We’re midway via 2026, and lots of the greatest titles — together with Christopher Nolan‘s most bold movie but, The Odyssey, and Dune: Half Three — are but to reach. Nevertheless, that does not imply we have not discovered the defining movie of 2026 but, with one launch completely capturing the insatiable starvation from audiences for brand spanking new tales, the present peak of a beloved theatrical style, and the breakout second for a sure-fire Hollywood celebrity.
After all, we’re speaking about Focus Options’ Obsession, directed by YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Curry Barker, and starring the Oscars-bound Inde Navarrette. Not solely has the movie been heralded as among the best of its form this decade, however it has additionally damaged quite a few data in its unstoppable field workplace run, together with changing into the highest-grossing film with a sub-$1 million funds of all time. However all good issues deserve a associate, and among the easiest movies are loved alongside a second characteristic. So, with that in thoughts, listed here are seven good double options to look at with Obsession.
1
‘Backrooms’ (2026)
Picture through A24
There’s actually no higher double-feature possibility for Obsession than the opposite horror movie that has gone viral at the exact same time. Directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons, who himself broke a file by changing into the youngest individual ever to open at #1 on the North American field workplace, Backrooms follows the invention of a labyrinthine other-world inside a furnishings retailer, and the various evil secrets and techniques it hides.
Led by Renate Reinsve and Chiwetel Ejiofor, this creepy horror is predicated on a viral web story, as the net world continues to seep into our theaters with great success. Each a terrifically chilling instance of jaw-dropping set design and a neat exploration of accountability and self-reflection, Backrooms is the right double characteristic possibility for Obsession, and never simply because they’re each in theaters on the identical time.
2
‘It Follows’ (2014)
Jay wanting in shock as one other lady holds her by the shoulders in It FollowsPicture through RADiUS-TWC
Key to the success of Obsession is its detailed examination of the world’s present relationship with relationships, particularly how consent is known. For one more horror movie that captures the sexual zeitgeist and battles with consent in its personal clever manner, look no additional than David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows.
Boasting a central efficiency that cemented Maika Monroe as a modern-day scream queen, It Follows is, at its coronary heart, a really terrifying movie, that includes some of the horrifying leap scares of the twenty first century. However its less-than-subtle metaphor for sexually transmitted illness is what helped it stand out among the many horror crowd in 2014, and it’s beautifully related 12 years later.
3
‘Companion’ (2025)
Picture through Warner Bros.
Relationships are the recent matter of horror movies this decade, and that’s indicative of a world presently fearing codependency and consistently uncovered to terrifying examples of romance-gone-wrong. One of many gems of this area of interest sub-genre of horror arrived final 12 months within the type of Drew Hancock‘s Companion, the story of a sentient android (Sophie Thatcher) who turns into wrapped up in her proprietor’s (Jack Quaid) murderous plot to safe a fortune.
A home horror of the very best order, this intelligent, biting movie boasts a pair of terrific lead performances and a twisting plot that is not happy with simply dropping jaws. “It’s a genuinely humorous comedy, a suspenseful thriller, and has some fairly gnarly gore scenes as well,” wrote Emma Kiely in Collider’s evaluate, with this simply certainly one of gushing crucial responses to a real 2025 gem.
Collider Unique · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Greatest Likelihood of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky
5 killers. 5 utterly other ways to die — in case you’re not sensible sufficient, quick sufficient, or self-aware sufficient to keep away from it. Solely certainly one of them is the villain your specific set of instincts provides you a preventing probability towards. Eight questions will determine which one.
🏕️Jason
🔪Michael
💤Freddy
🎈Pennywise
🪆Chucky
01
One thing feels improper. You may’t clarify it — you simply know. What do you do? First instincts are the distinction between the survivor and the primary act casualty.
02
The place are you probably to seek out your self when issues go improper? Setting is the whole lot in horror. The place you’re determines which guidelines apply.
03
What’s your most dependable survival asset? Each survivor has a high quality the villain did not account for. What’s yours?
04
What sort of concern is hardest so that you can struggle via? Realizing your weak spot is step one to not dying due to it.
05
You are with a gaggle when issues begin going improper. What’s your position? Horror films are brutally clear about who survives group conditions and who would not.
06
What is the horror film mistake you are probably to make? Sincere self-assessment is a survival ability. Denial is just not.
07
What’s your finest weapon towards one thing that may’t be stopped by typical means? Each horror villain has a weak spot. The survivors are at all times those who discover it.
08
It is the ultimate scene. You are the final one standing. How did you make it? The ultimate survivor at all times has a cause. What’s yours?
Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Greatest Likelihood Is In opposition to…
Your instincts, your strengths, and your specific mind-set below strain level to at least one villain you even have a preventing probability towards. Everybody else — good luck.
Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the thirteenth
Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, however he’s additionally predictable — and that’s the hole you’ll exploit.
He strikes in straight traces towards his goal. He would not strategise, would not adapt, would not outsmart. He merely pursues.
Your potential to maintain transferring, use the surroundings, and resist the panic that freezes most victims provides you a real edge.
The Crystal Lake survivors have been at all times those who stopped operating in circles and began fascinated about terrain, water, and distance.
You assume like that. Which implies Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face somebody who merely refused to be the place he anticipated.
Haddonfield, Illinois · Halloween
Michael Myers
Michael watches earlier than he strikes. He’s affected person, methodical, and virtually not possible to detect — till it is too late for anybody who is not paying shut sufficient consideration.
However you’re paying consideration. You discover the form within the window, the automobile parked barely improper, the silence the place there needs to be sound.
Michael’s energy lies within the invisibility of odd suburbia — the truth that nothing ever appears improper till it already is.
Your spatial consciousness and intuition to map each room, each exit, and each shadow earlier than you want them is exactly the standard Laurie Strode had.
You aren’t a sufferer ready to occur. You might be somebody who already suspects one thing is improper — and acts on it.
Elm Road · A Nightmare on Elm Road
Freddy Krueger
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — utilizing your individual fears, your individual reminiscences, your individual unconscious as weapons towards you. That technique requires a goal who may be destabilised.
You might be tougher to destabilise than most. You have confronted uncomfortable truths about your self and you have not seemed away.
The survivors on Elm Road have been at all times those who understood what was occurring and selected to face it reasonably than flee from it.
Freddy’s best weak spot is that his energy evaporates within the presence of somebody who refuses to present him the concern he feeds on.
Your psychological resilience — the power to remain grounded when actuality itself turns into unreliable — is strictly the standard that retains you alive right here.
Derry, Maine · It
Pennywise
Pennywise is historical, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — however it has one crucial vulnerability: it can not perform towards somebody who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
The Losers Membership did not survive as a result of they have been braver than everybody else. They survived as a result of they confronted their fears collectively, and confronted them actually.
You ask the questions others keep away from. You look immediately at what frightens you reasonably than turning away.
That directness — the refusal to let concern fester in the dead of night — is Pennywise’s worst nightmare.
It selected the improper goal when it selected you. You might be precisely the type of individual whose concern tastes like nothing in any respect.
Chicago · Kid’s Play
Chucky
Chucky’s best benefit is that no one takes him significantly till it is already too late. He exploits the hole between how one thing appears and what it really is.
You do not have that hole. You are taking threats significantly no matter how they current — and also you by no means make the error of underestimating one thing due to its dimension or look.
Chucky depends on shock, on the delay between recognition and response. You shut that delay sooner than virtually anybody.
Your intuition to deal with each unfamiliar factor with applicable scepticism — reasonably than dismissing it as a result of it appears absurd — is the precise high quality that retains you respiration.
In opposition to Chucky, not laughing is already profitable. You might be excellent at not laughing.
4
‘Possession’ (1981)
Shut-up of Sam Neill as Mark’s doppelgänger and Isabelle Adjani as Anna with manic appears on their faces in PossessionPicture through Gaumont
The non secular predecessor to Obsession, Possession, the 1981 horror favourite by Andrzej Żuławski, explores the downfall of a wedding, as a girl spirals uncontrolled following her husband’s request for divorce. Nevertheless, when infidelity is uncovered, a hunt for the reality quickly exposes one thing rather more sinister, ripped straight from essentially the most ugly of sci-fi horror tales.
Some of the viscerally fascinating horror experiences of all time, Possession won’t have actually impressed Obsession, however its tone is felt all through. Director Żuławski had been via a bitter, upsetting divorce of his personal, and used the movie as a cathartic expression of his ache, with the uncooked, unfiltered thoughts of the person exploding into horror gold.
5
‘Black Swan’ (2010)
Picture through Fox Searchlight Photos
Who knew ballet could possibly be so scary? Nicely, clearly, Darren Aronofsky did when he crafted some of the intense films of the century to date in Black Swan. Led by Natalie Portman, the movie follows a ballerina’s pursuit of perfection in her craft, as her place because the prima ballerina in Swan Lake is threatened by the arrival ofa newcomer, Lily (Mila Kunis).
The determined hunt for perfection can shortly flip into an obsession, with Nina changing into indifferent from actuality and fascinating in self-abusive habits consequently. This could sound like a well-recognized idea to Obsession followers, with Nikki and Nina oddly related. Black Swan was nominated for a formidable 5 Academy Awards in early 2011, with Portman swanning away with the prize for Greatest Actress in some of the well-earned wins of the last decade.
6
‘Pearl’ (2022)
Picture through A24
Simply the above picture alone is paying homage to Navarrette’s already iconic grin, pained by the fact that hides behind it. The smile is that of Pearl (Mia Goth), who beams from ear to ear as her husband returns house to a gory crime scene, very similar to Bear’s arrival from work to see that Nikki has fairly actually waited in situ for him in Obsession.
The second installment in Ti West‘s X movie collection, Pearl is among the shining lights of 2020s horror. Goth’s efficiency because the titular serial killer is completely unhinged, however, like Navarrette, she would not merely depend on the chaos of her actions to be watchable. As an alternative, Goth imbues the character with deeply tragic emotion, together with her and Navarratte delivering two of the defining feminine horror performances this decade to date.
7
‘Distress’ (1990)
Kathy Bates and James Caan in ‘Distress’.Picture through Columbia Photos
In terms of the cinematic depiction of obsession, have any ever been higher than Annie Wilkes in Distress, the variation of Stephen King‘s 1987 novel? Kathy Bates‘ efficiency is pitch-perfect, strolling the tightrope between disturbing and darkly humorous. For her bother, she turned the primary lady ever to win the Greatest Actress Oscar for a efficiency in a horror film, one thing that Navarrette herself would possibly simply replicate subsequent 12 months.
Bates’ Annie is seemingly innocent and virtually mouse-like once we first meet her. Nevertheless, behind the quiet smile is the terrifying thoughts of an obsessed fan, who transforms from the rescuer of James Caan‘s Paul Sheldon into his, effectively, greatest fan. A masterful adaptation that has since outlined the horror style, Distress is a must-watch and an ideal double characteristic with Obsession.
