When you think about horror movies, the first ones that come to mind are the classics. Films that heavily rely on gore and jump scares. As someone who tends to avoid both, I only hear about these movies from horror enthusiasts, whether they are famous Blockbusters or epic fails. Alien, The Silence of the Lambs, The Saw franchise, and even newer additions to the genre, like IT and Sinners, were all movies that I’ve heard a lot of but never dared to watch.
That is why I was so surprised when I found myself drawn to a recent wave of horror films, which present a new type of fear. I was much more open to feeling and excited to experience this psychological horror that already resides within you and grounds itself in real-life anxieties and everyday scenarios.
Obsession is an American psychological horror film, written and directed by Curry Barker for his theatrical debut. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2025, but was only made available in the U.S. this year. The film follows Bear, a young music store employee who buys a supernatural toy that grants wishes. Bear uses the toy to wish his coworker and crush, Nikki, would fall in love with him. Though his wish is granted, Bear quickly learns that there are consequences to him practically stealing Nikki’s autonomy over her own heart, and these consequences lead to quite horrifying results.
While Obsession is supernatural and uses some classic scare tactics, like gore and jump scares, many would agree that those are not the truly scary elements of the film. Bear and Nikki’s “relationship” explores the horrors of what it’s like to lose control over your own life, and taps into the idea that even in the presence of a supernatural entity, humans can still be the most evil beings in the world.
Backrooms, another film released in theatres this May, is a horror movie that also steers away from classic scare tactics and introduces a new type of fear to viewers: the strange unease of being alone in an empty liminal space.
The film’s origin story spans multiple media, which makes its success much more satisfying. “The Backrooms” are a fictional location invented in a 2019 thread on the website 4chan. The idea started with a single picture of a large, carpeted room with yellow fluorescent lights and a dusty carpet, to which another user added a description depicting the feeling of being stuck in what they called “The Backrooms.” These are usually portrayed as impossibly large yet liminal spaces, where one can get stuck in with no way out. The description also hinted that other entities might occupy the space as well, so anyone who gets stuck in The Backrooms should watch their steps.
The origin of The Backrooms, via BetterPay5749 on Reddit
From that single post, the idea of “The Backrooms” kept expanding, including a video series uploaded by 17-year-old Kane Parsons on YouTube in 2022. This series, which heavily explores “The Backrooms” and follows those brave enough to enter, later led Parsons to sign a deal with the entertainment company A24 to create the horror film, Backrooms.
Similarly to Obsession, the main scary element in Backrooms is not the monsters or any jump scares. Backrooms takes a feeling most of us experience, the unsettling fear of being alone in an empty mall, an abandoned office building, or a deserted hallway, and stretches it into a nightmare. Even a single photo was able to cause fear within people who look at it, so basing a whole movie around that same feeling introduced a new, interesting genre of psychological horror.
Neither movie needs to constantly make you jump out of your seat or scream in horror. They successfully make viewers question their surroundings and sense of safety, which I find much more intriguing than a scary alien or supernatural doll. While I don’t see myself fighting zombies or following a clown to the sewers, the idea of wandering empty hallways alone or being stuck in an unhealthy relationship is a real fear based on very human anxieties.
Via onlystarleft, MarvelsGrantMan136
That’s not to say that there’s no place for traditional horror. Sinners, a successful horror film that uses shock tactics very well, broke the record for the most-nominated film at the 2026 Academy Awards, earning 16 nominations and 4 wins. But after years of movies that try to surprise viewers every 10 minutes, I’m finding that discomfort lingers far longer than any scare could.
While I am usually much more content to watch the latest Disney movie, I’m excited to have found a genre of horror that keeps me on the edge of my seat without actually making me want to hide behind it. The best horror isn’t the one that makes me scream at the theater, but it’s the kind that follows me home. The kind that turns ordinary rooms and ordinary people into something or someone who feels suddenly threatening and disturbing. Obsession and Backrooms are proof that horror is strongest when it doesn’t just scare us, it unsettles us.
