Cooper Tomlinson as Ian in his work outfit at the music store in ObsessionImage via Shreyas Hirlekar
In the last 25 years, horror has proven to be one of the most consistently successful genres at the box office. This is largely due to horror filmmakers’ ability to make movies at such a low cost, relying on practical effects and smaller stars while letting the scares come through as the true highlight of the movie. Just this year, one of the biggest horror movies came from former YouTube sensation Kane Parsons, the 21-year-old who directed the A24-backed horror feature, Backrooms. The biggest star in Backrooms is Chiwetel Ejiofor, but that didn’t stop the film from grossing over $390 million at the box office, easily turning a profit off its modest $10 million budget. In any year, earning 39x a budget would easily make Backrooms the most profitable movie of the year, but there’s another horror movie that has shattered even more records.
The only horror movie to find more success at the box office than Backrooms in 2026 has been Obsession, which was directed by the young prodigy Curry Barker. Barker guided Inde Navarette to one of the best performances in movie history, and although the film cost only $750,000 to produce, it wouldn’t be surprising to see her take home the Oscar for Best Lead Actress at next year’s Academy Awards. Obsession currently stands at a $474 million box office total at the time of writing, meaning the film grossed more than 632x its budget, successfully making it one of the most profitable movies in history. Obsession is now streaming on Peacock, and it’s still sitting comfortably in the #1 spot on streaming charts two weeks removed from its debut.
Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky
Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you’re not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.
🏕️Jason
🔪Michael
💤Freddy
🎈Pennywise
🪆Chucky
01
Something feels wrong. You can’t explain it — you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.
02
Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.
03
What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn’t account for. What’s yours?
04
What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.
05
You’re with a group when things start going wrong. What’s your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn’t.
06
What’s the horror movie mistake you’re most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.
07
What’s your best weapon against something that can’t be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.
08
It’s the final scene. You’re the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What’s yours?
Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against…
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.
Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th
Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.
He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn’t strategise, doesn’t adapt, doesn’t outsmart. He simply pursues.
Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.
Haddonfield, Illinois · Halloween
Michael Myers
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too late for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.
But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
Michael’s power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.
Elm Street · A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.
You are harder to destabilise than most. You’ve faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven’t looked away.
The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
Freddy’s greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.
Derry, Maine · It
Pennywise
Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
The Losers Club didn’t survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise’s worst nightmare.
It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.
Chicago · Child’s Play
Chucky
Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.
You don’t have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.
What Is ‘Obsession’ About?
Obsession follows a young man named Bear (played by Michael Johnston) who has a crush on a young girl named Nikki (played by Inde Navarette). Afraid to confess his feelings to Nikki, Bear uses a mysterious item known as a One Wish Willow, asking for Nikki to love him more than anyone in the world. Things quickly turn sinister as it’s revealed that Nikki is no longer herself, but instead possessed by a demon who is willing to kill thanks to her love for Bear. Even acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan has praised the story for Obsession, claiming that it “works like a motherf*****.”
Check out Obsession on Peacock and stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage of all the biggest horror films in the world.
