Top 5 Must-Watch Movies for Fans of Obsession: A Thrilling Cinematic Journey

“Obsession” centers on Bear, a music store employee portrayed by Michael Johnston, who is too shy to ask out his co-worker and childhood friend, Nikki, played by Inde Navarrette. In a moment of desperation, Bear uses a seemingly harmless novelty item, One Wish Willow, to cast a love spell. The spell takes an unexpected turn, causing Nikki to exhibit an overwhelming and erratic affection toward Bear, transforming his dream into a nightmare for both of them.

Among the numerous adaptations of the “Monkey’s Paw” trope, “Obsession” stands out as a remarkable interpretation. Barker masterfully explores the age-old warning “be careful what you wish for,” whether intentional or not. This theme is powerfully brought to life through Inde Navarrette’s stunning performance, capturing the horror of having one’s autonomy seized by a possessive force. Her portrayal has inspired a curated list of five horror films that delve into the terror of losing one’s identity or being trapped by an obsessive presence. Whether you’ve already seen “Obsession” or plan to experience one of this summer’s most anticipated films, these movies promise to deliver a chilling experience.

Renowned horror writer Stephen King once stated that “Pet Sematary” was the most terrifying book he had penned. Given his repertoire of ghostly tales, killers, and interdimensional creatures, it’s telling that the narrative of losing a child unsettled him most. Of the two adaptations of his 1983 novel, Mary Lambert’s 1989 film captures the essence of the story’s horror, with King himself crafting the screenplay.

Horror maestro Stephen King once claimed that “Pet Sematary” was the scariest book he had ever written. Considering he’s dabbled with ghosts, killers, and interdimensional monsters, it speaks volumes that the story of losing a child would shake him above all else. Of the two films made from his 1983 novel, it’s Mary Lambert’s 1989 adaptation that gets to the heart of the story’s terror, especially with King writing the screenplay.

The trouble starts after doctor Louis Creed (Dale Midkiff) transplants his family to the rural community of Ludlow, Maine, where he takes a position at a local college. It’s not too long before Church, the family cat, is run over by a truck. Neighbor Jud Crandall (Fred Gwynne) shows Louis a secret pet cemetery hidden deep within the woods, which mysteriously revives a very different Church. When Gage (Miko Hughes), the youngest member of the Creed family, suffers the same horrible fate, Louis buries his son in the cursed spot, only to receive something else in return.

While neither adaptation has come close to the primal terror of the book, Lambert’s film gets the most right in depicting the kind of grief that compels people to perform acts of desperation. Louis knows he really shouldn’t be attempting another resurrection given prior results, yet is so distraught by his inability to be a present father that it leads to an even greater horror, which tears the Creeds (and Jud, for that matter) to pieces. Hughes doesn’t get a whole lot to do, but makes his scenes post-resurrection count with an unsettling blend of killer instincts and childlike innocence.

As great as Stephen King’s 1987 novel “Misery” was at depicting a terrifying interaction with an unstable fan through a pre-internet lens, it was Rob Reiner’s 1990 feature adaptation that propelled the story to even greater heights. All these decades later, “Misery” remains a disturbingly prescient psychological horror film about fan entitlement, on which we’ve made no progress whatsoever.

In the midst of completing his final book in the Misery Chastain series, author Paul Sheldon (James Caan) crashes his car during a terrible blizzard sweeping through the Colorado mountains. When he comes to, the heavily injured Paul finds himself in the care of a woman named Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), who just so happens to love his work. But what starts as the act of a good samaritan turns into something much more malevolent, when Paul’s supposed caretaker not only has no plans of letting him leave, but forces him to write a whole new novel to satisfy her fan delusions.

“Misery” is still a masterful two-hander between Bates (in her Oscar-winning role) and Caan, as they keep finding ways to trip up the other without arousing too much suspicion. Annie is scary because you never quite know how she’s going to react when things don’t go her way, while the story being set in the dead of winter plays into the isolation that Paul experiences. “Misery” is all about tension and the power of suggestion. When something extreme does happen, like the hobbling scene (which horror fans weirdly can’t stop rewatching), it hits that much harder.

Filmmaker Brian Yuzna has this incredible ability to leap into a horror franchise and make his entries feel distinctly unique, as with 1990’s “Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation.” Just three years after that film, Yuzna stepped in to direct the third entry in the “Return of the Living Dead” series, which takes things in a whole new direction. 

Rather than chronicling another zombie outbreak, “Return of the Living Dead 3” instead focuses on a love story between rebellious teenagers Curt (J. Trevor Edmond) and Julie (Melinda Clarke). After they decide to run away from home, the couple gets into a deadly motorcycle accident that kills Julie. Having learned the ins and outs of the top secret biohazard facility where his father works, Curt introduces the dreaded 2-4-5 Trioxin gas into his girlfriend’s system, leading to a whole new kind of reanimation. You won’t find sticking glass shards in your face in “Romeo and Juliet,” that’s for sure.

What makes “Return of the Living Dead 3” truly stand out is that it deviates from the horror-comedy blend of the previous films in favor of a more emotionally resonant story about coming back from the dead, albeit still with a whole lot of goop and gore. Julie resorts to various forms of body mutilation in order to temporarily subside the pain of being neither alive nor dead. Clarke does great work playing a character who’s always aware that she doesn’t feel at home in her body, and what it compels her to do to satiate her dormant hunger for brains. This is a prime example of what a filmmaker can bring to the table when a series isn’t bound by things like canon or a repeating formula.

Horror is easily the genre most susceptible to remakes, but the thought of reanimating 1981’s “The Evil Dead” seemed like a fool’s errand in 2013, considering it’s imbued with so many of Sam Raimi’s trademark sensibilities. Thankfully, Fede Álvarez retains the “friends go to the cabin in the woods plot,” along with a few cheeky references, and instead opts to tell a much different story. 

The dilapidated destination here isn’t chosen for its coziness, but rather its isolation to help Mia (Jane Levy) kick her heroin addiction. While the trip hits its inevitable rough patches, things really ramp up with the group discovering a cursed book in the basement, which Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci) stupidly reads aloud from. Upon doing so, Mia finds herself possessed by a malevolent demon that inhabits her body and torments her friends in increasingly grotesque ways.

Álvarez’s “Evil Dead” is a gnarly gorefest that relishes in making you squirm, and that’s part of what makes it so great. It features some of the most disturbing moments in the entire franchise, such as Mia’s possession in the woods, in addition to that thing she does with her tongue and the boxcutter. But Mia really is the heart and soul of this genuinely mean film, which puts her through the wringer. All of the harm that comes her way in Deadite form makes her rise that much more satisfying. Her brother David (Shiloh Fernandez) is primed to become the spiritual successor to Bruce Campbell’s Ashley J. Williams, only for Mia to swoop right in and rightfully secure that mantle for herself. The heavy metal blood storm finale needs to be seen to be believed — it’s a very groovy note to go out on.

It’s safe to say that Jordan Peele made one of the splashiest directorial debuts of the 2010s with “Get Out.” You cannot undersell how much of a ripple effect it’s had on the horror genre in such a short amount of time, especially when it came to the treatment of Black characters. 

The 2017 psychological chiller opens as a contemporary twist on “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” with Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) being invited to upstate New York to visit the parents of his white girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams). On the surface, the extremely wealthy Armitages (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener) seem like a well-meaning, albeit painfully oblivious privileged family who can’t help but unleash their uncomfortable microaggressions on their daughter’s boyfriend. But the nightmare expands when Chris uncovers an even more sinister operation hiding in plain sight within their community, a sci-fi body replacement plot right out of “The Stepford Wives.”

Peele’s Oscar-winning screenplay is both a masterful slow burn and a scathing, yet hilarious piece of social commentary about Black people only being accepted into white spaces if they literally think like them, which means playing a horrifying game of brain switcheroo. Characters like Georgina (Betty Gabriel), Andre (LaKeith Stanfield) and Walter (Marcus Henderson) are shells of their former inhabitants, all of whom are drowning in their own internal void — aka “the sunken place.” The alternate endings to “Get Out” provide a more realistic conclusion to this story, but Peele wisely decides to give the audience a much needed reprieve after everything that Chris has been through courtesy of Rod (Lil Rey Howery), the best TSA agent ever.