of behavior.

Stay tuned for another Sunday Scaries installment next week!