{"id":1038,"date":"2026-05-30T18:06:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T18:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1038"},"modified":"2026-05-30T18:06:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T18:06:43","slug":"the-shocking-success-of-backrooms-and-obsession-should-be-a-memo-to-hollywood-you-need-whats-outside-the-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1038","title":{"rendered":"The Shocking Success of \u2018Backrooms\u2019 and \u2018Obsession\u2019 Should Be a Memo to Hollywood: You Need What\u2019s Outside the Box"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\t\u201cThinking outside the box\u201d is a phrase that tends to be used by those who are stuck inside the box. It means something real, but it\u2019s also corporate-speak for having an actual imagination \u2014 the audacity to make something that wasn\u2019t commanded or formatted. Given that, this is sure to go down as the weekend when thinking outside the box started to look sexy in Hollywood again.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1037\">Trump Slams \u2018Third Rate Artists\u2019 Dropping Out of D.C. Performances, Says He May Produce Different Event Starring Someone With a \u2018Much Larger Audience Than Elvis\u2019\u2026 Himself<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe makers of comic-book movies, \u201cStar Wars\u201d movies and most rom-coms and horror films live inside the box. But not the creators of \u201cBackrooms\u201d and \u201cObsession,\u201d two horror movies that take you places you\u2019ve never been. Evidently, a lot of people want to go there. \u201cBackrooms,\u201d an experimental head-game creep-out (at moments it\u2019s a bit like \u201cThe Blair Witch Project,\u201d though 10 times weirder), is set to make $85 million this weekend; that number is insane. And \u201cObsession,\u201d after opening May 15 with a $17 million weekend, went <em>up<\/em> its second weekend (to $24 million); that\u2019s insane too. (It defies the laws the box-office gravity.)<\/p>\n<p>\n\tMuch will be said about the vast Internet followings that are swirling around the young directors of both these films, Kane Parsons (\u201cBackrooms\u201d) and Curry Barker (\u201cObsession\u201d). That\u2019s part of the week\u2019s Big Capitalist Lesson: that when it comes to finding \u201chot\u201d filmmakers, YouTube is the new Sundance, or the new MTV, or the new whatever. And much will be said about how the aesthetic of \u201cBackrooms\u201d pours right out of the structural\/atmospheric DNA of the web. (That\u2019s less true of \u201cObsession.\u201d) But if Hollywood really wants to take a lesson from the shocking success of these two movies, the message should be much larger than \u201cHip filmmakers with devoted web followings sell!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe message should be: <em>There\u2019s a way to solve the problem bedeviling the movie industry<\/em>. How? By thinking outside the box. Which doesn\u2019t mean the box needs to be thrown away. (Of course not; tentpoles still rule.) But the box has become an addiction that Hollywood needs to shake. And what the success of \u201cBackrooms\u201d and \u201cObsession\u201d demonstrates is a principle that we\u2019ve already seen at play this year, in films from the edgy marital-jitters drama \u201cThe Drama\u201d to the out-there Pixar comedy \u201cHoppers.\u201d Namely: <em>If you build it, they will come<\/em>. The $85 million question\u00a0is: What is <em>it?<\/em> What is it that Hollywood needs to build?<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe answer: more movies ripped right out of the imagination, more movies that go around forbidden corners and surprise you, that don\u2019t trod the places we\u2019ve already been, that tap into new audiences by tapping into new ways of seeing.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1035\">Kelly Curtis, \u2018The Sentinel\u2019 Actress and Sister of Jamie Lee Curtis, Dies at 69<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cBackrooms,\u201d which at times recalls the life-as-surreal-nightmare industrial sound-garden bugginess of David Lynch\u2019s \u201cEraserhead,\u201d is one of the most experimental movies ever to turn into a blockbuster. \u201cObsession\u201d is more conventional, yet there\u2019s something awesomely new in its shivery funhouse vision of a romantic relationship that swirls down the drain of mental illness. That\u2019s what \u201cObsession\u201d is really about. Dan (Michael Johnston), the more-sensitive-than-he-should-be hero, buys a make-a-wish collectible that gets Nikki (Inde Navarrette), the girl of his dreams, to fall in love with him. When she does, her neediness becomes so compulsive that it\u2019s as if she\u2019d having a depressive\/ narcissistic\/schizophrenic breakdown. There\u2019s real-world terror lurking inside that fantasy premise, and that\u2019s what\u2019s so effective about the movie. It taps into actual generational anxiety.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThere\u2019s no denying that \u201cBackrooms\u201d and \u201cObsession\u201d are this month\u2019s shiny new Hollywood objects. They\u2019re megahits to coo over. But it\u2019s significant that both films were released by independent companies: \u201cBackrooms\u201d by A24 (it will be the reigning indie studio\u2019s biggest hit), \u201cObsession\u201d by Focus Features (which picked it up for $14 million at last fall\u2019s Toronto Film Festival). A24 and Focus are wired to think independently, and do. But just as the success of Miramax, in the \u201990s, changed Hollywood, the triumph of these two films has a wider implication, because it so undermines the industry-wide fear and cynicism about the future of theatrical. Imagine if Netflix had bought \u201cObsession\u201d at TIFF \u2014 the sound of no one talking about it now would be deafening in its silence. And I\u2019d make the case that A24, after \u201cMarty Supreme\u201d and \u201cThe Drama\u201d and now \u201cBackrooms,\u201d is entering its full Miramax era, the place where it has a chance to bend the culture, and the curve of theatrical.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tSo let\u2019s put aside the whining and the hand-wringing about streaming and about how Young People Don\u2019t Like Movies. There\u2019s no question that for movies to thrive, the industry needs to evolve, starting with a return to the religious belief in the power of windows. (If you delay the home release\u2026they will come!) But mostly we need a return to making the kinds of movies that people seek out because they want to be <em>surprised<\/em>. \u201cBackrooms\u201d and \u201cObsession\u201d are artful enough to prove that mainstream audiences actually crave something artful. Something out of the box. For a moment and maybe more, these films should unite everyone in saying: <em>Fuck the box<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1033\">Stephanie Han vs. Holly Holm 2 Livestream: Here\u2019s Where to Watch the Rematch Title Bout Online<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The shocking success of &#8216;Backrooms&#8217; and &#8216;Obsession&#8217; should be a memo to Hollywood: You need what\u2019s outside the box.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[802,214],"class_list":["post-1038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-backrooms","tag-obsession-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Shocking Success of \u2018Backrooms\u2019 and \u2018Obsession\u2019 Should Be a Memo to Hollywood: You Need What\u2019s Outside the Box - 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