Obsession 2 seems all but guaranteed to happen at some point. A sequel to the horror breakout may be fun, but would take all the wrong lessons from the movie’s success.
Curry Barker’s Obsession is the surprise hit of the year. The horror movie starring Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, and Megan Lawless has become a box office success. Premiering in May, Obsession has already earned over $285 million globally, making it not only the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2026, but one of the most successful films of all time due to its modest budget of $750,000.
Speaking with Josh Horowitz, Barker says he has ideas for a sequel, but that the movie won’t happen right away. “I don’t want to go straight into Obsession 2,” Barker said. “I have such a cool idea for it that I won’t say. I’m not saying it has to be five, six years from now. But I think people would be just as excited for it if it came a little down the road. It’s a whirlwind and I’m trying to figure it out.”
As fun of an idea as Obsession 2 might sound, Hollywood and audiences alike seem to be learning the wrong lessons from Obsession’s surprise success.
Obsession’s box office success became a case for more original horror, not sequels
The Summer of 2026 has become a huge season for original horror movies. Not only did Obsession make a ton of money, but A24’s Backrooms has also become a major success for the studio and the horror genre as a whole. Both movies were similar in many ways and felt like a breath of fresh air in a genre that can oftentimes feel polluted with stale ideas.
It’s this reason exactly why, although fun on paper, the idea of an Obsession 2 looks like people are learning the wrong lessons. Instead of immediately looking to Barker to turn his project into a franchised movie (or spin off a TV show, as he’s discussed), we should be looking for him to continue creating original projects that keep our interests up.
The world of horror is no stranger to franchises. Traditionally, a movie will have some surprise success and very quickly get turned into several sequels. Over the last 10 or so years, though, we’ve seen that, although franchises like The Conjuring or Insidious have their place, audiences want more original projects they’ve not yet been scared by in the past. This trend also coincided with the rise of directors like Ari Aster, Robert Eggers, and even Jordan Peele, all of whom explored the horror genre with original movies and followed it up with even more original projects.
To Barker’s credit, it sounds like he knows this. His quotes suggest he doesn’t want to dive right into a second movie and instead work on other ideas. A second Obsession down the line might not even be a bad thing either, but jumping right back into it, as fans and Hollywood likely want to, would be obsessing over the latest hit and making the same mistakes we’ve made in the past all over again.
