All through October, I’ll be posting reviews of the best of the best films in the horror genre released since October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2026. As an added bonus, I’ll be doing a secondary review that may be somewhat related to the main review or slightly missed the countdown by inches. Follow along the countdown every day in October. Feel free to agree, disagree, or better yet, give me your own picks for your favorite horror movies of the year. Happy Halloween!

The Best in Horror 2025-2026 So Far…

#31 – DOLLY (GATOR FACE)
#30 – THINESTRA (SACCHARINE)
#29 – ONSLAUGHT (BEAST OF WAR)
#28 – READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME (PENNY LANE IS DEAD)
#27 – IN OUR BLOOD (V/H/S/HALLOWEEN)
#26 – SEND HELP (HEEL)
#25 – THE CARPENTER’S SON (THE BOOK OF SIJJIN AND ILLIYYIN)
#24 – OTHER (YOU ARE NOT ME)
#23 – WHO’S WATCHING (MATCH)
#22 – HOPE (TOUCH ME)
#21 – THEY WILL KILL YOU (MEAT KILLS)
#20 – IT ENDS (ANACORETA)
#19 – TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA (PLAY DEAD)
#18 – IRON LUNG (THE DEEP DARK)
#17 – LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY (SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT)
#16 – BUFFET INFINITY (KETCHUP ON WAFFLES)
#15 – DUST BUNNY (THE YETI)
#14 – BUDDY (MONKEY’S MAGIC MERRY GO ROUND)
#13 – INFLUENCERS (PRIMAL DARKNESS)
#12 – KEEPER (THE HOUSE WAS NOT HUNGRY THEN)
#11 – UNDERTONE (MAN FINDS TAPE)
#10 – EXIT 8 (GHOST TRAIN)
#9 – HONEY BUNCH (BONE LAKE)
#8 – RESIDENT EVIL (WE BURY THE DEAD)
#7 – HOKUM (MOTHER OF FLIES)
#6 – EVIL DEAD BURN (BLOOD BARN)
#5 – GOOD BOY (KENNELED)
#4 – FRANKENSTEIN (NIRVANA THE BAND THE SHOW THE MOVIE)
#3 – BACKROOMS (ALPHA)
#2 – 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE (REFLECTION IN A DEAD DIAMOND)
#1 – OBSESSION (GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE)

#1 – OBSESSION (2026)

Released on May 15, 2026!
Streaming on Peacock and available On Demand from Blumhouse and Focus Features!
Directed/Written by Curry Barker.
Check out the trailer here! !

Bear (Michael Johnston) has been hopelessly in love with his co-worker Nikki (Inde Navarrette) for close to seven years but is afraid to tell her. Nikki is clearly simply interested in only being friends with him, but when she decides she wants to move on and leave her current situation to pursue a writing career, Bear feels his time is running out. So, he decides to buy Nikki a present and happens upon a One Wish Willow, a gimmick souvenir that promises to grant a wish to a person who breaks the willow in half. When he misses his chance to give Nikki the present, Bear breaks the willow branch himself, wishing that Nikki would love him more than anything in the world. But as they say, be careful what you wish for.

Having already been a fan of the “That’s a Bad Idea” shorts by Curry Barker and Cooper Tomlinson, especially the found footage nightmare “Milk & Serial,” I was excited to see OBSESSION fully knowing the comedy team’s gift at coming up with skits filled with uncomfortable humor and unsettling situations. While this is a hard-core horror film, Barker sprinkles in darkly comedic moments all the way through—some genuinely funny and some moments that make you laugh because of how uncomfortable things get. This is Barker’s wheelhouse and much of the first half hour of OBSESSION is filled with moments of fun beats.

Barker and actor Michael Johnston don’t go out of their way to make Bear likable though. Bear is a schlub. He’s too much in his head, doubting every move, and has absolutely no game to speak of. On top of that, in the opening moments, his grandmother has recently passed away and now, his cat somehow got into his sleeping pills and is found dead. Add a scene where Bear pitifully practices what he is going to say to Nikki with his best friend Ian (played by Barker’s partner in crime and co-producer Cooper Tomlinson) and you’ve got a Bonafide loser on your hands. Still, if one is being honest, we all (and I’m talking to the gals and guys out there) have been made into an idiot once or twice in the name of love and when that happens, life does tend to shit all over you. So, while it’s not fashionable or completely accepted in most social circles, you can’t help but identify and feel for the poor guy. I’ve seen criticisms that say otherwise, but I feel those people just aren’t being genuine with it.

But I don’t really want to talk about how identifiable the protagonist is. My concern is how Curry Barker crafts a wonderfully entertaining Monkey’s Paw tale where a wish is made and it ends up biting the protagonist in the ass in the end, only in OBSESSION, Bear starts feeling the burn from the wish early on. Bear is no idiot. Yes, he goes along with Nikki’s advances, and this is a very creepy thing to do. But I’ll give it to Barker and actor Johnston, they do their due diligence to try not to make Bear into an opportunistic creep. Bear questions Nikki’s advances for quite a bit and doesn’t believe the One Wish Willow actually worked for quite a long time. I understand in this current climate, some hesitation is necessary in order not to offend or highlight that Bear is taking advantage of Nikki. basically, given her a cosmic roofie and while he feels bad, Bear does begin to go along with it as he is just so happy to be getting her attention. But I can see many people shrieking from their fainting couches at how OBSESSION is a male power fantasy over the dominance of unattainable women. Those folks, though, might want to watch the entire movie, as this is a film where no one gets out unscathed and while Bear’s morals might be in questions in this situation where Nikki is falling all over him only due to a spell cast upon her, he definitely pays for it in the end.

But what I really want to talk about in this review is how Curry Barker handles horror and I want to do it by dissecting the three ways he scares you with OBSESSION. Barker’s previous works are steeped in comedy, so many of the film’s scariest moments are put together like a joke. Long lead in to get you comfortable and then BANG! goes the punchline or in this case, the jump scare. There are a few of those in OBSESSION and they are potent little blasts of action and sound, but this is the easiest of the three scares I wanted to talk about today. Still, if you’re looking to jump out of your seat, this film has a few very good ones that will make you do so.

More prominent is Barker’s mastery of the feeling of discomfort. This is another aspect that stands out in his comedy skits, as most of them center on someone doing something in public and another person calling them out on it or making a scene about it. Reminiscent of CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, these skits highlight the mundane and amp the reactions to ten. Barker does the same thing with his horror. There are numerous scenes in OBSESSION where Bear and Nikki are out in public and because of her obsession with him, Nikki does something so cringe inducing that it makes you sink in your chair out of empathy for the poor schlub. Have you ever seen a person in public being berated or humiliated by their partner? It just makes everyone feel awful. It’s that specific feeling that Barker has honed to razor sharpness in OBSESSION as the cracks in Nikki’s psyche begin to show not only to Bear, but to all around them. It’s the kind of feeling that makes you want to turtle-shell your neck and disappear and OBSESSION is full of those types of scenes.

But there’s a third type of horror that Barker taps into with OBSESSION that is a bit less obvious. For a new filmmaker, Barker is a master of the entire screen in front of you. Reminiscent of another first-time filmmaker’s work, Ari Aster with HEREDITARY, Barker’s OBSESSION forces you to scan the entire screen for horrors. Many times, something is lurking in the corner or just out of sight and covered in shadows. There’s an amazing scene where Nikki appears on Bear’s doorstep and her face is covered in shadow. They have a whole conversation, which would be a regular conversation anywhere else, but filmed in this way, where Nikki is completely darkened, it makes the words insignificant and tells the viewer that this is dangerous. There are many scenes in OBSESSION where this shadowed effect is on Nikki, signaling that something absolutely terrifying is about to happen. And sure enough, it does. Not only that, but Barker does some great scenes where the focus is on one thing in the foreground, but there is an out of focus threat in the background. Again, it’s this mastery of space that you just don’t see enough in horror, but it is such an effective way to give a scene weight and a level of threat.

Back to OBSESSION. Inde Navarrette makes this movie. The way she snaps back and forth from loving to psychotic is horrifying. Navarrette gives her all in this performance, not caring how terrifyingly pathetic or selfless she seems. It’s a star making performance that should signal a long career for the beautiful actress. And somehow, some way, Michael Johnston makes you like Bear, even though the schlubby pitifulness and creepy manipulation. Yes, he’s a weak protagonist, but honestly, the actor makes it all difficult to turn away from. Cooper Tomlinson is given a few scenes to shine comedically and Megan Lawless is adorable in her smaller part, but this is Navarrette and Johnston’s show and they shine.

Though we really don’t get too far into the minutiae of the mechanics behind the One Wish Willow, what we do get is quite terrifying. OBSESSION doesn’t necessarily tread new ground with the subgenre. It’s just the way he delivers his scares that sets him apart from the herd. The little peeks into the lore behind One Wish Willow, such as the screams Bear hears over the phone when he calls the number on the back of the box of One Wish Willow, is enough to chill your bones without outright showing you anything.

I hope I have illustrated with this review how much I loved OBSESSION. Barker really does show a huge amount of skill in orchestrating an energetic horror film that never lags or fails in its attempts to creep under your skin. It’s a remarkable debut and the attention Barker is currently getting is well worth it. Having watched his YouTube skits for a few years, I can’t help but feel proud of the guy for achieving so much in so little time and I can’t wait to see the unique style of horror Barker has in store for us next time.

Worth Noting – GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE (2026)

Released on February 13, 2026!
Streaming on Hulu from Briarcliff Entertainment!
Directed by Gore Verbinski.
Written by Matthew Robinson.
Check out the trailer here!

A man who claims he is from the future (played by Sam Rockwell) enters a LA diner and says he has come to save the world. Among the 40 people in the diner, he must gather some random combination of them to go on a mission to save humanity from Artificial Intelligence that has been slowly taking over the world under our noses. If they don’t find a 9-year-old boy and stop him from doing whatever he is doing, humanity is doomed. Of course, no one believes him and returns their gazes to their smart phones, but the man from the future says he’s serious and wearing a bomb. If a group of them don’t come with him, he will blow up the place. The man from the future claims he has done this scenario over a hundred times before, returning to the diner to start this quest, but tonight feels different and once he gets his group together, they embark on an adventure like no other for the sake of the world.

Gore Verbinski came out and saw his shadow this year, so he decided to make a new movie. His last film, A CURE FOR WELLNESS, wasn’t a huge success when it was released way back in 2016, but his work on THE RING and THE PIRATES OF THE CARRIBBEAN franchise still makes me perk up when I hear his name attached to a project. After seeing the quirky trailer in theaters, I knew I had to check this one out asap. And I’m glad I did, as GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE was as astounding work of cinema that should not be missed.

The film is structured almost like an anthology, where the man from the future and his gang make their way across LA serves as the glue, and short stories are told about the members of the group that follows him. In each story, a little bit about the group members and why they are important to this story are revealed. In many ways, the film plays out like four BLACK MIRROR episodes all tied together, all dealing with a different aspect of how technology is taking over our lives. Teachers Mark and Janet (Michael Peña and Zazie Beetz) work in a high school and struggle with teenagers more interested in their screens than learning anything. Distraught mother Susan (Juno Temple) just lost her son to a school shooting and is presented with the means to get her dead son back through new technology. And Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson) is the first human being allergic to Wi-Fi and electronics, causing her to avoid technology all together. But when her boyfriend Tim (Tom Taylor) receives a VR headset in the mail, he becomes enamored with virtual reality more than the real one. Finally, the man from the future tells his story of a world overrun by machines and all free will as we know it has disappeared. These four stories are as varied as they come, but all convey the same message the BLACK MIRROR series does—Technology can be our friends, but if you don’t watch out, it can be our ends. See what I did there?

Told at a manic pace that doesn’t waste a minute, this two hour and fourteen-minute film flies by quickly. The film never gives the viewer a chance to rest as Rockwell and his gang are on the run from the very first seconds of the film. The backstory is filled in along the way, just at the right time we need that information, making this film that is broken up into four pieces feel seamlessly put together. Each backstory has something tragic, hilarious, and horrifying going on, resulting in a film that literally flips and twirls your emotions every few minutes. By the end of this film, I was invigorated by the amazing imagery, which I will get to in a minute, but also exhausted at the range of emotion this film wrung out of me.

Filmmaker Gore Verbinski channels his inner Terry Gilliam for GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE. The sights, sounds, creatures, and colors seen in this film are like few you’ve seen before. Yes, there are elements of 12 MONKEYS and THE FISHER KING here, but whereas those films tried to tell a smaller tale with big ramifications, GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE goes big every step of the way, yet never falters from bringing a human element to it all. There are some extremely touching scenes here among the fireworks, some that are going to leave a mark on your heart. But that’s just part of this wonderful rollercoaster ride of a movie. There are things in this film that are almost indescribable. Yet with all this spectacle, Verbinski never lets the reigns slip and always grounds this film in reality.

Much of this has to do with this cast. Sam Rockwell is an actor that has delivered one iconic performance after another, but here he switches from downright goofball to slapstick clown, to heartwarming loser, to purpose driven madman with ease. The guy should be a much bigger star than he is, but in my book, he’s one of the best working today. There is just something likable about every role he plays, but here as the man from the future, he is a never-wavering being of hope that somehow, he is going to beat this thing, no matter how many times he must repeat this scenario.

Among Rockwell’s group are some greats as well. Michael Peña and Zazie Beetz’s story is less serious as most but sets the tone for this quirky film well. It’s fun seeing these two on the edge of a relationship together, not knowing whether their affections are going to die on the vine or blossom. It was great seeing Juno Temple in a much more reserved role than I am used to seeing her in. It took me a second to recognize her with normal hair and acting like a stressed-out mom. Temple’s Susan is integral to this story and some of the more heart-breaking scenes rely on her performance alone. There is a scene she is in that is so absurdly laugh out loud funny, yet utterly terrifying that makes for the most nightmarish and entertaining bit in the film. Finally, newcomer, at least to me, Haley Lu Richardson is phenomenal as the enigmatic Princess Ingrid, leading the way. She has nothing to live for, and her story is tragic but seeing her slowly find something to fight for is absolutely uplifting. Richardson has the chops to be a big star.

You’re going to laugh, cry, jump back in your chair, and say, “God DAMN!” multiple times while watching GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE. It’s one of those all-around entertaining films that crosses genres and enlightens minds, where you don’t know what’s coming next and are continuously dazzled, shocked, or terrified as to what it turns out to be. The message that AI is slowly overcoming our lives is a good one—one that should be listened to. This film resonates on multiple levels, but in the end, it’s a last plea for humanity to look up from your screens and do something about it! So, stop reading this and be sure to go out and find some way to watch GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE. Don’t just sit there! Go!

Once again, feel free to agree, disagree, or how about you play along at home and give me your own picks for your favorite horror movies. It’s October, so let’s talk horror. Be sure to hit all of the pertinent bells and whistles down below and you’ll never miss a post! Happy Halloween, folks!