Curry Barker’s buzzy horror Obsession made the jump from TIFF to SXSW tonight with one change – a few less head smashes in what may be the film’s goriest scene and biggest jump scare.
In Toronto, where Obsession screened at the Midnight section, “there was about six or seven more smashes. And we were getting an NC-17 rating. And so they were like, you’ve got to take out some of the smashes. And I was like, I’m not taking out a single bash. But I did.”
Focus Features acquired the film after TIFF in a deal sources placed at $15M+. Written and directed by Barker Obsession follows a hopeless romantic who, after breaking the mysterious “One Wish Willow” to win his crush’s heart, finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come with a sinister price.
It still feels “really f**king hardcore,” he said. “I’d watch from the back of the theater and the way everyone reacted — whatever the number is now, it’s the right number,” he said at a Q&A after his debut feature screened in Austin Saturday night. In fact, there were many loud screams in the theater and the smashes seemed plenty.
Barker is known for short films including found footage horror Milk & Serial, which he made posted for free on YouTube, becoming a viral sensation.
“I just, like the honesty of human behavior. I just like to study human behavior and I think that that lends itself to comedy, and it does lend itself to horror. To be funny and relatable, you kind of have to look at the psychology of why people do things. And that kind of lends itself to this genre as well,” Barker said.
The Obsession cast includes Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, and Andy Richter. James Harris produced through Teashop Productions, alongside Haley Nicole Johnson through Under the Shell, and Christian Mercuri on behalf of Capstone Pictures, which fully financed the project, repped world rights, and co-repped domestic alongside CAA Media Finance.
English (US) ·