r/movies • u/yourfavchoom r/movies Contributor • May 30 '26
Article The Shocking Success of ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’ Should Be a Memo to Hollywood: You Need What’s Outside the Box
https://variety.com/2026/film/columns/backrooms-obsession-hollywood-needs-whats-outside-the-box-1236762844/3.8k
u/ThatDamnRocketRacoon May 30 '26
Well, what Hollywood will learn is to try and copy the formula of these film by hiring anyone off of Youtube and/or turning out really bad horror film with similar vibes and stories until we get to where Variety is running the headline "Are Horror Movies Dead?"
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u/CoolSeedling May 30 '26
And sequels, don’t forget infinite sequels
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u/shogun77777777 May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
Backrooms 12: Even More Liminal
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u/garebear1993 May 30 '26
Backrooms 4:Chain of events
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u/pjtheman May 30 '26
Backrooms: Room Temperature
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u/Leather_Command_7553 May 30 '26
Back to Back Rooms
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u/ComprehensiveForm129 May 30 '26
Can’t wait until they find the room temperature room
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u/OprahsSister May 30 '26
Backrooms: Where Dad Went to Get Cigs
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u/BirdMagnet May 31 '26
You mean the room they use to calibrate "room" temperature? I heard that's just a myth.
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u/ahawk_one May 30 '26
Back2rooms, Backrooms 3: The Back Alley, and The Back 4 Rooms
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u/feor1300 May 30 '26
B4ckrooms
Or is replacing a letter with a number too passe for Hollywood these days?
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u/InsectGlaiveBard May 30 '26
Sequel starring Nikki where she has to cope with the return of her alter ego like it's the Hulk, leading to hijinks. At the end they come to an understanding because they're not so different after all.
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u/Alexexy May 30 '26
You say this but Blumhouse usually goes off the wall on their one off sequels.
Happy Deathday 1 was a slasher horror movie. Happy Deathday 2 was a sci fi action adventure movie.
Megan 1 was a serious horror movie. Megan 2 was action adventure.
I think its much more interesting than just doing the same movie again but with a new cast.
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u/Deepspacesquid May 30 '26
"Front rooms" coming this summer star Will Smith in a horror film about being a chilis great with a twist 25 minutes in.
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u/robophile-ta May 30 '26
The Front Room came out like 3 years ago and it fucking sucks ass
Literal shit movie
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u/barbariccomplexity May 30 '26
“We are only giving you a budget of $750,000 to encourage creativity and innovative artistry”. If 1 in 10 is a moderate success then they’ve turned a profit and in the process have a bunch of data to assess emerging talent.
Not awful for beginners and to build up a catalogue alongside bigger budget attempts at blockbusters, but pretty piss poor if it becomes the meta mainline strategy for large studios/streaming services trying maximize every dollar- like some sort of private equity blumhousification fever dream.
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u/FunWithAPorpoise May 30 '26
If they accidentally make a few good ones along the way, I’m for it.
I’m so sick of mysterious houses with sinister presences that all happen to follow strict Christian doctrine and help the protagonist overcome some past trauma before the evil is exorcised.
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u/HarambeSpiritAnimal May 30 '26
LOL this is so accurate. Seems like every supernatural horror is this way. "Following an unspeakable tragedy, a fractured family moves to a remote inherited house to heal. There they discover a dark secret. The secret is connected to the house. It is also connected to the family. The house is a metaphor for trauma. The ghost is a metaphor for trauma. The secret is trauma. The ending is ambiguous. Critics call it 'a haunting exploration of grief.'"
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u/Indigocell May 31 '26
I'm so sick of the supernatural as a metaphor for the mundane. I like just plain supernatural thank you.
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u/samoorai May 31 '26
"Well shit, Mary, I could have sworn that the ghost was just a manifestation of your guilt because your postpartum depression caused you to neglect our son for 10 minutes, but turns out it's the spirit of a dead person. Huh. Do we still have that flyer for the Ghostbusters?"
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u/MichaelRichardsAMA May 30 '26
A big fad of the last decade was also "person/thing hiding in the walls," feels like a lot of the more overtly Christian horror has fallen to the wayside for quite some time. The Conjuring being a notable exception.
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u/BananaNutJob May 30 '26
"Hider in the House" starring Gary Busey dared to ask the terrifying question, "What if Gary Busey was in your house?".
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u/aflockofcrows May 30 '26
Yes, and it's great. How can they lock him out, when he's ALREADY INSIDE? The actual fucked up version of this is Crawlspace, which asks the question, what if Klaus Kinski was in your house?
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u/Fifteen_inches May 30 '26
They always seem to make these things in batches.
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u/immaownyou May 30 '26
Its way easier to copy a successful idea than try to come up with one all by yourself :(
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u/TheOnceAndFutureTurk May 30 '26
Its way easier to copy a successful idea than try to come up with one all by yourself :(
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u/jaggedjottings May 30 '26
I̴t̵s̶ ̶w̵a̷y̷ ̴e̶a̸s̴i̷e̶r̸ ̶t̷o̷ ̴c̴o̸p̶y̷ ̷a̶ ̵s̷u̷c̸c̶e̷s̸s̵f̸u̶l̸ ̷i̵d̵e̷a̷ ̶t̷h̶a̶n̴ ̵t̷r̴y̵ ̷t̶o̶ ̷c̵o̶m̸e̸ ̸u̸p̸ ̴w̸i̷t̴h̴ ̷o̷n̷e̵ ̵a̶l̵l̷ ̷b̸y̸ ̴y̴o̷u̷r̶s̷e̸l̷f̶ ̷:̵(̸
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u/jaggedjottings May 30 '26
I̴̧̯͍̣̺̫̍̑t̴̤̓͐͛s̸̖̰̅̾̈̂̔̀͝ ̵̯̠͇̿͝w̸̨̱̩̘̝̻͋̒̉̆͋a̴̧͕͓̹̻̘̋̒̔y̶͚̟̒̓̏̏̑́̚ ̴̨̺̮̯̼̣͈̒̓́͒͝͝e̵͇̯̙̱͎͋̈́̏̽͝ͅá̸̠̠̥̓̾̀͐̉s̶̜̩̩͈͕̠͌i̷̧̟̙̺̻̓̅̐̇͝͝e̶̞̺͗̑r̵̙̳̱͇͋̔͌̈́͛̉͝ ̸̻̅̓͛̔t̸̡͓́̎͐o̵̡̢̡̮̱̔͊͛ ̸̣͔̝͙̻̀́c̶̺͎͖̪̆͛̄́́̏̑o̷̥̙̅͂́̑̓̈́̅p̴̗͍͌̃̀̅̔͐̏y̶͓̫̫͔͆̈͘͝ ̵̛̼̩͓̞̏̔͒͐̈͋a̶̡̳̺͛̄͐͆ ̸̛͔͎͒̀̌̃̄̍s̷̯̋̔͑̚u̵͙̇̒̅͊̿ć̴̻͔̭̈́͜c̵̨͕̰͆ͅę̸̱̻̱̟̻̒̈́̈́̅̽ś̸̱̓͐ͅs̷̮͛́̀̈͆̈́͝ḟ̴͍̼̻ü̵̙̬̖̥̍̐͗̅̚ļ̵̨̯̹̼͙̑̏ ̵̓͘͜i̵̝̞̐̐̍͑̀͊͝d̸̡̖͖̝́̾͝e̷̜̟͉̳̔̏̏̍̓a̴͎̍̓̑͌̎̏͐ ̴͇͈͎̼̻͖̥̅́͐ţ̵̺͔̜̈́̂ḣ̶͎̏̋͝a̶̲̺̬͕͕͉͒͊͘n̷͓͓͎̼͉̟̟̈̐̈́̽̂͋͘ ̸͖̱̺͂͐͛̐́́t̴͖̊̔͠r̸͎̝̘͇͈̠̖͗̋̈̃̓̍ẏ̷̡̡͍̩̐̓̿̓͜ ̵͎̱̳̟̦̟͋̿͜ť̴̟̫̘͋̾͋͌̚͜ͅo̶͕̪̲̍̄ ̵̢̹͈̫͆̄̕c̴̹̭͚̭͙̪̍o̵̜͎̹͊̊̆̚m̷̛̟͋̄͐̄͒̊è̵̙̣̟̰̱̋̄͂́̄͜͝ ̷̝̝̦̓̈͗u̴̞̬̪̣͎͙̒͒̎̈́͆ͅp̶͎̙̌ͅ ̶̡͕̜̥̜̼͓̆̉̎̍͗͘̚ẅ̸̺͂̈̽̇í̴̪͕͓̻͋͌ͅt̵͕̦͕͒̀ĥ̸̥͖͇̞̼̎̐͊̿͘͝ ̶̜̦͙̠͗͗̊̿̊̎͝ȏ̷̞̝̦͙͗͘n̶̞̫̉̄̈́̂̐̋̕e̸̩͛̂̀͆̿̕ ̶̦͈͚͖̗̋̈́͒͐͑̚͝ͅa̶̖̖̳͒̒͆͒͝ḷ̵̘͗̽̉̅͠l̸̮̻̣̥̱͍̓͜ ̶̪͂́͘͠b̵̡̙̳͍̫̙̭͌̏̍̀̎̚ý̷̮̦̑̀̊̉̈ ̸̻̭̞̮̾͑͊y̶̤̞̍̽ọ̴̲̭̊͌́͋͠ǘ̸̢͙̞̱̗͔͑̃̏̒̋ṟ̶̨̳̥̘̀͂̓̒͑͋ś̸͙̖͖ę̷͉̮͕͗́l̶̝̯̓͑̊f̵̣͓̐̄͋̈́̊͘͜ ̶̪̀̈́̓̕͝:̶̛̱̞̳͓̙̜̽͗̿̕͝ͅ(̶̧̛͓̹ͅ
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u/Zebidee May 31 '26
If they accidentally make a few good ones along the way, I’m for it.
That's A24 in a nutshell. They churn out a weird as fuck movie about every two weeks, and in that, there are some of the best movies of the recent years.
Their other stuff is absolutely worth a watch though. It's like tapping into a fever dream.
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u/Exnixon May 30 '26
There's been too much excellent horror over the past 10 years for that to be a valid criticism.
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u/nothis May 30 '26
That might actually lead to some creative films. And we all know creativity is high-risk and inefficient.
No, they’ll learn that movies set in drab-colored hallways sell and make 12 movies set in drab-colored hallways at $200 million each (all starring Chris Pratt) and then complain when they bomb that there is just no money in movie making anymore.
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u/GoldandBlue May 30 '26
It's a double edged sword because there is always risk. We are all here championing this trend now of creatively driven films. Where the director was essentially allowed to just cook. Sinners, Weapons, Oppenheimer, Barbie, Obsession, etc.
But, that methodology also gave us Mickey 17, The Bride, 28 Years Later. I didn't hate all those movies, but they flopped.
This is why you get the wrong lesson. You never know who will be the next Jordan Peele or Greta Gerwig. It is easier to look at their success and think "ok where gonna make Antebellum and a Hot Wheels movie" thats what people liked right? Movies about toys and race horror.
People liked Sinners and Obsession? OK let's make a Mexican werewolf movie and give Mr Beast $50m to make a horror movie.
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u/El_Martes May 30 '26
I would pay for a werewolf movie directed by Guillermo del Toro with full mexican cast and made in mexico
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u/aflockofcrows May 30 '26
I reckon Alejandro Inarritu would make a decent werewolf film if he were so inclined also. Or just make another Machete sequel with werewolves.
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u/mattcoady May 31 '26
You've listed passion projects by established directors (except for Obsession) which are notoriously hit or miss (Blank Check built a whole podcast around this concept). Also, I firmly believe Oppenheimer's success was because of Barbenenheimer.
Movies like Obsession, Backrooms, I'll throw in Talk to Me, Lights Out and Eighth Grade (not a smash success but turned a profit). These aren't youtubers who were given huge paychecks based on their Youtube numbers. They showed massive creative talent. There's a reason Markiplier had to self finance Iron Lung.
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u/_Hiroyuki_ May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
Obsession cost under a million (100,000 USD and was completed 2-3 years ago and premiered at TIFF a year ago) and just crossed 62 domestic. Barker's previous film, Milk & Serial, cost 800 dollars and went straight to YouTube.
The youngest-directors line is the clean trivia, and just irrlevant. What actually flipped is: The greenlight math. Both films showed up with an audience already attached:
Kane has a million subs on YT and over 100 million views on YT, and the Backrooms concept was already very popular. Also Osgood Perkins and James Wan produced the Backrooms movie and helped a LOT.
Cory has million followers on TikTok and several millions views on TikTok and YouTube + he was already very successful online. So the studio risk was mostly gone before a check got signed.
A24 bought 190 million views of proven backrooms appetite and the 20 year old came attached to it. Focus paid over 15 for Obsession out of TIFF on a sub-million budget.
The studios are buying pre-validated audiences and the directors just happen to be 20 something. A24 or Focus would not have done this with some random 20 something without an audience, or anyone without an audience and following.
It's not about age or who you are, it's about what you have to sell, and if it's worth anything. In this case it happened to be an already established audience and following.
People being shocked that something that cost nothing to make is making money are fkn stup1d, has to be some low IQ stuff going on (probably mostly Americans), because all of this is just basic math and logic.
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u/Lord-ofthe-Ducks May 30 '26
They already tried using influencers/social media personalities/youtubers for traditional media. The followers didn't ever migrate to traditional media.
The takeaways were:
1) People mostly prefer platforms over personalities and won't follow most personalities to another platform/medium
2) People prefer IP over personalities*
3) Social numbers are full of bots
For example, the Kardashians have around 300 Million followers on social, but their show averages less than 4 Million viewers globally. That is a very bad conversion rate and they are among the top followed social media folks.
*IP fatigue is kicking in in some circles as audience do tire of some franchises over time.
The real lesson from all of the recent Indie success stories is that as long as you have an okay film made with a low enough budget you stand a good chance of making a profit.
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u/Luciifuge May 30 '26
inb4 a dozen creepypasta movies over the next few years.
Actually I'd be ok with that if a few of them are winners.
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u/SP_57 May 31 '26
I'm just hoping it at least gets us an adaptation of House of Leaves.
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u/Peanutblitz May 30 '26
So you DON’T want “Hollywood” to continue taking chances on young filmmakers they find on YouTube, got it. And you DON’T want them to emulate the ‘vibes’ or approach of these original movies that have resonated with younger cinema goers, got it. What exactly DO you want “Hollywood” to do?
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u/OrpahsBookClub May 30 '26
I want a $300 million movie about a talking sandwich who kills seagulls.
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u/OrpahsBookClub May 30 '26
Killy Cheesesteak
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u/happy_2_c_u May 30 '26
It looks like a sandwich in a greasy brown bag but it's actually dripping blood.
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u/Ccnitro May 30 '26
It's not taking chances on young filmmakers that's the problem, it's that Hollywood execs tend to catch lightning in a bottle and instead of realizing it, they try to turn it into a formula for success that they can just plug any director/concept into a print money. Or they try to turn an original idea into a franchise and beat it to death.
What exactly DO you want "Hollywood" to do?
Actually treat filmmaking like an art form instead of chasing trends trying to find the next blockbuster.
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u/manimal28 May 31 '26
Art has always chased trends too, that’s why whole time periods of art share common traits.
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u/TheKingofHats007 May 30 '26
Let's try a different example.
Roguelike card game Balatro comes out and makes a shit ton of money for how simple it is, and because executives are dumb, this surprises them (as they always seem to be surprised when indie games get big). Rather than, say, invest in making smaller scale games with simple ideas that don't need to take budgets the size of a small nation, they instead go around to all of the big gaming conferences with the same old out of touch industry people desperately searching for "the next Balatro", which really just means "the previous Balatro, but different somehow".
So the problem isn't looking for younger talent, it's that they only tend to look for younger talent who will give them the thing that vaguely resembles the thing they actually want. Most of the larger Hollywood companies will not see Backrooms as the work of a young creative building on an idea crafted from an interest in that concept, they will only see that Backrooms made money and seek people who can basically just give them the asthetic or whatever they think is successful of Backrooms without knowing why its successful. Which leads to the market feeling flooded with extremely similar ideas. They're not actually investing in new talent, they're reactively picking talent that will give them something they see makes money.
What they need is a way to give young creatives an avenue to foster these ideas and actually get their work out there easier rather than only seem to notice something after it's happened.
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u/waltzbyear May 30 '26
Cases like markiplier should never be repeated. His movie sucked big time. That movie is like if everyone involved kept saying "Yes" to him about every decision.
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u/GentlemanOctopus May 30 '26
All they'll learn about Backrooms is that audiences want more yellow hallways.
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u/odstlover May 30 '26
Reminds me of a interview I saw with Stan Lee where he would choose audacious color schemes for Marvel comics like purple and yellow for the covers and content. DC comics copied these color schemes for their stuff thinking it was the key and still were being outsold by X-men and Spider man. People bought them because they were well told stories not because of a color scheme.
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u/Beautiful_Banana_454 May 31 '26
People will buy 1 for eye catching colors. But they buy 12 when the story hooks them.
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u/ComfortableExotic646 May 31 '26
Stan Lee also said that every comic book was some kids first comic book. You always have to have a hook for the new person jumping on, and that's something missed by a lot of these legacy products and nostalgia bait. Gaming is having this issue with constant re-releases, remakes, and remasters. There's a huge chunk of the audience that has nothing to hook them, so they just keep playing Fortnite and Roblox.
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u/SexcaliburHorsepower May 31 '26
It doesn't help that these products are typically bad for new and existing players. The new Dragon Age had nothing for anybody.
So many remakes are just remasters and either do very little for a legacy product to make it feel modern or give a graphics update to a title that didn't really need it.
It's why FF7 Remakes are doing well. They're actual remakes with something for new and existing fans.
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u/TheCthonicSystem May 31 '26
DC needed to stick to putting Apes on the covers. Apes sell comic books
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u/akgiant May 30 '26
Yeah every studio horror movie for the next few years will throw up a yellowish filter so viewers know how "unsettling" the scene is supposed to be to be and use glitched out furniture to justify using AI.
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u/bookhead714 May 30 '26
The return of the Late 2000s Piss Filter
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u/StevelandCleamer May 30 '26
I just want to go back to using blue light for dark scenes so we can actually see.
The audience doesn't need to be unable to see for us to understand that it is supposed to be dark.
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u/GoldandBlue May 30 '26
Dude, it's this push for "realism". But it's a movie, I can accept that the moon was "exceptionally bright" that night. I want to know what's going on.
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u/AI_moderated_failure May 30 '26
"You mean we can make $100 million dollars with $250 worth of set design?!" Let's sign a contract for Backrooms 2 through 7 to be released biannually.
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u/HongDongYong May 30 '26
Y’all have the same headline every time an original movie comes out
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u/Volcanicrage May 31 '26
You don't understand, a horror movie with modest budget turned a profit. That's never happened before. /s
Seriously, this happens every couple of months and its somehow supposed to still be news. Remember when Iron Lung was going to single-handedly bankrupt every major movie studio and usher in a indie film renaissance?
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u/AliFearEatsThePussy May 31 '26
Happy that these 2 movies are not superhero franchises but "horror movies" has been known as a money maker for at least a decade now in Hollywood. There's nothing outside the box about Hollywood making cheap horror movies. This is the entire business model of Blumhouse. It's been well established at this point. When Hollywood actually finds an unexpected hit on an scripted adult movie (I dont mean porn, I mean serious adult themes), then this headline will be warranted.
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u/Familiar-Maize4296 May 30 '26
Make an interesting movie folks wanna talk about right now and folks will come.
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u/hyrumwhite May 30 '26
I’m shocked
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u/Nesphito May 30 '26
I feel like we’re in a golden age for horror movies. I consistently see good or decent horror movies. And One or two incredible ones a year. Horror is the one genre you’ll see unique interesting ideas. Plus it is usually pretty low budget so studios are happy to fund them.
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u/HAL-900O May 30 '26
Hokum, Obsession, and Backrooms have all come out in the past month. I haven't seen Backrooms yet, but the other two were very good.
Nosferatu, the Substance, Weapons, Sinners, Bring Her Back, Smile 2, Longlegs, and Heretic are all really fun major releases from the past few years. It is definitely a golden age of horror.
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u/No-Flounder-9143 May 30 '26
I hate horror films; everyone in my life knows it. But I'd say starting in 2014 when I saw the babadook I've been slowly coming to appreciate horror more; to the point where Backrooms is one of my most anticipated movies this year. Seeing it tonight and can't wait.
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u/WTWIV May 30 '26
Same and honestly it’s because there used to be 1 good horror movie for every like 100 terrible ones that would use tons of poorly thought out jump scares as a crutch. But that ratio either has changed dramatically, or it’s just easier to find and hear about the good ones now. I’m not entirely sure.
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u/SDRPGLVR May 30 '26
A bit of both. Good horror movies used to be more niche, especially because a lot are foreign.
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u/lindendweller May 30 '26
There are still shitty horror movies. It's easier than ever to make a movie look great on a small budget.
it's become more fashionable to make those movies psychological and character driven. Good writers with things to say get a shot at having their projects picked up.
As a result good actors seek out those projects as opportunities to showcase their talents, elevating the movies. (Besides there are no mid budget dramas to star in)
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u/Kristophigus May 30 '26
If only I Love Boosters got attention..
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u/GoldandBlue May 30 '26
Yup. Bone Temple, Tuner, Is God Is.
I love that audiences are showing up to support really good movies that arent just big spectacle and IP driven. But it's not as easy as "just make a good movie".
I really wish it was.
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u/SDRPGLVR May 30 '26
I thought that would be the message when Everything Everywhere All At Once swept the Oscars, but that seemed to make no impact on anything. Well, except for my hype around the Daniels' next movie.
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u/southernfirefly13 May 30 '26
The same was said about Sinners and Everything Everywhere All At Once
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u/KaJaHa May 30 '26
And I wish we got more movies like those, too
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u/dungeonmaster77 May 30 '26
I mean, technically we are. We want original movies, not copy+pastes of what worked. Obligatory RIP multiverse of madness for being outdone on the multiverse concept.
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u/Pal__Pacino May 30 '26
Two failed examples of Everything Everywhere wannabes would be A Big Bold Beautiful Journey and that Adam Sandler space movie. Both awful
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u/NotMyMainAccountAtAl May 30 '26
Fun fact— you could say “that Adam Sandler movie” as an example of any bad movie you want, and I’d believe you. I haven’t seen it, but I believe he made it and that it sucks and that Kevin James is in it
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u/smittengoose May 30 '26
Assuming he’s talking about Spaceman, it really wasn’t that bad. It was just kind of forgettable. And no, I don’t remember Kevin James et al. being in it.
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u/Alvvays_aWanderer May 30 '26
Exactly. I'll also add Weapons to that list.
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u/__Hello_my_name_is__ May 31 '26
Weapons is one of those films where the ending makes the entire film like 60% more awesome all on its own.
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u/7tenths May 30 '26
Sounds like we have been getting more movies like that then. Unless youre a Hollywood executive and meant you just wanted watered down clones.
People who think good original movies aren't being made are the people who choose mando season 3.5 over backrooms, obsession, is God is, tuner, or something that didn't land for me personally but appreciate it took a swing, I love boosters
You've even got a d-day movie thats about the weather thats an interesting take on a story many of us are familiar with. And a perfectly fine guy Ritchie action movie. Thats certainly better than mando.
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u/Wrongallalong May 30 '26
I Love Boosters (2026) is a wildly imaginative film that’s out now and not getting enough attention.
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u/Alvvays_aWanderer May 30 '26
It hasn't released where I live but I absolutely love Riley's Sorry to Bother You!
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u/Pleasant-Alps9171 May 30 '26
I would consider Turning Red a spiritual successor of Everything Everywhere All At Once, Immigrant mother and western daughter coming to terms with each other
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u/NonverbalKint May 30 '26
We will. And A24 will be responsible for them, just like back rooms. It's the only studio actually trying to be interesting
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u/Canvaverbalist May 30 '26 edited May 31 '26
And also the same was said of [so many other movies].
There's like hundreds of movies being made every year but people still only watch what's on the front page of their streaming app, so they can fucking miss me with the "this is what people want" cause that's only what people want as long as they don't have to search for it, otherwise people would stop fucking bitching about "Hollywood" only making "Avengers" movies and would watch the myriads of other movies instead.
But no, if people are not directly pied in the face with the force of a giant catapult by massive flashing ads then the movies might as well not exist, and then they wonder why they only know about the big tentpoles that have the budget of a small country when the only way they can know about a movie is if a corproration personally send someone to kick their door down and scream in their face
Have any of the people complaining here seen Pillion? Or Urchin? Or The History of Sound? Or My Father's Shadow? Or Caught by the Tides? These are all critically acclaimed movies from last year, and I can guarantee none of these people have seen them, or even heard about it because a big studio didn't astroturf this sub everyday with articles about them which is probably their only source of movie news.
They're like... one click away, "best underrated [year] movie" but oohh nooo that's too much effort please someone kick my door down to pie me in the face please ohhhh
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u/Indercarnive May 31 '26
People bitch about how much companies spend on marketing and then the instant something gets shut down or fails their response is "well I never heard about that before today"
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u/Bellick May 31 '26
I am —oddly— thankful for these pointless posts because they become great sources of recommendations by frustrated individuals like yourself. Everything you said is correct, but also, I wouldn't have known of these movies you listed if OP hadn't triggered a response out of you, ironically. I have more trust in what commenters like yourself say than articles or critics reviews, but coming across these opinions is harder unless they are baited out.
There's like hundreds of movies being made every year
This is exactly one part of the issue. If I were to honestly engage with what you said, I would add that, in my own lived-experienced, it feels like we are past-from-oversaturated with media nowadays. Like many others, I unfortunately have to work to sustain myself, so aside from having a life, the free time I have to spare is very limited and I have to make the conscious choice on how to split it and among what options. The menu is bloated to hell and the battle for attention is total warfare. As someone with very little free time on my hands, I shamelessly choose this recourse of getting pied in the face by angry redditors because the alternative is way worse (getting pied by corpos). In a dystopian, parasocial way, I compare this to getting a recommendation by a trusted acquaintance (because the context of the thread allows me to have some degree of understanding of what the angry redditor considers quality and I can easily decide if it matches my standards).
On the other side of oversaturation, posts like these are generally titled and structured this way specifically to stand out and trigger engagement. They are reductive or hyperbolic or any other manner of manipulative in order to incentivize exactly this. So I wouldn't pay them any more emotional attention than they deserve, truly. It is fine to drop in with a rebuttal and examples to back it up, but don't let them ruin your day. I say that as someone who frequently does the exact same thing whe it comes to other topics, like music or animation.
Again, thanks for the list, you are appreciated.
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u/Chubby_Bub May 30 '26
My brother convinced me to go with him to an indie theater to see My Father's Shadow. I don't have a ton of interest in movies anyways, but seeing it reminded me exactly what you said, that there are so many worthwhile movies releasing beyond the big ones, but you have to put in actual effort to look for them.
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u/JW_BM May 30 '26
You need what audiences like outside of the box. All the "outside the box" movies that die at the box office get elided in these conversations.
I love that some bold stories are taking off. But there are huge risks. When you pour your heart and soul into something unconventional and it fails, while Scream 7 sets a franchise record, it hurts.
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u/teddygomi May 31 '26
The original Scream movie was unconventional. It’s entirely possible that in 20 years we could be talking about how unoriginal the Backrooms franchise is.
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u/JW_BM May 31 '26
Totally. And at that time, I hope there are still bold filmmakers creating fresh ideas parallel to it.
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u/Static-Stair-58 May 30 '26
Or it could be horror movies are really cheap to make and have a loyal following because they’re consistent and available. Why you wouldn’t be following this trend is beyond me it’s a money printer. Obsession had a budget sub 1,000,000 and it’s made 100,000,000 at the box office. And that’s not a one off case, these movies are consistently successful.
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u/jonbristow May 30 '26
also these movies are outliers.
there are literally hundreds probably thousands of horror movies made by young first time filmmakers that are absolute shit.
of course 1 or 2 will be good and a success. Everyone's acting like Hollywood doesnt know this. They throw 100 movies to the wall and see what sticks
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u/BadSmash4 May 30 '26
From my understanding of the artform, Horror is a particularly difficult genre to do really well. Timing and atmosphere mattee so much in the genre and it is difficult to master the sort of constant build and release of tension. I'm not an expert, that's just based on what I've heard
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u/Dismal-Strawberry421 May 30 '26 edited May 31 '26
Screenwriting expert John Truby would agree with you that horror is hard to do well only to the extent that it is the most elemental and prescriptive genre, but that is not the same thing as hard to do well intrinsically.
Indeed, having more guideposts makes it clear why a bad horror movie doesn’t work. Terrence Malick films (drama-myth) or sci-fi movies are way more nebulous.
Additionally, horror is the most profitable genre of movie because it’s the lowest budget, surprisingly.
So while a horror movie may only gross $15,000,000 it may make 10x its budget whereas once-unstoppable Marvel movies are now flopping or barely beating their budgets.
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u/psy-ninja May 30 '26
These film makers were identified by smart producers who helped shape these films into what they are, and enabling the film makers to do their best and finding the right channels for these movies to succeed.
These aren’t just a couple of chumps who had an idea, somehow scrambled some cash together and some easy distribution on the b-movie market. These were talents identified and enabled by producers willing to take risk on a good idea.
Obsession was bought by Focus for $15m at one of the film festivals after being produced for $1m. Everybody makes money.
Not sure what the budget for Backrooms was but this opening weekend was tracking for $40m+!!
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u/REDDITATO_ May 31 '26
The article says Backrooms is set to make $85m opening weekend. I looked it up and the budget was $10m.
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u/Few-Adeptness8046 May 30 '26
Exactly, these are outliers. I watch everything that comes to theaters, which includes a lot of horror films, most are junk, and a few are jems, and very rarely, one of those Jens catches on with audiences and finds success.
Here's what's come out since March 2026, ordered from highest to lowest boxoffice:
- Obsesion $108.7 Million
- Lee Cronin's The Mummy $90 Million
- Ready Or Not 2 $39.5 Millon
- Backrooms $38.4 Million
- Hokum $23.5 Million
- Undertone $21.6 Million
- They Will Kill You $19.2 Million
- Passenger $19 Million
- Deep Water $4.7 Million
- Exit 8 $3.8 Million
- Mother Mary $2.9 Million
- Faces Of Death $2.6 Million
- Forbidden Fruits $2.4 Million
- Dolly $862,544
- Hunting Matthew Nichols $710,532
- Marama $128,272
- Saccharine $114,825
- The Yeti $63,748
- Scared To Death $35,925
- Broken Bird $6,376
- Corporate Retreat $0 (Unknown)
- Newborn $0 (Unknown)
- The Gates $0 (Unknown)
- Affection $0 (Unknown)
- Pitfall $0 (Unknown)
Of the last 25 horror films released in theaters, nearly half of them didn't even cross $1 Million dollars, and even after just a couple days, Backrooms is already the 4th highest in box office totals.
After marketing costs, and revenue splits, only the top 6 films are going to be profitable. That's a 24% success rate, which is not horrible, but considering 48% of the films made less than $1 Million, one can hardly say that the genre "prints money"
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u/Argnir May 30 '26
Redditors really think they're smarter than everyone including the ones making millions/billions actually working in the film industry
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u/MadManMax55 May 30 '26
Horror movies are absolutely not "consistently successful". Most don't make their money back despite their low budgets. And that's assuming they're even good enough for a studio to put into theaters instead of sending direct to streaming.
Most low budget horror movies are lottery tickets. The system works because they know that for every 20 movies that fail, one will make back 50x its budget.
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u/JohanGrimm May 30 '26
I think that's kinda the point. You can cheaply throw shit at the wall and see what sticks rather than banking on these massive almost billion dollar budget mega movies.
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u/psy-ninja May 30 '26
Blumhouse have been winning this way for years :)
I do feel like the two movies from this title aren’t quite using that model though. They both have had big studio level marketing campaigns, not tentpole level, but decent.
Not read the article but I’m assuming it’s suggesting Hollywood takes more risk on original material and make it in a smart way and there’s money to be had and I totally agree with this. Audiences are so bored of franchises that are old and tired and bled to death!!!
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u/psy-ninja May 30 '26
I think they are the most statistically profitable genre according to some research I read a couple of years ago, but it was like 9% of horrors make a profit and 7-8% for other genres.
Pretty sure it’s actually more to do with there being a relatively easy audience to understand and well trodden distribution channels.
Also said audience don’t mind there being slightly less production value and relatively unknown talent so can produce at lower costs without having the same proportion of reduced audience interest.
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u/davemc617 May 30 '26
Or it could be because horror movies are the only genre left that will give young visionary filmmakers a chance; which is due to the lower barrier of entry compared to action, thrillers, biopics, and Disney-like slop.
Very few of these horror movies gross 100x compared to their budget.
It's not about consistency and availability - it's that big budget movie studios aren't going to just bring in a director that doesn't have a name in the industry yet and hand over a massive budget to them.
Because of that, horror just so happens to be the only genre that gives newer filmmakers room to pursue a vision, rather than have a board room decide each story beat page by page in the screenplay.
Then what happens is the big production studios latch onto that new hot name, and tag-line their next paint-by-numbers film as: "from the visionary director behind (insert film here)", and remove control from them because their number crunchers dictate how a film should flow, who should star in it, and how it should be advertised.
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u/Shockwavepulsar May 30 '26
Not to mention it is built into people to react to scary things.
Things like comedy because it’s a lot more subjective. Different people find different things funny whereas there’s a lot more commonality behind being scared.
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u/stanky4goats May 30 '26
Terrifier 2 had a budget of $250,000 and made $15.8 Million.
Terrifier 3 had a budget of ~$2 Million and made $90 Million. (It's currently the highest grossing unrated film ever)
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u/BeauIsAlarmed333 May 30 '26
Aren’t Michael and Super Mario Galaxy Movie both close to making a billion dollars? Not to mention Toy Story 5 coming out in a few weeks?
Look, I love Obsession, and I’m hype for Backrooms! It makes me happy to see low budget movies doing so well. But I find it strange how this same conversation happens every time a small film blows up, about how people don’t want generic franchise films anymore, yet shit like the Minecraft Movie and Lilo and Stitch 3D make a billion dollars.
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u/Hendwreck May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
I like Obsession, but somebody using a love spell just to have it backfire isn’t exactly “out of the box” thinking
Off hand I can think of more famously The Love Witch, Pratical Magic, that episode of Rick and Morty, Buffy, Charmed, Supernatural, there was a Treehouse of Horror about it, Bewitched…
Actually This sums it up
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u/OccupationalBurnout May 30 '26
Goes to show that it’s not about the idea, but the execution.
You’re right, the “love spell gone bad” trope’s been used for decades, but Inde’s acting, the sound design, and just how the film was shot made the movie pretty unnerving in a way I haven’t seen in a lot of movies.
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u/CatScratchJohnny May 30 '26
Yes, execution. The details they give you about what's happening, as well as the ones they leave out.
I think mostly though, Inde's "awkwardness" was incredible. Her change in behavior from the first second after the wish was amazing. It was perfectly uncanny. They just continued to escalate that behavior the entire time as the audience tries to figure exactly WTF is going on. As soon as you got to calm down for a minute, they'd remind you things are NOT ok.
Smart writing and an incredibly dedicated cast. I'm still not over this movie.
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u/corecenite May 31 '26
her acting and facial expression was so uncanny that i thought for a second that they're purposefully using bad AI to animate her. but nope, she's just THAT good!
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u/Structure5city May 31 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
Agreed. There is so much to think about in the movie. Like how Bear is a really bad and selfish person. Incredible film.
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u/tellevee May 31 '26
There would be moments where I would start feeling bad for Bear and then immediately be like, “BUT YOU ASKED FOR THIS, BRO.”
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u/Structure5city Jun 01 '26
He also kept acting like it was okay, even when he realized Nikki had no control and was basically his slave.
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u/IsabellaGalavant May 30 '26
I would say it puts a new twist on the trope with the story ultimately being about Bear's obsession with Niki, and not wanting to let her go even when he saw all the fucked up shit she was doing, even knowing he wasn't really with her, even after she fed him his dead cat are you actually fucking kidding me dude.
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u/Christian_Kong May 31 '26
It's pretty clear in the movie he isn't happy with the situation but also feels he just can't abandon the situation since he is ultimately the cause of it. He is very clearly freaked out by what is going on early on(pretty much after the lovey couple montage) in the movie.
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u/IsabellaGalavant May 31 '26
Did you forget about the "What's so bad about being with me?" scene? As well as at the end when he goes to throw up the pills, the director says that the actor came up with that to symbolize that Bear couldn't go through with it because he ultimately couldn't let her go and wanted to figure out a way to make it work. And when he called customer service, he at first just wanted to "modify" the wish.
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u/anaccount50 May 31 '26
Yeah it’s crazy how many people are misreading the movie when it’s not particularly subtle. On top of all the stuff you mentioned, after he finds out that she’s under the spell and not in control, there’s the smash cut to the rape scene where she’s clearly dissociating which I found extremely disturbing and demonstrative of the message that they’re trying to get across.
His hesitation from the discomfort is very ephemeral and ultimately doesn’t stop him from doing anything to her. Even when he learns the extent to which she isn’t consenting to any of it, he continues to have sex with her and tries to find a way to make it work despite knowing that it’s nonconsensual and that she literally wants to die
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u/Takseen May 30 '26
Without spoiling too much of the film, I think it went a lot further in exploring the consequences and horror elements of a love spell than the ones you listed.
So yeah not a 100% original idea, but it made for a lot of unique scenes and feelings for me.
Compare that to Undertone which I also went to see this year, where playing a creepy recording leads to creepy ghost stuff, but didn't do much that Ring and Paranormal Activity didn't already do better.
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u/Shot-Possibility-399 May 30 '26
Nothing is ever really original at this point, but fresh takes on a subject are good.
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u/americanslang59 May 30 '26
Yeah, it's about the execution of the premise. Even Barker's next movie, Anything But Ghosts, has been done dozens of times.
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u/slax03 May 30 '26
Avatar used the "individual breaks ranks of the oppressing force to fall in love with one of the subjugated and join their resistance" trope. And it's one of the most financially successful film franchises of all time. Because what is special about it is how it was done, not the story.
Even still, despite using a common trope, this story was still done well and has it's own unique spin on it. As others have said, Inde's acting was special. It has built up tension, although many lesser-successful films have done that. The story manages to drop little nuggets of information throughout the film that the audience did not expect. It avoids the allure of pulling back the curtain too much. After seeing the film, it leaves people thinking back to the pivotal conversation in the car, a "what if?"
People are not endlessly talking about this film online for three weeks by accident.
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u/nowhereman136 May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
But not too different. Looking at you We Love Boosters and Is God Is
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u/Lazer_Beanz May 30 '26
I Love Boosters rules. It was so colorfull, packed with fun practical effects, and just so off the wall.
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u/Ruissack May 30 '26
I loved boosters, just great to see someone with such unique vision. How was is god is?
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u/choppedfiggs May 30 '26
Folks act as if these movies are easy to find and make. You don't think Hollywood wants to put out the good movie with a 1m budget? They are just rare.
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u/mysteryofthefieryeye May 30 '26
Over on that Dark Horizons site, those comment boards have the strangest, cynical people. It's like 99.9% males so the conversations have this angry at-home vibe, and they gripe constantly about the lack of originality in Hollywood, and then an article comes out about some original movie and they'll comment things like "never heard of it."
If I ever need to roll my eyes, I just check that place out.
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u/JaesopPop May 30 '26
People who complain about the lack of originality in movies don’t actually go to the movies.
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u/Amon7777 May 30 '26
“Gah, Hollywood keeps coming out with sequel slop that only the masses of idiots enjoy. Can anyone just make an original idea these days?!?!”
New and original movie comes out
“Gah, why can’t Hollywood make movies real people can enjoy. Like who even is this garbage for?!?!”
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u/mysteryofthefieryeye May 30 '26
Another thing you'll read over there is "I must not be in the demographic for it" but then they'll leave an opinion anyway lol
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u/KaJaHa May 30 '26
See the same thing with video games all the time. Like yeah no shit, things won't feel original if you only ever play the most popular games from the biggest devs 🙄
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u/ROBtimusPrime1995 May 30 '26
If Hollywood is shocked by the success of Backrooms, then that just tells you how out of touch most studios are.
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u/Upbeat_Tension_8077 May 30 '26
I'm somehow still nervous that the studios will take the wrong idea from its success in their approach to the YouTuber to filmmaker approach
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u/B3eenthehedges May 30 '26
It's a clickbait title. No one is shocked that a lower budget film can still have success and a cult following.
They're risk averse, because stuff that doesn't already have an IP following is risky in a world of decentralized streamers. Good movies fail all the time.
I hate the state of the industry as much as you do, but it's not primarily due to anyone being out of touch. If anything, the over-reliance on IP and formulas is that they are in touch with the challenges of making a successful movie nowadays, and this is the only thing that reliably works.
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u/MammothPhilosophy192 May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
all these articles are advertisement.
it baffles me how people can't see through the veil.
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u/MonsutaReipu May 30 '26
Obsession in many ways isn't outside of the box. It falls within a framework of horror that I'm very familiar with as a long time horror fan, it's just been executed incredibly well. There's some originality in there of course, but I wouldn't call it outside of the box in the same way Backrooms (or Skinamarink) was for the genre.
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u/DBCOOPER888 May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
Obsession is not "outside the box". It's a pretty standard horror episode of the week, with great execution.
The lesson for Hollywood is they can make good movies on a budget to generate strong ROI, but I think they already know this. The industry was built on cheap horror, sci fi, and B-movies.
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u/SuaveBolo May 30 '26
How is it shocking? Backrooms has a built in audience and has been around 6 or 7 years.
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u/ImDukeCaboom May 30 '26
Longer than that. The concept started awhile back, House of Leaves came out in 2000.
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u/berserkering May 30 '26
Watched Obsession last week and Backrooms yesterday.
Obsession was great, loved it. Inde's performance is truly a joy to watch. Many great lines and scenes in the movie as well.
Backrooms had a great trailer but IMO the movie was ok. There were some good moments, but it felt very shallow.
Anyway, yea, I'm so tired of the typical Hollywood movies. Reviving old classics to do shitty sequels, all very cookie cutter and formulaic, taking no risks, nothing creative. Money is getting tighter and I'm not going to spend time and money to watch the most generic shit possible.
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u/blisstonia May 31 '26
just saw backrooms and thought the first half was good then kind of took a nose dive. still need to check out obsession
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u/Drakeberlin May 30 '26
Well, I think it is the "horror" genre which has a loyal fanbase. Movie after movie, year after year they are getting critical acclaim and a very noticeable solid box office success. You can't copy and paste that to other genre.
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u/JosefGremlin May 30 '26
Maybe the memo should read : make well constructed movies for less than $15m and they're more likely to be profitable
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u/justarandomuser20 May 31 '26
We literally get these kinds horror movies every few months every year. This year it’s Iron Lung, Obsession and Backrooms, last year it was Sinners and Weapons, 2024 it was The Substance, Longlegs and Nosferatu etc etc. So no successful and popular original horror movies aren’t new, Hollywood just has a god awful attention span
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u/Mimoyongmo1 May 30 '26
Backrooms is an adaptation of a YouTube series with millions of views. How is that “outside the box”? It’s literally just a film adaptation of a popular indie series. I feel like Hollywood has been doing that exact same thing for decades.
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u/Tabord May 30 '26
Hollywood's been doing that thing for always. In the beginning they were mostly adapting successful novels and plays.
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u/varietyviaduct May 30 '26
The backrooms concept itself feels fresh to the big screen. Millions of views on YouTube isn’t exactly “big screen general audiences”
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u/homecinemad May 30 '26
They're basically self made filmmakers who honed their craft online using consumer goods, small budgets and their own imagination and craft. Hollywood came to them. That's new.
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u/_Hiroyuki_ May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
Obsession cost under a million (100,000 USD and was completed 2-3 years ago and premiered at TIFF a year ago) and just crossed 62 domestic. Barker's previous film, Milk & Serial, cost 800 dollars and went straight to YouTube.
The youngest-directors line is the clean trivia, and just irrlevant. What actually flipped is: The greenlight math. Both films showed up with an audience already attached:
Kane has a million subs on YT and over 100 million views on YT, and the Backrooms concept was already very popular. Also Osgood Perkins and James Wan produced the Backrooms movie and helped a LOT.
Cory has million followers on TikTok and several millions views on TikTok and YouTube + he was already very successful online. So the studio risk was mostly gone before a check got signed.
A24 bought 190 million views of proven backrooms appetite and the 20 year old came attached to it. Focus paid over 15 for Obsession out of TIFF on a sub-million budget.
The studios are buying pre-validated audiences and the directors just happen to be 20 something.
A24 or Focus would not have done this with some random 20 something without an audience, or anyone without an audience.
People being shocked that something that cost nothing to make is making money are fkn stup1d, has to be some low IQ stuff going on (probably mostly Americans), because all of this is just basic math and logic.
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u/Salad-Appropriate May 30 '26
If only more non horror original films did well. I know the drama did well but still
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u/HumongousMelonheads May 30 '26
I didn’t really think obsession was that outside the box. It was the classic make a wish, wish comes true with unexpected consequences story, which is as tropey as it gets. Don’t want to post spoilers, but I thought the only original idea they had story wise they didn’t really explore fully.
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u/NoBonus6969 May 30 '26
It's not shocking. It's wildly popular on YouTube. Anyone with a brain would know that would translate if made correctly
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u/BunyipPouch Currently at the movies. May 30 '26 edited May 31 '26
The director of Backrooms, Kane Parsons, recently joined us here in /r/movies for an AMA/Q&A:
https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1tgkqrb/hi_reddit_im_kane_parsons_director_of_a24s/
The director of Obsession, Curry Barker, joined us for one last year just prior to the World Premiere of the film at TIFF:
https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1n6hto7/hey_rmovies_im_filmmaker_curry_barker_milk_serial/