Many viewed 2025 as a turning point for the horror genre in Hollywood, with original movies like Sinners and Weapons making huge impacts at the Oscars while franchise entries like Final Destination: Bloodlines and The Conjuring: Last Rites dominated the box office in their respective runs. 2025 will certainly stand as a benchmark, but a double feature in theaters this weekend is putting moviegoers in seats with just as much fervor. A24’s highly-anticipated new horror movie Backrooms joins the unprecedentedly successful supernatural horror Obsession in theaters across North America this weekend.
After establishing a reputation on the film festival circuit in late 2025, Obsession has proven to be a phenomenon with audiences as well as critics. With over $80 million in box office revenue already logged and $150 million in its sights, there are plenty of people who have already seen Obsession and marveled at Inde Navarrette’s Oscar-worthy performance. However, horror fans now have the opportunity to experience it again as part of a particularly well-crafted double feature with Backrooms, which is on track for its own record-breaking box office haul.
‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’ Provide the Perfect Complementary Horror Double Feature
The two high-profile horror movies make for an extremely unique and enticing pairing purely due to how different they are. Obsession is darkly comedic, with crackling energy brought on by Inde Navarrette’s disturbing turn as “Freaky Nikki”. Gore is used surgically for maximum impact, and loaded with imagery that sticks in the brain. It’s an experience that almost leaves the viewer exhausted, with one of the bleakest endings in recent memory.
Backrooms, on the other hand, is predicated on terror built through eeriness and the uncanny valley. There are of course terrifying higher-energy sequences, but a bulk of what makes Backrooms scary is the crushing weight of true isolation, loneliness, and the strange sensation brought on by empty spaces. The two viewing experiences stand in contrast to one another, making the double feature a unique ordeal in anxiety.
‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’ Are on Track To Be All-Time Horror Hits
Obsession‘s meteoric rise in popularity and in ticket sales is truly groundbreaking, as it has managed to take on a Star Wars franchise film (The Mandalorian and Grogu) and come out ahead at the box office on multiple days since its release. However, Backrooms has a chance to match or exceed its box office totals based on a brilliant marketing campaign, a devoted existing YouTube fanbase for rookie director Kane Parsons, and a truly unique and intriguing premise. It should blow past the opening weekend box office record for A24, as initial estimates have its domestic total as high as $40–$60 million, an extremely rare feat for an R-rated horror movie.
What really makes the double feature an all-timer is how universally beloved both movies appear to be. Obsession is a Certified Fresh monster on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 94% audience score to back up a 96% critic score. Backrooms has already been Certified Fresh with an 88% as of this writing with more than 100 verified critic reviews logged, and expectations are that the audience score will approach something similar. It’s extremely rare to see a horror movie have such high ratings backed by an absurd box office haul, but for two movies to do it at the same time to this degree is nearly unprecedented. It’s the most can’t-miss horror double feature of 2026, and it could be the gold standard for the foreseeable future.
- Release Date
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May 27, 2026
- Runtime
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110 minutes
- Director
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Kane Parsons
- Writers
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Will Soodik
- Producers
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Chris Ferguson, Dan Cohen, Dan Levine, James Wan, Jenno Topping, Kori Adelson, Michael Clear, Osgood Perkins, Peter Chernin, Roberto Patino, Shawn Levy
