6 Terrifying Horror Movies That Show 'Obsession' How It's Done

Published Oct 30, 2026, 8:11 PM EDT

A New York native, Joe graduated from an avant-garde theater school upstate, where he was obsessed with sketch comedy. There, he and his lunatic friends founded The Sketchies — which still lives on at Skidmore College today. Living in New York City, a screenwriter friend of his then taught him how to write for film. This awakened a new passion in Joe. Since then his scripts have garnered over 200 festival selections, nominations, and wins all over the globe (including the BlueCat Best Feature award). Several of his screenplays have been made into feature films — some of them not that bad! Overall, he loves to create unique, hilarious, touching, and bizarre stories.

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Let’s give credit where credit is due. Obsession was a sleeper hit that took basically everyone, in the audience and in the industry, by surprise. Curry Barker had already established himself as a YouTube horror hit-maker, but nobody could’ve predicted that his supernatural thriller debut feature, that was made for 750k, would’ve grossed over 500 million dollars (so far). It’s a very fun movie —with darkly comedic moments, a clever (if somewhat recycled) premise, and some well-placed jump scares — that’s anchored by truly spectacular performances…

That being said, there is a haunting host of other scary movies that thrill and chill in ways that Obsession could only (bad) dream about. Some of these frightening flicks focus on specters and otherworldly horrors to shock, disturb, and terrify their audiences, while others elucidate the gut-wrenching terrors that humans can inflict on one another. No matter how you slice ‘em, these six horror films are each a masterclass in profound scares in their own right — and all contain invaluable lessons in scaring the pants off viewers that Mr. Barker can employ in his next film, which he was reputedly given 10 million bucks for.

'It Follows' (2014)

Image via RADiUS-TWC

How does one successfully combine nuanced body horror with supernatural forces of evil? This query is posed in Obsession, but it was first executed with true horror panache in It Follows. Writer-director David Robert Mitchell opens his film with one of the better teasers in recent memory. The audience instinctually knows that they will be in for an electrifying journey, as the long take instills immediate dread. Then, we’re hit with the shocking aftermath, with one of the most disturbing shots in horror history. What follows is a slow-burn trip down a trippy rabbit hole of encroaching anxiety and relentless malice.

Jay Height (Maika Monroe) is a very pretty, but otherwise seemingly average high school student. She’s not very outspoken, but she does possess a slightly rebellious streak. This leads to her going on a date with an attractive kid from another town, “Hugh” (Jake Weary), and then engaging in some promiscuous activity. Apparently, Jay never watched any horror movies, because the formula is clearly that if you have sex, something very bad is about to happen to you. Indeed, Hugh transfers an STD of sorts to Jay, only this one doesn’t result in a rash; it causes the freshly tainted person to be stalked by a lethal entity that can change shape at will, and will stop at nothing until its victim is eradicated. Everything about this movie is unsettling at a marrow-deep level, from the roving monstrous humans that only “the infected” can see to the sleek 80s synth-inspired score.

'Paranormal Activity' (2007)

Image via Paramount Pictures

1999’s The Blair Witch Project ushered in an onslaught of found footage films, for better or for (more often) worse. While many of these low-budget movies tried to capture the magic of TBWP, few were successful, commercially or artistically. Then, there came Oren Peli and his premiere feature, Paranormal Activity. Made on a budget of only $15,000 (which makes Obsession’s budget seem like a Marvel film), this movie is peak found footage, exploiting the format — and milking it for every possible scare imaginable — like no other.

The seemingly jejune story follows a young couple in their new home. There’s Katie (Katie Featherston) and Micah (Micah Sloat), and they begin the tale with hope in their hearts, the way many first-time homeowners often do. They document their fresh abode with glee, fully justifying the reasoning for this being a “POV” film. Then, some eerie things begin happening. Such as, Katie standing almost totally still over Micah as he sleeps for many hours of the night, some non-human footsteps forming in spilled talcum powder, and Katie getting flung like a ragdoll out of bed and down the hallway by an unseen entity. These moments had people in the theaters literally screaming. Peli utilizes some very creative methods to achieve the scares in this film, with just a little, select CGI sprinkled in. The use of clever practical effects seems to be one of the cooler, and most chilling, aspects of the movie. Overall, the success of such a low-budget film is quite abnormal, and justly deserved.

'Hereditary' (2018)

Image via A24

Some of the key themes in Obsession are guilt and the fear that one’s actions can imperil others (and oneself). In comparison to Hereditary, these motifs are only touched upon. In Ari Aster’s masterwork on familial trauma and pain, the aforementioned topics affect his main characters in ways that are almost too horrific to name. Luckily for the horror-loving masses, he puts them on full, gruesome display in this heady, intellectually complex examination of all that can go wrong under one roof.

Annie Graham (Toni Collette) is a unique type of artist; she makes miniature versions of homes. It’s no coincidence that her work resembles doll houses, as there is a larger, invisible force that is essentially “playing” with Annie and her clan. When Annie’s mentally unwell mother dies, odd little bits of information about her life begin to eke out. Annie tries to persevere with her work (she’s got a looming deadline), when the unthinkable happens: the loss of her child. Charlie (Milly Shapiro) loses her head, as it were, and her brother, Peter (Alex Wolff), is the one responsible for this tragedy. As things devolve into a pit of pure pain, even weirder info nuggets start to bubble to the surface. The whole family seems plagued by some evil force — excluding Annie’s thoroughly clueless husband, Steve (Gabriel Byrne) — and Annie does her darnedest to not only keep things together, but to uncover the truth of what’s really behind all the madness. Aster is indeed a master at teasing scary moments, and then delivering reveals that are often jaw-dropping and always horrific. With one of the smartest horrors on record, Hereditary is one finely-crafted film that is the perfect template for sheer terror.

'Sinister' (2012)

Image via Summit Entertainment

When Bear (Michael Johnston) makes his “wish” in Obsession, he’s completely ignorant to the actual repercussions, so, it could be argued that he kind of gets a raw deal. In Sinister, the protagonist makes the conscious decision to potentially put his family in harm’s way for his own benefit, so the final outcome is justly deserved, and quite satisfying. Director and co-writer Scott Derrickson delves deep into various facets of fear in this film, and does so quite unapologetically. The end result is a movie that’s so scary, it’s downright devious (or, heaven forfend, sinister).

Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) is a true crime writer whose career has seen better days. When a house where an entire family was murdered goes up for sale, Ellison jumps at the opportunity to snatch that puppy off the market. He hopes the setting will provide easy-access research and help inspire him, and, naturally, keeps the information that this cursed place is a multiple murder site from the rest of his family, namely Tracy (Juliet Rylance), his wife. Ellison eventually finds some Super 8 tapes in the attic, and, of course, he watches them with trepidatious excitement. The horrors contained within freak him out (not so inspiring after all…), but that’s clearly just the beginning. Derrickson actually opens the film with the grainy footage from the tape where the Stevenson family is systematically hung from a tree. It’s a shocking, unforgettable sequence that informs the viewer that this is going to be a very harrowing experience from start to finish. Once the demon that possesses the house, Bughuul (or “Boogie Man” for the lay person), finally shows his face, that’s a wrap on any viewer getting any sleep.

'The Exorcist' (1973)

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

Some of the scariest horror films are, simply, exquisitely made films. This is the category that The Exorcist finds itself in, as it’s a very solid movie in general — that just happens to contain some of the most horrifying nightmare fuel ever seared into celluloid. Director William Friedkin took a very intricately plotted novel of the same name, by William Peter Blatty, and orchestrated one of the best produced horror films to ever see the light of day...and darkness of night.

The plot of this film is ingeniously laid out. It follows several different individuals, each with their own distinct motivations and internal conflicts, who ultimately all coalesce in one of the most epic horror finales ever conceived. Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) is a successful actress, living on location in the affluent part of Washington, D.C. Her daughter, Regan (Linda Blair), seems to come down with some sort of “illness”…where she pees herself, regurgitates green bile, and scratches messages in her own skin from the inside out. So, Chris gets in touch with the top guns of the Catholic Church. Father Merrin (Max von Sydow) is an exorcism maven, having recently successfully performed one abroad, while Father Karras (Jason Miller) is an empathetic, talented priest who has been questioning his faith as of late. In any event, they tackle the demon in Regan (who initially alleges that “he” is the devil), and the outcome is simply mind-blowing. Once the demonic possession is evident, every set piece and sequence that Friedkin provides contains at least one moment that can not be forgotten, no matter how hard one tries. He finds unbridled scariness in not only the “big” moments, like Regan levitating or rancorously thrashing around and injuring others, but in the quieter ones, where Regan silently seethes and stares at “her” adversaries. All in all, this blood-curdling movie will make your head spin. Its careful inspection of the devastating effects of an incubus occupying one’s body is hands-down cinema’s spookiest (sorry, Nikki).

'The Dark and the Wicked' (2020)

Image via RLJE/Shudder

Much like Obsession, The Dark and the Wicked is an indie film that was made on a relatively low budget. Unlike the former film, the latter is absolutely, bone-chillingly terrifying from the opening frame to the closing credits. Director Bryan Bertino is a master of creating oppressive, all-encompassing ambiances for his films. With his debut, The Strangers, he took the already harrowing home invasion sub-genre and somehow made the mood and tone even darker and creepier. In The Monster, he devised a hulking chimera that stalks his main characters during a dreary night, where abject dread is omnipresent. Yet in Dark, his true masterpiece, he crafts a morosely macabre setting, lush with some of the most indelibly scarring images imaginable, all while conveying real-life scares that routinely keep us up at night.

Louise (the unstoppable force that is Marin Ireland) is a woman who has done what a lot of grown children do: she left the ranch. Not only did she move away from the quaint country life of rural Texas, but her brother, Michael (Michael Abbott Jr.), did as well, to start his own family. Ergo, their parents were left behind, to run the sheep farm by their lonesome. Louise is the type of person who already feels some deep-seated guilt about, well, abandoning her elderly parents. So, when their father falls mortally ill, it’s time for a homecoming. Except, their mother (Julie Oliver-Touchstone) tells her brood not to come back. Her reasoning is specious at best, and the prodigal children return, proving the lesson that sometimes mother knows best. A demonic entity has attached itself to the land, and family, and from Louise’s arrival until the conclusion, basically every scene in this fine film has some form of pure terror contained within. There are delicately placed, haunting images, definitively starker ones too, and then flat-out, full-throttle terrifying ones. The lonely landscape of the farm juxtaposed with the otherworldly occurrences that plague it result in a patchwork quilt of the scariest set pieces, sequences, scenes, and moments that the human mind can comprehend. Obsession may have the box office numbers to back it up, but The Dark and the Wicked has the scares.

The Dark and the Wicked