“Obsession” and “Backrooms”: Gen Z is Reinvigorating Modern Horror

In an industry full of generic blockbusters, horror films are proving to be a needed breath of fresh air. This week we analyze the surprises of the season: Obsession and Backrooms.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably have heard of two little horror films being the center of attention since May: Curry Barker’s Obsession, released on May 15th, and Kane Parsons’ Backrooms, on May 29th. 

Belonging to the same genre is not the only thing these projects have in common: they were both directed by YouTubers under the age of thirty, and they were made on small budgets. 

I know I’m arriving at the trend a little late, but I wanted to have a wider perspective of what was happening here before coming to any conclusions. After all, two newcomers outshining big studio movies is not something you see every day. 

But before analyzing how all this is impacting the current entertainment landscape, let’s take a quick look at these two trendy films. 

Obsession 

The film tells the story of Bear, a shy young man who is in love with his best friend Nikki. One night, frustrated by his inability to confess his feelings to her, Bear breaks a “One Wish Willow”, a novelty toy which claims to grant one wish, to make Nikki fall for him. To his shock, the toy actually works. However, soon he will discover that the wish comes at a dark price.

While Obsession does not reinvent the genre in any way, its simplicity and lack of pretension are one of its strongest qualities. The film knows how to exploit a story that is small and self-contained, with few characters and locations, and use all these elements to their fullest. The practical effects are also much appreciated. Curry Barker did wonders with a budget of only $1,000,000, pretty impressive at a time when  more expensive productions manage to look very cheap in comparison. 

But the project’s biggest assets are, without a doubt, the leading actors. Both Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette’s performances sustain the film and elevate a simple story to something memorable. Navarrette deserves all the praise she is getting: there are scenes where she comes close to the magnetism of Mia Goth in Pearl, one of my personal favorite performances of the past few years.

Backrooms

Backrooms unfolds in two different directions: first, we have Clark, an alcoholic with a struggling marriage who finds an entrance to the backrooms at his furniture store. Then there is Mary, Clark’s therapist, who is trying to cope with the memories of her traumatic childhood. A portion of the film focuses on Clark’s exploration and mapping of the strange place, right until he and his two young employees go missing. After receiving a cryptic message from her patient on her answering machine, Mary decides to visit the store to investigate.

I’m not trying to avoid spoilers, the film’s plot is just that vague.

What captivated me the most from the first minutes was the excellent handling of suspense. Clark’s discovery and initial exploration of the backrooms had me on the edge of my seat. 

Setting the story in the 1990s was a smart choice, for the use of analog technology works very well with the concept, and adds an extra layer of difficulty and uncertainty to the documentation of the parallel universe.  

I must say the film does not have the strongest characters. The actors do a good job, but Clark and Mary are not all that compelling. Some more straightforward information about them would have come in handy. And maybe my main criticism is that, given that the film strongly teases a sequel, I would have loved for the “creature” lurking in the backrooms to remain unseen in the first installment. 

While I generally dislike films that keep their plot and ending vague, in this case I think it’s in favor of the story to not explain too much right away. Now that it has been established that Async is at the center of the mystery, it would not be difficult to make more movies, all introducing different characters, and explaining it little by little. In fact, I believe Kane Parsons’ original web series was following that route. It’s too soon to tell if Backrooms is going to work as a franchise, but I’m interested. 

The Box Office Surprises of The Year

As I mentioned before, both films were made with small budgets, but their situation is not exactly the same. 

Obsession was written, directed and edited by Curry Barker, who worked with three production companies, on a budget of $1,000,000. The film premiered at TIFF, and the distribution rights were acquired by Focus Features. Its level of success in theaters exceeded all the expectations.

Even though the backrooms as a concept comes from 4chan forums, Kane Parsons used it as a starting point to develop his own web series on YouTube, in 2022. After it went viral, many studios approached him to produce a movie adaptation. Backrooms ended up being  a joint production by A24 and three other studios, and had a budget of $10,000,000. Parsons served as director and also participated in the score of the film. The popularity of the creepypasta and the web series, as well as the backing of A24 gave Backrooms more visibility and potential. A lot of people were aware of the project’s release.

One way or another, these two horror movies have been in theatres since May, with releases only two weeks apart, and during that time, they both have gone head to head with big studio films with budgets of over $100,000,000. 

The Mandalorian and Grogu and Masters of the Universe, both from huge IPs, were released on May 22nd and June 5th respectively, and finished behind Backrooms and Obsession this past weekend at the domestic box office. The only movies that could top them were Toy Story 5 (which was to be expected for its opening weekend) and Disclosure Day in its second weekend. However, looking at the chart, we can see that Spielberg’s movie does not have a huge advantage. 

Scary Movie 6, while quite profitable due to its low budget, is also falling behind in its third weekend.  

In conclusion, 2026 is officially the year of small horror movies. As rare as it may seem, this is no coincidence, but something that has been cooking in the background for a while. 

Low Budget & Youtubers: Why Does it Work?

The way I see it, the Obsession/Backrooms phenomenon comes out of a combination of factors. The core one being the severed relationship between Hollywood and the audience. 

Even though the process can be traced back to roughly a decade ago, over the last five years we’ve reached a point where big studio movies have become so unwatchable, that people have started to move on. There is not even a huge outrage anymore; just cold, plain, indifference. To set a recent example, look at the promotion for Supergirl: the lead actress is going out of her way to annoy potential viewers, in her best Rachel Zegler style, but the response has not been that intense. Yes, some content creators are making videos about it, but it is mostly just for the fun of it. No one cares; no one expects anything different. A superhero film, which ten years ago would have been an event, is now struggling to sell tickets for fan screenings. 

The horror genre has always had a loyal fan community, but small productions have been gaining ground for a while. Horror projects can be done with little money, and turn a huge profit if they get the attention of the general audience. And if you have been paying attention, you know that some horror movies have been more anticipated by the public, and ended up being way more culturally relevant than the usual blockbusters, especially after the pandemic. There has been an obvious change in consumers’ habits; people are sick of movies that taste mass produced, and there is a huge interest in seeing more personal projects. In short, audiences have never been so receptive and many aspiring directors and writers have seen the opening.

Last, but not least, YouTube has slowly but surely consolidated into the main source of information and entertainment for a lot of people. And YouTubers, many of whom have been held responsible by studios and legacy media for “spreading hate” (AKA complaining about current entertainment quality) have something Hollywood lost a long time ago: the audience’s good will. 

Gen Z: A Generation Lost Between Technological Eras

As a member of this beaten up generation, I would also like to point out the fact that both Backrooms and Obsession are original movies, made for Gen Z by Gen Z. 

After more than a decade of sequels, prequels, reboots, reimaginations, and all these words that are synonyms for “recycled”, we are a generation that has had very few movies that we can call our own. I’ll be forever grateful for having beautiful childhood movies to look back on, but for my teenage years, and adult life so far, I cannot think of many movies that have marked a cultural moment. Most of the things we have been receiving for the past years are the reheated leftovers of products that were made decades ago.

I think both movies are a direct response to the general hunger for new stories, but at the same time, they touch on topics that resonate with my generation. The most prevalent is loneliness. In some way, Gen Z, especially the oldest members, have become caught up in the online world and lost fundamental social abilities. But unlike from Gen Alpha, we remember life before technology took over; and I think the older we get, the more we realize what we have lost. We have tools and access to information that our parents did not have, yet we struggle to find the emotional and social stability that seemed to come so easily to them. 

Both Obsession and Backrooms introduce characters who are alone and depressed, that have potential, but do not know how to use it, and who go to extremes to find a semblance of control. This may not be a conscious move on the creatives’ part, but there is a clear tendency. 

Disastrous as we are (I’m aware we have a ton of problems), I believe that, as any other generation before us, we deserve good movies that speak to our struggles and experiences. I’m glad that some fellow Gen Zers are taking matters into their own hands. 

Perhaps in a few years we can expand to other genres and have good dramas and romcoms again. My fingers are crossed.