Horror fans continue to eat well in 2026 with the release of Obsession, a supernatural horror film written and directed by Curry Barker. In the film, a music store employee named Bear (Michael Johnston) gets a very supernatural toy that allows him to wish that his childhood friend and crush, Nikki (Inde Navarrette), falls in love with him. However, this being a horror film, the wish goes wrong, and Nikki becomes dangerously obsessed with Bear with a supernatural twist. With this tale of love gone wrong, it felt like the right time to suggest other movies that you might enjoy if Obsession was right up your alley.
Honorable Mention: Swimfan (2002)
Teenagers got their own Fatal Attraction in 2002 with Swimfan, a psychological thriller that proved obsession can happen at any age. Directed by John Polson from a screenplay by Charles Bohl and Phillip Schneider, Swimfan follows high school swimming phenom, Benjamin “Ben” Cronin (Jesse Bradford), who is happily dating Amy Miller (Shiri Appleby), but finds himself being stalked by Madison Bell (Erika Christensen) after a one-night stand. Swimfan doesn’t have the nuance or prestige of Fatal Attraction, but it’s trashy fun in the best way because it embraces a “so-bad-it ‘s-good” formula that works to its benefit.
The film never takes itself too seriously, especially as Madison’s obsession grows more palpable as the film goes on, and everyone involved is game to make this an above-average thriller for the teen set. The performances are strong, particularly Christensen, who manages to go full psycho while also showing moments of vulnerability that don’t make her character a complete caricature, and Bradford, who, despite doing a truly awful thing, engages sympathy as he finds himself under more pressure by being under Madison’s thumb.
Also of note, given its slim $10 million budget, Polson’s direction, matched with Giles Nuttgens cinematography, makes Swimfan a sleek thriller with an atmospheric style that makes it stand out from most films of its kind released at the time. Swimfan might not be high art, but it’s highly entertaining and a cautionary tale that, even in high school, one-night stands and cheating on your significant other can have dire consequences.
5. Fear (1996)
Obsession on the big screen doesn’t always involve the woman becoming fixated to the point that things turn unpleasant. Sometimes it’s the men who can be just as deadly, and that is very obvious in 1996’sFear, which turned Mark Wahlberg from rapper/Calvin Klein model to an actor to watch alongside Reese Witherspoon in one of her early roles. Directed by James Foley from a screenplay by Christopher Crowe, Fear follows a wealthy family whose life is turned upside down when their teenage daughter Nicole (Witherspoon) begins dating a seemingly charming young man named David McCall (Wahlberg), who happens to be an out-of-his-mind sociopath.
It would be easy to dismiss Fear as a guilty pleasure, and in many ways it is, but it deserves credit for approaching its subject matter in a surprisingly credible way. For a father, it strikes a nerve because the idea of watching your daughter fall into the arms of someone you feel is seemingly dangerous resonates, and for young women, Fear paints a fairly realistic portrait of a girl who falls for the bad boy (with charm), who gradually shows his true, dangerous colors, where escape might potentially come too late.
Keeping much of this grounded are the actors, particularly Wahlberg, who exhibits a calm level of darkness throughout the film until he’s allowed moments to go fully unhinged, and Witherspoon’s honest portrayal of a teenage girl caught in an impossible situation. The movie goes a bit off the rails during its home invasion climax, but these turns, mixed with its surprisingly realistic and tense circumstances, make Fear a thriller of obsession that continues to work today.
4. The Cable Guy (1996)
Not all obsessions involve romantic relationships. Sometimes, it can come in the form of platonic friendships that begin to cross the line, and 1996’s The Cable Guy explores that in a hilariously dark fashion. Directed by Ben Stiller from a screenplay by Lou Holtz, The Cable Guy follows Ernie “Chip” Douglas (Jim Carrey), an eccentric cable installer who begins to intrude on the life of Steven Kovacs (Matthew Broderick), one of his latest customers.
The Cable Guy received mixed reviews upon release because the comedy was deemed a bit too dark, and it was a significant change of pace for Carrey, not only because it was his first $20 million payday, but because it was less zany and more bizarre and creepy compared to his output at the time. However, the real ones know, which is why it has gone on to become a cult classic, that this is some of Carrey’s best work, mixing his signature goofiness with a more sinister tone that makes this one of the best characters he has played across a stellar career. It proved that Carrey could be more than just a slapstick act but also an actor who could be nuanced in a way that utilized his manic energy to deliver something completely different to entice audiences.
As the straight man, Broderick is the perfect foil for Carrey because he has an innate everyman quality that makes him relatable to the audience to the point that they feel his discomfort (the porno password scene is equal parts hilarious and cringe-inducing). In many ways, The Cable Guy was ahead of its time in its depiction of a culture growing more and more obsessed with media culture to the point of toxicity, and it was able to showcase this in a deeply funny dark satire that may have divided audiences in 1996, but feels scarily prophetic today.
3. The Crush (1993)
Before Alicia Silverstone was Clueless, she was an obsessed teenager with an unhealthy attraction to Cary Elwes in the 1993 psychological thriller, The Crush. Written and directed by Alan Shapiro, The Crush follows Nick Eliot (Elwes), a writer who moves to a new city for a magazine job and finds himself in the crosshairs of Adrian Forrester (Silverstone), the teenage daughter of the landlords whose guesthouse he’s renting. Adrian is more than direct about her attraction to Nick, and the more he tries to rebuff her advances, the more dangerous she becomes.
The Crush is ’90s camp at its finest, similar to Swimfan in that it never takes itself too seriously. The film is sufficiently fast-paced at a brisk 90 minutes and its unaologetic in its depiction of a messy teenage crush gone wrong. In some ways, it’s a commentary on how intense teenage feelings can be at that age and how what’s lacking when you’re that young is the maturity to suppress them. That’s not to say that things get too deep because it’s a very over-the-top thriller best enjoyed as a trashy guilty pleasure that is bolstered by some fine performances.
Silverstone mixes charm and vulnerability with an unhinged, obsessive nature that has helped turn The Crush into a true cult film over the years, while Elwes is suitably ordinary enough in his role that it’s believable he could fall prey to Adrian’s manipulations. Respect to the film for not going TOO far because Adrian is 14 in the film while Nick is 28, but even though it doesn’t cross that line, The Crush is still a fun reminder of ’90s thrillers that weren’t afraid to be unapologetically ludicrous in the best way.
2. Misery (1990)
What happens when a fan becomes so obsessed with your work that they’ll go to any length to give the character they admire the ending they think that character deserves? You get Rob Reiner’s Misery, one of the late director’s best works based on the 1987 novel of the same name by Stephen King, a man who may know a thing or two about obsessed fans. Directed by Reiner from a screenplay by William Goldman, Misery follows a novelist named Paul Sheldon (James Caan) who is held captive by an obsessed fan named Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) after he crashes his car during an intense blizzard.
Misery is a thriller of heightened escalating tension that only grows more unnerving as the audience realizes just how crazy Annie is and just how helpless Paul is. Despite being a psychological horror thriller at its core, the film also has a sense of dark humor that Goldman and Reiner have a lot of fun with, particularly through the Annie Wilkes character, as the audience sits with unnerving anticipation, wondering what crazy things she will come up with next.
While Bates won a much-deserved Academy Award for Best Actress for her instantly iconic portrayal of Annie, Caan deserves his share of recognition because most of their stuff together wouldn’t work without what begins as a more vulnerable performance that turns into one of intense desperation as he will do anything to be released from Annie’s captivity. Misery is a true pot-boiler that fully explodes once it reaches its climax and ends up easily being one of the best adaptations of King’s work to date.
1. Fatal Attraction (1987)
The true cautionary tale about obsession gone horribly wrong probably remains 1987’s Fatal Attraction, which serves as a cautionary tale to not cheat on your significant other because the consequences can get bat-shit crazy to the point your child’s bunny rabbit won’t even be safe. Directed by Adrian Lyne from a screenplay by James Dearden, Fatal Attraction is based on Dearden’s 1980 short film Diversion and follows an attorney named Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) who cheats on his wife, Beth (Anne Archer), with a colleague named Alex Forrest (Glenn Close).
However, when Dan ends the affair, Alex will have none of it and begins stalking him and his family until it all ends up in a climax of slasher movie rage. Even though Fatal Attraction’s climax ends in true slasher film fashion, the early portions of the movie offer up a compelling character study of what can happen when a man steps out on his marriage with someone he doesn’t know is psychologically unstable. Close does an incredible job, in an Oscar-nominated performance, of not turning Alex into a caricature.
Even if all of her issues weren’t spelled out on the page, Close is able to convey something deeper boiling beneath the surface that makes the character much more human than she would’ve been in lesser hands. Douglas is also top-notch here, but he’s wise enough to leave the heavy lifting to the ladies, with Archer’s Oscar-nominated turn as his wife also worthy of praise. Fatal Attraction was one of the biggest hits of 1987 for a reason.
It became a pop culture phenomenon because it struck a nerve with the audience who could relate to its story of forbidden lust and obsession gone off the rails, which honestly helped erotic thrillers of this nature become destination viewing for moviegoers in the late ’80s through the mid 90’s. Fatal Attraction is truly a thriller about obsession that “will not be ignored.”
Obsession hits theaters nationwide this Friday courtesy of Focus Features.
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