'Obsession' Officially Sets Netflix Release Date

Earlier this year, Zach Cregger‘s sensational horror spectacle Weapons continued the genre’s unlikely rise through the Academy ranks by winning Oscars gold at the 98th ceremony. Amy Madigan‘s standout performance as Aunt Gladys won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, just a year after Demi Moore‘s nomination and subsequent snub in Best Actress for The Substance. The race for next year’s Oscars is already gathering speed, and another female horror performance looks set for recognition from the Academy.

The performance in question is Inde Navarrette, who made herself a household name with her turn as Nikki Freeman in Focus Features’ Obsession. The performance was dubbed “one of the year’s best” by Collider’s Hannah Hunt in her review, with others praising Navarrette’s bold choices and emotional nuance beneath the horror. The current favorite to win Best Actress is Julianne Moore for her lead role in Jesse Eisenberg‘s The Debut, with Navarrette currently her most likely contender. Regardless, Navarrette’s career appears to be set for an unprecedented explosion, as she’s also set to portray Rogue in the MCU’s X-Men reboot.

Obsession is a “tightly constructed psychological thriller supported by phenomenal performances, disciplined storytelling, excellent sound design, and an atmosphere of constant emotional suffocation,” Hunt also wrote in her review, which was one of countless glowing responses to Curry Barker​​​​​​’s mainstream breakout. The film is considered one of the finest horror debuts of this century, and is regularly included in people’s “best-of” lists for 2026. If, somehow, the hottest horror film of the year passed you by in theaters, you’re in luck. In less than two weeks, on November 17, you’ll be able to stream Obsession on Netflix in the U.S.

Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath
your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what
it would leave behind.

Your nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you
to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever
won that particular argument.

• Freddy is horror’s cruellest idea: a threat that lives in the one place you cannot
  guard, cannot lock, and cannot avoid forever.
• You are the one who is fine during the film and wide awake at two in the morning. Your
  own head is where this does its damage.
• These films understood exhaustion as a horror engine. The kids on Elm Street do not lose
  because they are weak. They lose because they are tired.
• You can lock every door in the house. You still have to sleep.

Your nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the
person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it.

• Chucky works precisely because he is absurd. That is the trap: the more accurately you
  describe him, the less anybody is going to believe you.
• You are the one shouting at the screen because the characters are not listening. You
  know that feeling from real life too.
• The franchise is at its best when the adults in the room are the real obstacle, and you
  have met those adults.
• By the time somebody finally believes you, you will have handled most of it on your own.

Your nightmare has your number, knows your name, and has almost
certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them.

• Scream is the only one of these where the killer takes the mask off and turns out to be
  somebody who was at the party.
• You are the person who calls the twist out loud before it lands. You watch people the
  same way you watch films.
• The franchise made the rules of horror part of the plot, which means the survivors are
  the ones paying attention. You would be paying attention.
• Everybody is a suspect, including the person who just offered to walk you home.

Your nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people
asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving.

• The Conjuring films are domestic horror. The house, the family, the perfectly ordinary
  room that quietly stops feeling ordinary.
• Your instinct is to get everybody into one room. Your fear is protective rather than
  personal, which is rarer than it sounds.
• This is the one franchise where belief is the weapon. The people who come through it are
  the ones who are not alone and refuse to be.
• Whatever is here did not come for you. It came for the household, and you are the one
  standing in the hallway.

‘Obsession’ Made Box Office History

• Image via Focus Features

• Image via Shreyas Hirlekar

• Image via Focus Features

• Image via Focus Features

• Focus Features /Courtesy Everett Collection

Image via Focus Features

Image via Shreyas Hirlekar

Image via Focus Features

Image via Focus Features

Focus Features /Courtesy Everett Collection

• Image via Focus Features

• Image via Shreyas Hirlekar

• Image via Focus Features

• Image via Focus Features

• Focus Features /Courtesy Everett Collection

Image via Focus Features

Image via Shreyas Hirlekar

Image via Focus Features

Image via Focus Features

Focus Features /Courtesy Everett Collection

Barker’s horror phenomenon wasn’t just a massive hit with critics. With a budget of less than $1 million, the film skyrocketed past all expectations, even leaving the latest Star Wars movie in the dust. Obsession became the highest-grossing non-animated original film of the past decade, the highest-grossing original horror movie of this century, and the fifth highest-grossing horror film of all time, with this just a selection of its many records. Since then, the film’s popularity has only endured, with the character of Nikki even appearing as a character at Universal Studios’ recent Halloween Horror Nights event. A synopsis for the film reads:

“After breaking the mysterious “One Wish Willow” to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.”

“After breaking the mysterious “One Wish Willow” to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.”

Obsession is streaming on Netflix next month. For more of the latest stories, make sure to stay tuned to Collider.

Obsession

• <

  Michael Johnston

  Bear

• <

  Inde Navarrette

  Nikki

• <

  Cooper Tomlinson

  Ian

• <

  Megan Lawless

  Sarah