Curry Barker

‘Obsession’ Takes Gen Z’s Social Anxiety to the Extreme

The following contains spoilers for the film Obsession. The premise of the hit horror movie Obsession may sound relatable: What if you had a totally debilitating crush on someone but were too afraid to confess your feelings to them? In the early scenes of the director Curry Barker’s feature debut, a 20-something record-store employee named Bear (played by Michael Johnston) can’t work up the nerve to ask out his co-worker Nikki (Inde Navarrette)—even when she demands to know, point-blank,...

Meet Hollywood’s new masters of horror: YouTubers

First came “Iron Lung,” a video game adaptation self-financed and distributed by YouTuber Markiplier that stunned the box office with a massive haul. Three months later, “Obsession,” a low-budget project from 26-year-old YouTuber Curry Barker, pulled off the rare feat of growing its box office take by 39% in its second weekend in theaters. This weekend, A24’s “Backrooms” — from 20-year-old YouTuber Kane Parsons — grossed a record-breaking $81.4 million in North America and $118 million...

Young YouTubers dominate the box office with 'Backrooms,' 'Obsession'

Young YouTubers are making big waves at the box office. Twenty-year-old Kane Parsons became the youngest director to have the No. 1 film at the box office with his new horror flick "Backrooms," which earned a whopping $81 million. "Backrooms" is a big screen adaptation of Parsons' 2022 found footage-style web series inspired from a 2019 image posted on the social platform 4chan.

Backrooms: The creepy internet phenomenon, explained

Backrooms: The creepy internet phenomenon, explained June 3, 2026In "Backrooms," Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a failed architect who runs a dreary discount furniture-store, drinking himself to sleep in his shop, depressed by his divorce. One day, he discovers a portal to a mysterious labyrinth of corridors with no apparent end. His therapist, Mary, is played by "Sentimental Value" star Renate Reinsve.

‘Scary Movie’ tops box office, slaying ‘Masters of the Universe’

The summer box office is booming — but not because of the usual suspects. After three weeks of indie horror dominance at the box office, the slasher spoof “Scary Movie” topped ticket sales with $55 million over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, easily besting the far-from-mighty “Masters of the Universe.” A new order has lately come to movie theaters, which have seen Gen Z ticket buyers flock to the horror hits “Obsession” and “Backrooms,” both made by...

Euronews Culture's Film of the Week: 'Obsession' - Don't always trust the bear

Low-budget horror flick 'Obsession' shatters box office expectations as new Star Wars film comes up short

'The Mandalorian and Grogu' collapses in second weekend at box office, cementing huge loss for Disney

The news just keeps getting worse for "The Mandalorian and Grogu," The Walt Disney Company, Lucasfilm, and by extension, the future of the Star Wars franchise. It was just over a decade ago that "The Force Awakens" became the highest-grossing movie, not adjusted for inflation, in the history of domestic U.S. box office. While deeply flawed and derivative, it at least attempted to set up a cohesive storyline for a new generation of Star Wars trilogy.

To YouTube and beyond: how online gen Z directors stormed Hollywood

Record-breaking box office for Backrooms and Obsession has opened the door for twentysomething YouTube creators as the industry rethinks what audiences wantAt this time last year, the idea of a wide-release feature film-maker cutting their teeth on YouTube was, if not unheard of, certainly still a niche origin story. Siblings Michael and Danny Philippou had just released Bring Her Back, the follow-up to their surprise horror hit Talk to Me, to pretty-good reviews and OK box office; clearly...

To YouTube and beyond: how online gen Z directors stormed Hollywood

Record-breaking box office for Backrooms and Obsession has opened the door for twentysomething YouTube creators as the industry rethinks what audiences wantAt this time last year, the idea of a wide-release feature film-maker cutting their teeth on YouTube was, if not unheard of, certainly still a niche origin story. Siblings Michael and Danny Philippou had just released Bring Her Back, the follow-up to their surprise horror hit Talk to Me, to pretty-good reviews and OK box office; clearly...