"My job is to trick you": Obsession's Curry Barker on finding his own way to frighten horror fans and leaning into the "modern jumpscare"

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Curry Barker isn't a fan of conventional jumpscares. The director of upcoming horror Obsession, which is already being hailed as one of 2026's best movies, is so against them in fact that he's trying to invent whole new ways to send shivers up cinemagoers' spines.

"[This is] not something that people say, I'm just making this up, but I have kind of my own modern jump scare that I try to pursue – but it's not a jump scare at all. It's just, like, my version of a jump scare is," Barker tells GamesRadar+. "It's like, if you have two or three, even four, moments in your movie where you can make the audience go, 'Oh, I didn't like that. That was weird. That made me feel… To me, that's a modern jump scare."

Starring Michael Johnston, Megan Lawless, Inde Navarrette, and Barker's longtime collaborator Cooper Tomlinson, Obsession follows shy guy Baron 'Bear' Bailey, who wishes on a retro toy that his crush Nikki liked him back. Or, more accurately, "loved him more than anyone in the entire f***ing world"... and quickly comes to regret it.

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Bear's dream quickly turns into a nightmare as Nikki's new unrelenting devotion not only threatens to ruin his life but those of everyone around him, too.

It's a genuinely nerve-shredding flick that's packed full of uncanny visuals and strange sounds – and feels like it has the potential to usher in a new kind of genre flick. If you've watched any of Barker and Tomlinson's short films over on their YouTube channel That's A Bad Idea, especially The Chair or Warnings, you'll already have an idea as to the kind of chills to expect.

"Jump scares can be kind of predictable, and sometimes unearned, you know?" Barker continues. "Someone opens a closet and a ball falls out but because the music is loud, it's supposed to be a jump scare? A modern audience kind of rolls their eyes [at that], right? I mean, I do. I can only speak for myself, but I'm a huge audience for horror, so I try to ask myself, 'How would I react?' If I don't think it would be good, then I wouldn't put it in my movie.

"You won't see it coming," he grins. "Because what's the point of a jump scare you can see coming, right? My job is to trick you, and that comes from comedy. Tricking someone is kind of how you make someone laugh. You make them think that something's going one way, and then if you surprise them, you'll usually get a laugh."

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Obsession releases on May 15. While we wait, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way.

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Amy WestEntertainment Writer

I am an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things TV and film across our Total Film and SFX sections. Elsewhere, my words have been published by the likes of Digital Spy, SciFiNow, PinkNews, FANDOM, Radio Times, and Total Film magazine.

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