Judged Dread
Two horror movies from two under-30 filmmakers are breaking box-office records. Are we at the beginning of a movement, or the end of it?
Maybe you’ve heard the news: YouTube is not going to kill the movies. It’s actually going to save the movies!
In the span of two weeks this past May, two very different films arrived to upend the notion of will or won’t play big with multiplex audiences. One concerns a romantic dream come true that becomes a bit of a nightmare. The other turns an industrial office space into an infinite realm of psychic dread. Both movies slot nicely into the category of “modern horror.” Both take familiar genre ideas and infuse them with a gonzo Gen-Z sensibility. And both were made on modest budgets by filmmakers under 30 who built fanbases via YouTube channels. Each of these titles have broken records for their respective studios. In space, no one can hear you scream. Online, however, the ability to make people scream and get their skin crawling is translating to box-office numbers — and that’s now making Hollywood sit up and listen.
Obsession, made by 26-year-old Curry Barker, drops you into a scenario straight out of Romcomville, USA: Bear (Michael Johnston) pines for his female co-worker Nikki (Inde Navarette). He thinks she’s the love of his life. She most likely thinks he’s friend-zone material, although their interactions do seem a little flirty. On the day he plans to finally ask Nikki out on a proper date, Bear happens to pick up a novelty item at a curio shop — something called a “One Wish Willow,” which promises that if you break this so-called magical stick and make a wish, it will come true. Presented with an opportunity to finally confess his feelings to Nikki, our man screws the metaphorical pooch. So, out of sheer frustration, he cracks the willow in half and wishes that his crush loved him more than anyone else in the whole world. The spell works not wisely but far, far too well.
