5 Best Movies Like Obsession
by Devin Meenan · /FilmCurry Barker's "Obsession" is already looking like the breakout horror movie of 2026, having gotten critical acclaim (read /Film/s "Obsession" review here), and on track to potentially gross $100 million at the box office on a budget of around $1 million.
Ever had a crush on someone so bad you wish they would just come to you, sparing you the risks of embarrassment or heartache? That's the situation Bear (Michael Johnston) is in during "Obsession," nursing a longtime crush on his friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette). After stumbling over his words trying to ask her out, he impulsively uses a novelty "One Wish Willow" toy, wishing Nikki would love him more than anything in the world. He gets his wish, but anyone familiar with the tale of "The Monkey's Paw" can guess where this is going.
Much of the praise for "Obsession" has highlighted Navarette's transcendent performance. Bear's wish didn't merely change Nikki's thinking — rather, it appears to have created an entirely separate entity who is dutifully infatuated with Bear, displacing the original Nikki and leaving her trapped inside her body. Barker often frames Nikki bathed completely in shadow, because a shadow of the real Nikki is all that's left. The movie wisely doesn't waste time with too much exposition about how exactly the possession works, though. Having to read between the lines is way creepier.
Barker clearly knows his horror movies, with "Obsession" paying homage to, among others, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's terrifying "Pulse." Here are five other scary movies that'll in turn scratch the same itch that "Obsession" does.
Possession
Andrzej Żuławski's 1981 "Possession" spent decades as a hard-to-find film. Even into the streaming era, it's often been a movie that takes some investigative effort to find. While that kept it out of the public eye, horror fans never forgot "Possession," a now bona fide cult classic.
A French-German co-production set in the latter country, a spy named Mark (Sam Neill) discovers his wife Anna (Isabelle Adjani) is leaving him for another man ... only her new lover may not be a human at all. "Possession" is told in the style of Lovecraftian cosmic horror as the dissolution of one marriage coincides with nuclear apocalypse.
"Possession" is especially remembered for Isabelle Adjani's unnerving performance. She has a minutes-long solo scene of Anna suffering a miscarriage and an utter mental breakdown in a subway tunnel, spewing blood and running around like in a fit of violent dancing. Even out of context you can tell what marvelous physical acting it is. With the renewed popularity of "Possession," Adjani's subway scene-stealer has become the blueprint for several young horror actresses, from Nell Tiger Free in "The First Omen" to, yes, Inde Navarrette in "Obsession."
Take the party scene where the "real" Nikki briefly breaks free and smashes her head, laughing as blood runs down her face. She moves her body as if something else — something not used to being human — is wearing her like a skin suit, the way Adjani does in "Possession." Both "Obsession" and "Possession" explore the terror of doppelgangers, while also knowing the power of not explaining the scary stuff.
Audition
Of these films, the one that's most like "Obsession" story-wise is Takashi Miike's "Audition," a deceptively terrifying J-Horror film that had its earliest audiences berating Miike himself. There's no supernatural story device in "Audition," granted, but both are horror films about a lonely man getting his dream girl and paying the price for it.
Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) is a widower who wants to get back into dating, but rather than just doing so honestly, he and his movie producer friend hold "auditions." They send out a casting call supposedly for an actress, when really it's a way for Shigeharu to choose which of these young women he wants to date. He chooses ... poorly, being struck by the soft-spoken Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina).
Asami, who was sexually abused by her uncle in childhood, does not trust men. After learning Shigeharu was hiding his family from her, she paralyzes him and gleefully begins sawing off his limbs with piano wire. No matter how much you steel yourself for this scene, trust me, you are not ready for the camera to linger on wire cutting flesh and bone.
Aoyama's sins are obviously much lesser than Asami's uncle, but they come from the same root of men objectifying women. Think of his method of meeting a new woman, "auditioning" them under false pretenses so he can find the one who serves his own needs the best. Aoyama and Bear in "Obsession" share the same mix of loneliness and selfish disinterest in the true selves of the women they desire, and both receive violent comeuppance for it.
Perfect Blue
Both "Obsession" and Satoshi Kon's "Perfect Blue" are horror films about men's covetous attraction to women — how the line between romance and, well, obsession is razor-thin. While "Obsession" tells this from the perspective of the cowardly "nice guy" fixated on his female friend, "Perfect Blue" focuses on the fracturing POV of a stalked woman.
Mima (Junko Iwao) is a pop star moving into an acting career on a crime drama, but not all of her fans appreciate the career pivot. An obsessive fan named Uchida (Masaaki Ōkura) is particularly displeased by the adult content of Mima's new work, telling himself an imposter has replaced "his" Mima — and he might just kill to get her back. Thanks to those external pressures, Mima's own self-image splits. Throughout the movie she's often haunted by apparitions of her childish pop star self, taunting her that she is the "real" Mima.
Compare the dual consciousness of Nikki in "Obsession," another young woman forced to be someone she isn't. Throughout the movie the true Nikki tries to send messages to Bear and her friends that the obsessed-with-Bear Nikki isn't her, but they fall on deaf ears. In "Perfect Blue," we see a similar (though not supernatural) struggle from the inside.
"Perfect Blue" is a dark masterpiece that shows the heights of what animation can be, and perfectly predicted the shapes that celebrity culture and parasocial internet fandom would take in the 21st century. Give it a watch and I promise you'll walk away obsessed.
Companion
Inde Navarrette is the undisputed breakout star of "Obsession." Her performance as Nikki is sure to open every door available to her, whether it's to become a horror scream queen or drastically different roles. Another freshly minted movie star horror fans need to keep an eye on is Sophie Thatcher. While we await her upcoming performances in Nicolas Winding Refn's "Her Private Hell" and the final season of "Yellowjackets," the Thatcher-led "Companion" is a must watch.
Thatcher plays Iris, the devoted girlfriend of Josh (Jack Quaid) who, on what was meant to be a quiet weekend getaway, discovers she's actually a "companion" robot programmed to love her beau. Josh intends to use Iris as the fall girl for a murder, and the movie turns into a chase as she tries to not only retain her freedom but truly grasp autonomy.
Both "Obsession" and "Companion" (directed by Drew Hancock) fit neatly into the horror subgenre of men controlling women. "Companion" is only the latest movie to use A.I. girlfriends for this allegory. Though there is violence aplenty in "Companion," the movie also strikes a bit of a different mood than "Obsession." Both are crowd-pleasing roller coasters with the right sense of humor, but where "Obsession" goes for skin-crawling creepiness until the very end, "Companion" is ultimately triumphant. Even if you know the twists of "Companion" ahead of time, it's still a ride you should take.
Talk to Me
"Obsession" director Curry Barker fits into a pattern of young filmmakers who started out as YouTube stars then used their online success as a launchpad for making feature films. If you didn't know, Barker is one part of the online sketch comedy duo "that's a bad idea" — his co-star Cooper Tomlinson acts in "Obsession" as Ian. See also Chris Stuckmann's "Shelby Oaks," Markiplier's box office smash "Iron Lung," etc.
Besides Barker, the YouTubers-turned-horror filmmakers who've shown some of the strongest chops are twins Danny and Michael Philippou. The filmmaking duo debuted with 2022's "Talk to Me," about a group of Australian teenagers who discover an embalmed hand that can contact the spirits of dead people. They use it recklessly, in a pretty clear allegory for getting high, but Mia (Sophie Wilde) is drawn in too deep by the hope of reconnecting with her dead mother.
Both "Talk to Me" and the Philippous' follow-up feature "Bring Her Back" use the all-too common theme of many contemporary horror movies, where the horror is but a metaphor for the protagonists' trauma and/or a previous loss. Like "Obsession," "Talk to Me" has a mean sense of playfulness, and is all too happy to subject its characters to some gruesome nastiness for your viewing pleasure.