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Obsession and Backrooms

Fred Hawson

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1781070455074obessoiom.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/></div><p>In the last two weeks, there had been a couple of horror movies that are making a lot of news. Both of them have been directed by young directors who had their start releasing their original content on YouTube.</p><p>The first one was written and directed by Curry Barker, 26 years old. The second one was directed by Kane Parsons, 20 years old. What is more remarkable now is that their two low-budget films have now grossed more than $200 million worldwide at the box office. </p><div><br/></div><div><strong>OBSESSSION</strong></div><p><strong></strong>Director: Curry Barker</p><p>Writer: Curry Barker<strong></strong><br/></p><p>Bear (Michael Johnston) worked with his friends Ian (Cooper Tomlinson), Sarah (Megan Lawless) and Nikki (Inde Navarrette) at a music store. He had a big crush on Nikki but was very shy to tell her. Bear saw an item in a crystal shop called One Wish Willow, a stick that claimed it can fulfill one wish of the person who broke it into two. When he dropped Nikki at her home one night, Bear broke the stick and wished for Nikki to love him more than anyone in the world. Right after, Nikki invited him into her house, then into bed with her. </p><p>Curry Barker only spent $750,000 budget for this film so its multi-million fortunes now is most impressive. Michael Johnston may be too awkward (on purpose?) as Bear, but Inde Navarrette impressed as her poor unhinged Nikki broke us emotionally. Curry&#x27;s concept of the One Wish Willo&quot; carried the film through, showing the horrible consequences of causing love to happen by unnatural means. There are scenes of violence here that startle and shock, so fasten your seatbelts as this horror-romcom does not hold back.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>BACKROOMS</strong></div><p>Director: Kane Parsons</p><p>Writer: Will Soodik</p><p>Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) owned a furniture store called Cap&#x27;n Clark&#x27;s Ottoman Empire, which was not doing very well. Aside from this, he was also having issues with alcoholism and his divorce for which he was seeing a therapist Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve). One day while investigating electrical disturbances in his store, he saw a glowing slit in one of the walls of the basement. He fell right through that wall and wound up in a whole new wide space of maze-like corridors, lit up by bright overhead fluorescent lights with odd stuff scattered around.  </p><p>It started with a dizzying 1990 video of a man that was stumbling around a strange maze of brightly-lit corridors which reminded me of the &quot;Blair Witch Project,&quot; which really gave me a bad case of vertigo. Fortunately, &quot;Backrooms&quot; was not like this all the way through. To the end, it never really explained what was really going on, but it did try to connect the labyrinthine passageways to human psychology as we forge our way through the unknowns of our lives. Oscar-caliber Ejiofor and Reinsve and the unnerving production design elevated it. </p><div><br/></div><p>This review was originally published in the author&#x27;s blog, “<a href="https://said-fred.blogspot.com/2026/06/mini-reviews-of-obsession-and-backrooms.html">Fred Said</a>.”</p>

<p>They started on YouTube. Now they're topping the box office. ‘Obsession’ and ‘Backrooms’ showcase a new generation of horror directors making their mark on Hollywood.</p>

They started on YouTube. Now they're topping the box office. ‘Obsession’ and ‘Backrooms’ showcase a new generation of horror directors making their mark on Hollywood.

‘Obsession’ and ‘Backrooms’ reviews: Young YouTubers score horror hits

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‘Obsession’ and ‘Backrooms’ reviews: Young YouTubers score horror hits

Fred Hawson

Published June 10, 2026 01:52 PM PHT

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movie review

Backrooms

Obsession

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