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Even though the year is only a little over halfway done, movie lovers would be shocked if there's a more inspiring cinematic underdog story in 2026 than the astonishing critical and financial accomplishments of Obsession. With a highly modest budget estimated to be slightly under $1 million, Curry Barker's zeitgeist-sparking indie horror has already accumulated over $400 million globally — and counting! Cinema lovers are truly obsessed.
Yet, in the grand scheme of psychological thrillers, Obsession might be popular, but it doesn't hold a candle to these other titles. Here are eight films that ultimately rank higher than this year's indie horror sensation.
Rob Reiner's Misery Is A Squirm-Inducing Delight
As this article will ultimately detail, several films explore the fine line between one's admiration for someone they love and their dangerous need to gain or lord control over them. One of the finest and most famous examples of this is, of course, Rob Reiner's cinematic adaptation of Stephen King's novel Misery.
Much like Obsession, this hair-raising '90s thriller is elevated by its outstanding lead performance from its commendable central actress. In this case, Kathy Bates deservedly won an Oscar for, and made a hell of a name for herself with, her remarkable performance as Annie Wilkes, a nurse caring for her favorite novelist who forces her captive to succumb to her increasingly unstable demands.
As he demonstrated numerous times as a producer and director, Reiner became one of the finest translators of King's work from page to screen. In fact, in many respects, Misery, the movie, outshines the book, particularly through its splashy suspense, heightened moments of hysteria, and its punchy, unsuspecting hilarity.
This tale of toxic attachment and entitlement over one's affection continues to smash its competition by recognizing the pulpy thrills that make King's best-selling writing so engrossing, while also providing a richly entertaining critique of how fans' obsessive, often egomaniacal need to editorialize their favorite artists can result in dangerous and debilitating consequences.
Perfect Blue Is A Powerful Paranoia Picture
Obsession is at its most harrowing and ultimately effective when it gives the viewer an uncompromising look at Nikki's (played wonderfully by Inde Navarrette) true spirit or soul, as her adoring body is trapped by this man's Wishing Willow spell. While Curry Barker's fan-favorite film understandably follows the perspective of its shallow-minded male protagonist who gets in over his head, it's Nikki's point of view, especially when seen (or, more accurately, heard) in only small bits and pieces, that brings out the terror.
This fraught tension in a woman caught between her own sense of self and the image expected of her in the public's leering male gaze is similarly examined, with unnerving effect, in Satoshi Kon's mesmerizing and disturbing anime, Perfect Blue, one of the best animated films of the late '90s. It's such a deep and tragic shame that Kon would only make four films before his untimely passing. The anime filmmaker knew better than many others how to dive into the paranoia-driven, increasingly irrational mind of a person caught between two worlds and bring it to fluid, ravishingly beautiful cinematic life.
In its critique of toxic idol culture and how autonomy can be stripped away from a famous person when they're thrust ever deeper into the limelight, and especially whenever they try to change their well-established image, Perfect Blue is a compelling, continuously relevant commentary in its own warped right.
Possession Proves Powerfully Perplexing
It has taken some time, but especially in recent years, Andrzej Żuławski's magically mesmerizing horror film, Possession, has become recognized as one of the finest exemplars of its genre. This is especially true of its extraordinary central performances from the late, great Sam Neill and the absolutely astonishing Isabelle Adjani. Whether intentionally or not, it is safe to say that Inde Navarrette's standout work in Obsession is immensely indebted to Adjani's captivating work.
There is something so astonishingly raw in Żuławski's movie. It's hard to summarize properly. This captivating dissection of an imploding relationship doesn't seem grounded in reality, but it always feels as if it's on the dangerous edge of untold terrors that might slip into the realms of fiction. It's constantly infused with surreal, bizarre touches, leaving the viewer persistently wondering what might happen at any given time.
As these two would-be lovers become increasingly deluded inside their marriage, so too does the audience, feeling disillusioned and deranged alongside them. It's an astonishing feat, and one that wouldn't work without the incredible performances. The cult film is soon set to receive a remake, but it's hard to imagine how it will even come close to recreating this romantic pairing, so singularly diabolical.
Milk & Serial Proved Curry Barker Was Ready To Go Viral
Before making his big-screen introduction with his sophomore feature, writer-director Curry Barker opted to use his popular YouTube channel, That's a Bad Idea, to release his first filmmaking endeavor, Milk & Serial. It was an extremely low-budget found-footage thriller satire that proved the novice filmmaker had serious chops.
This hour-long DIY effort, which serves as a darkly compelling examination of extreme YouTube prankers and what can happen when one unwell person doesn't know when to stop joking with his bros, has Barker wearing multiple hats, notably as the movie's titular unhinged protagonist, Milk. While it's certainly much less viewed than Barker's highly profitable follow-up movie, it remains, in key ways, a better filmmaking accomplishment.
Much like Obsession, Milk & Serial shows what happens when a bad situation gets worse and worse. Through Barker's innate insider knowledge of YouTube and his keen awareness of its often-deranged online culture, this first-time filmmaker ratchets up the humor and terror with impressive precision.
It's easy to see how the young director would find the confidence that led to his sophomore feature becoming such a cultural phenomenon. Likewise, as Barker makes the most of his modest budget for Obsession, Milk & Serial's very frugal resources create a claustrophobic intensity. The result was a scathing online critique that proved that Barker was ready to go viral.
Ingrid Goes West Is An Influencer Satire Worth Obsessing Over
In an age of parasocial relationships, online stalking, and unassuming people not respecting the boundaries between social media acquaintances (at best) and real-life friends, a searing satire like Ingrid Goes West was bound to be made. Thankfully, this timely 2017 dark dramedy more than lives up to its potential, particularly with an extraordinary, career-best performance from Aubrey Plaza as a lonely and unstable young woman with an all-consuming, country-crossing super fixation on a peppy Instagram influencer (Elizabeth Olsen).
There's certainly a version of this movie that could've been broader, goofier, and sillier, perhaps like a female version of What About Bob? But to the credit of director Matt Spicer, Ingrid Goes West leans into its misanthropic potential and winds up in ample company with similarly engrossingly uncomfortable movies like Chuck & Buck, The King of Comedy, and Nightcrawler.
It's as richly relevant as it is observantly off-putting in the best ways possible. Horror and comedy are proper bedfellows; many comedies could turn into a proper horror movie if pushed to the right degree. Ingrid Goes West honors that thin hair difference at practically every unsettling turn, resulting in a deranged lark worth obsessing over.
It Follows Is A Meaningful Mortality Tale That Truly Lingers
Particularly when it comes to movies about young women caught in unending, anxiety-causing situations with supernatural forces beyond their control and/or understanding after a semi-romantic encounter, Obsession pales compared to David Robert Mitchell's It Follows, an unsettling, tension-filled, slow-burning examination of the series of stresses that come with young people moving farther and farther away from their increasingly waning innocence.
While once taken strictly as an STD metaphor, Mitchell's frightening sophomore feature is deeper and more probing than several initial viewers realized. The entity is left ambiguous, but it is clear that whatever it is, it'll come for everyone, whether folks are ready or not. There's no escaping morality in this life.
Indeed, many modern atmospheric movies have taken a cue from It Follows, and Obsession is no exception. It's easy to see how Curry Barker's film, which finds uncanny eeriness in its impressive use of vacant spaces and its increasingly claustrophobic tension, fittingly follows what Mitchell achieved in this tale of a stalker entity relentlessly pursuing its fixation(s).
Particularly with their similar synth-heavy scores and dark, shadowy imagery, It Follows and Obsession share a kindred look and feel. However, It Follows lingers in the mind more and ultimately proves to be a bit more restlessly unescapable, particularly as its influence carries on a decade later in several films, including its recently announced sequel.
Ruby Sparks Ignites An Inquisitive Female Gaze
One would likely be hard-pressed to say that 2012's Ruby Sparks, a deconstructive romantic comedy starring Zoe Kazan (who wrote the screenplay) and Paul Dano, is really a horror movie, or even a thriller. However, its compatibility with Obsession is pretty undeniable.
Both features center on mild-mannered men who idealize the perfect, adoring woman, only to realize that their quirky ideals don't exactly match stark reality. But where Obsession tracks in blunt, gory horror punctuated by stabs of dark humor, Ruby Sparks opts to take on the well-trotted "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" trope more directly, to equally humorous and heartbreaking results.
Beyond its tone and style, one core way that Ruby Sparks differentiates itself from Obsession is through the poignant female gaze that it offers to a genre — nay, a medium — primarily dominated by male writers and directors. In this case, the film, directed by Valerie Francis and Jonathan Dayton (Little Miss Sunshine), offers an amusing yet inquisitive journey into what it means to be gazed at, yet not truly seen.
Some of Obsession's better moments explore the inner torment from the real Nikki's hauntingly buried perspective, screaming to come out. Much like this year's hit horror movie, this reimagined rom-com reveals how men imagine women through an idealistic lens while failing to see the full picture. But Ruby Sparks doesn't spark the same bloodshed.
Fatal Attraction Is A Famously Freaky Feature
When it comes to psychological movies that center around women having increasingly lethal infatuations with measly men, Fatal Attraction is certainly one of the most famous and readily remembered examples. Sure, this erotic romantic thriller, starring Michael Douglas and an unforgettable, highly committed Glenn Close, hosts questionable sexual politics, not to mention a quite dubious portrayal of mental illness.
Nevertheless, it's stuffed with campy charm, melodramatic high stakes, and a stirring sense of building tension and paranoia, resulting in an entertainingly sleazy popcorn film with two dynamic leads. Even 40 years later, Adrian Lyne's popular favorite is one of the most enjoyably outlandish staples of its genre. This is a bunny-boiling good time.
There are several ways in which Obsession veers away from the influence of Lyne's freaky feature, notably in how writer-director Curry Barker, to his credit, makes the manipulative male more of a direct villain than the woman who becomes increasingly unhinged. But where Obsession can frequently become moody and morose, Fatal Attraction maintains a pulpy pulse, and it never loses sight of its super-silly sensationalism.
It's easy to see why Obsession speaks to the younger generation and to the now. However, Fatal Attraction, especially in its steamy, hacky Hitchcockian impulses, really knows how to get a rise out of people, in more ways than one.
