Obsession, Backrooms, and the 1970s Moment Hollywood Needs Right Now | Episode 553

For years Chris and Daniel have been saying the corner was going to turn, that history would repeat itself the way it did in the 1970s. It turned. Jason Blum said the same thing last week. Two horror films made by twenty-something YouTubers just proved everything the studio system has been getting wrong, and the box office numbers are not being polite about it. Obsession cost under a million dollars. Backrooms cost ten million. Both are outperforming movies that cost a hundred times more.

Chris and Daniel break down both films as filmmakers. They get into what Obsession borrows from Takashi Miike's Audition and why that works, how Backrooms uses the architecture of infinite scroll and TikTok as genuine psychological horror, why sound design and shadows are a more effective budget tool than any AI pipeline, what the economics of AMC A-list are doing to studio revenue models, and why the wrong lesson from all of this is to go hire these directors to make a Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel.

Referenced in this episode:

Obsession (2025)

Backrooms (2026)

Audition (1999, dir. Takashi Miike)

Avatar 3 (2025)

The Odyssey (Christopher Nolan) (2026)

Mandalorian and Grogu (2026)

AMC A-list >

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Blumhouse >

This episode is sponsored by:

Center Grid Virtual Studio

Kitbash 3D (Use promocode "CGGarage" for 10% off)