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Obsession & Backrooms have paved the way for a horror peak we haven't seen since the 1970s, says Jason Blum
Box office sensations Obsession (Blumhouse) and Backrooms (A24) prove that horror isn't just having a moment. Horror *is* the moment. And Paranormal Activity producer Jason Blum would know

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Expensive though it might be, it's a great time to buy a movie ticket these days, particularly if you're a horror fan. In case you somehow haven't heard, the double-feature frightfest of Curry Barker's Obsession and Kane Parson's Backrooms is taking the world by storm at the moment, thinning wallets of weirdos like me the world over. And if you're one of the weirdos behind the former film - that is, Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum - you might recognize this blockbuster pattern from an earlier period of entertainment.
When movie tickets were, admittedly, much cheaper.
Blum explained as much to The Hollywood Reporter on the heels of the last weekend in May, which, as you know if you're a horror buff, was a massive moment for the spookiest genre. In one corner, Backrooms had scored the #1 global box office opening (per Forbes), and in the other, Obsession continued its winning streak by becoming the highest-grossing Focus Features project ever (via Deadline). And while there certainly are milestones being hit with these two back-to-back frighteners, Blum feels there's a familiarity they have with another trailblazing era of big-screen history.
"Backrooms and Obsession are edgy and weird and fucking nuts," Blum said, "And to me, there’s almost this feeling of the ’70s, of a new generation of young people making edgy movies that are connecting in theaters in a crazy way. So many young people grew up in a time when they couldn’t go to the movies, and they haven’t had something made for them that gets them off their iPad and into theaters. Suddenly they have two movies."
Now look, I would never claim to be more of an expert on horror than Jason Blum even if I did disagree with what h said here, but a simple google of "70s horror movies" would prove me wrong even if I did. Remember, that was the decade of everything from The Exorcist to Alien, from Halloween to Hausu, from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre to the Town that Dreaded Sundown. And if we're seeing something like this again, as Blum indicates here, well...
I doubt very much that my wallet is going to be happy.
In the immortal words of Danny Elfman, "Life's no fun without a good scare." Join Popverse's freaky forays into frightful filmology with:
- The best horror movies of all time, according to horror aficionado Greg Silber
- The most underrated horror movies from the past couple years
- All the new and upcoming horror movies for 2025 and beyond
And much gore. Er, more. Much more.
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