A person stands in silhouette outside of a car at night in 'Obsession' Image via Focus Features

Published Oct 24, 2026, 9:15 AM EDT

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There’s a good chance that anyone revisiting Obsession is paying considerably more attention to Nikki than to little details in the background, like the scenery outside a car window. That’s understandable. But the next time you watch Curry Barker’s horror movie, the buildings might deserve a little attention, too.

In a new interview with Collider’s Maggie Lovitt, Barker revisited the experience of making Obsession, from working through production challenges to watching the finished movie with some distance from the edit. Asked how many times he has seen it, he offered an estimate that should make even the most committed repeat viewers feel better about their ticket purchases. “So I've probably seen it over 200 times,” he said, before adding, “I couldn't actually count, but like a lot, you know.”

When Lovitt asked about a particularly difficult scene, Barker pointed to the movie's car sequences. The director explained that the scenery outside the windows came from an LED wall, and that setup left a detail in the finished movie that viewers can still spot:

“Sometimes we would see the same building passing over and over. Like if you watch the movie as of as of now, you'll see them like passing the same building over and over again, because that was just like the loop of video that we had. And I think I was pretty frustrated with that when I was in the edit, but we just didn't have the budget to fix that later in post or anything, so it's it's just still there in the movie.”

Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes What Is Your Biggest Horror Nightmare? Elm Street · Chucky · Scream · The Conjuring

Four horror franchises. Four completely different ways of scaring you. One waits until you fall asleep. One makes sure nobody believes you. One is already in your group of friends. And one is in the house with your family. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually watch horror, and find out which nightmare was built for you.

😴Elm Street(Freddy Krueger)

🧸Chucky(Child's Play)

📞Scream(Ghostface)

🕯️The Conjuring(The Warren Files)

FIND YOUR NIGHTMARE →

01

Which horror scene makes you cover your eyes? Four classic images. One of them is worse than the others for you.

ASomebody falling asleep when they really should not. BA toy that has moved, and nobody touched it. CA phone ringing in an empty house. DA child talking to somebody who is not there.

NEXT QUESTION →

02

You are home alone and you hear a noise. First thought? Everybody has one. It arrives before you have decided anything.

AI am exhausted and my mind is playing tricks on me. BSomething in this room is not where I left it. CSomebody is in here with me. DThis house has never felt entirely right.

NEXT QUESTION →

03

Which horror movie rule would you break first? Everybody thinks they would survive. Almost nobody actually does.

ANever fall asleep. BNever leave it out of your sight. CNever answer the phone. DNever go down to the basement.

NEXT QUESTION →

04

Something genuinely frightening happens. What do you do? Not in a film. In your actual living room, tonight.

AConvince myself I imagined the whole thing. BTell someone, and brace for them not believing me. CWork out which person I know could be behind it. DGet everybody in the house into one room.

NEXT QUESTION →

05

How do you actually watch a horror film? Be honest about this one. Nobody is checking.

AFine during. Wide awake at two in the morning. BShouting at the screen that nobody is listening. CCalling the twist out loud before it lands. DThrough my fingers, holding on to something.

NEXT QUESTION →

06

Somebody offers you serious money. Which do you still refuse? The amount does not matter. There is one on this list you are not doing.

AFall asleep in a room I have never been in before. BKeep an old doll on the shelf facing my bed. CAnswer every unknown number that calls after midnight. DSpend one night alone in a house with a history.

NEXT QUESTION →

07

Which feeling stays with you a week after the film? Good horror does not stop when the credits do.

ANot wanting to turn the bedroom light off. BNot trusting one particular object in my house. CLooking twice at people I have known for years. DFeeling like something came home with me.

NEXT QUESTION →

08

Something wakes you at 3am. What is the worst possibility? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your nightmare.

AThat I am still asleep, and it knows it. BThat the thing nobody believed me about is here. CThat somebody with a key is downstairs. DThat something is in the doorway, watching us sleep.

REVEAL MY NIGHTMARE →

The Lights Just Went Out Your Nightmare Is…

Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what it would leave behind.

Elm Street

Your nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever won that particular argument.

  • Freddy is horror's cruellest idea: a threat that lives in the one place you cannot guard, cannot lock, and cannot avoid forever.
  • You are the one who is fine during the film and wide awake at two in the morning. Your own head is where this does its damage.
  • These films understood exhaustion as a horror engine. The kids on Elm Street do not lose because they are weak. They lose because they are tired.
  • You can lock every door in the house. You still have to sleep.

Chucky

Your nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it.

  • Chucky works precisely because he is absurd. That is the trap: the more accurately you describe him, the less anybody is going to believe you.
  • You are the one shouting at the screen because the characters are not listening. You know that feeling from real life too.
  • The franchise is at its best when the adults in the room are the real obstacle, and you have met those adults.
  • By the time somebody finally believes you, you will have handled most of it on your own.

Scream

Your nightmare has your number, knows your name, and has almost certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them.

  • Scream is the only one of these where the killer takes the mask off and turns out to be somebody who was at the party.
  • You are the person who calls the twist out loud before it lands. You watch people the same way you watch films.
  • The franchise made the rules of horror part of the plot, which means the survivors are the ones paying attention. You would be paying attention.
  • Everybody is a suspect, including the person who just offered to walk you home.

The Conjuring

Your nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving.

  • The Conjuring films are domestic horror. The house, the family, the perfectly ordinary room that quietly stops feeling ordinary.
  • Your instinct is to get everybody into one room. Your fear is protective rather than personal, which is rarer than it sounds.
  • This is the one franchise where belief is the weapon. The people who come through it are the ones who are not alone and refuse to be.
  • Whatever is here did not come for you. It came for the household, and you are the one standing in the hallway.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

Curry Barker Had a Different Experience Watching ‘Obsession’ With Fresh Eyes

The conversation also returned to Barker’s experience revisiting the movie after spending some time away from it. Lovitt asked whether subsequent screenings had changed his impression of particular scenes, and Barker recalled returning to the beginning of the movie in a theater after a break of at least a couple of months, telling Collider:

“I didn't even watch the whole thing, but I rewatched the beginning of it in the theater, and I kind of was like, whoa, like it was the first time I'd had any experience of seeing it with fresh eyes ever. And I was just like, wow, this has like an interesting, eerie type of nostalgic— like all the feelings that I was trying to achieve. I was obsessed with like trying to achieve this certain feeling. And I always was so disappointed that I wasn't able to achieve that feeling, but I think I did. I was just too close to it. So, re-watching it, I felt that feeling that I've been chasing.”

‘Obsession’s Reach Beyond the Movie Was Something Curry Barker Never Expected

Nikki from 'Obsession's 'Fortnite' skin. Image via Epic Games

Lovitt also asked about Nikki’s appearances in Fortnite and at Halloween Horror Nights. It’s a different sort of question from how to pull off a car scene, and Barker had plenty to say about it. “That's gotta be the craziest part,” he said, before discussing the expectations filmmakers encounter when starting out. He explained:

“Everyone kind of tries to tell you what it's gonna be and how you're how it's gonna be. And I think your characters showing up in Fortnite, your characters showing up at theme parks, those types of conversations don't ever really start until you've created some sort of IP, or you've created some sort of, you know, series or some giant so really it's just insane that this has happened to this movie and that it's kind of I guess I did create an IP, but I never would have thought about it like that.”

Stay tuned to Collider for more from our Obsession interviews.

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Release Date May 15, 2026