Curry Barker’s “Obsession” is the most recent low-budget horror phenomenon. The monkey’s paw yarn, which works gloriously heavy on the gore, grossed a stunning $18 million in opposition to a $1 million price range over its opening weekend. Given its mixture of a 94% Rotten Tomatoes rating and an A- CinemaScore (which is especially excessive for a horror film), moviegoers’ obsession with the movie may linger for a couple of extra weeks, making it probably the most financially profitable fright flicks we have seen shortly.
What is the attraction? Properly, you may hardly ever go incorrect with a monkey’s paw hook (see 2025’s “The Monkey”), and, of late, you are in good fingers horror-wise when the writer-director hails from the world of sketch comedy. Like Zach Cregger, the filmmaker behind “Barbarian,” “Weapons,” and the forthcoming “Resident Evil” (and previously of The Whitest Youngsters U’ Know), Barker made his bones as a humorous fella. Together with Cooper Tomlinson, he grew to become a YouTube sensation as a member of the troupe “that is a foul thought.” Barker, whose third horror characteristic, “Something However Ghosts,” is already shot and in post-production, has a pointy popular culture sensibility and a little bit of a vicious streak.
These mixed parts are putting the appropriate macabre notes with viewers, however Barker’s secret sauce could be the music retailer location he chosen for the “Obsession” protagonists to work. It is none apart from Cassell’s Music, the identical location that was featured within the Nineties traditional “Wayne’s World.”
Cassell’s Music as soon as possessed Wayne Campbell’s obsession
Cassell’s Music was the shop that housed Wayne Campbell’s “Excalibur,” aka the 1964 Fender Stratocaster in traditional white with triple single coil pickups and a whammy bar. (“It will likely be mine. Oh sure, will probably be mine.”) That is a traditional axe as soon as wielded by Jimi Hendrix, and it will set you again as a lot as $30,000 if it is in mint situation. Sadly, if you happen to’re seeking to purchase one, you will not be capable of get it at Cassell’s, which, based on leisure journalist Eric Goldman, closed its doorways in San Bernardino in 2025 after 78 years in enterprise.
A few of my colleagues have been remarking on the fantastical notion that the fictional model of Cassell’s seen in “Obsession” can afford to make use of 4 staff and a supervisor working the identical shift within the yr of our lord 2026, and so they’re not incorrect. These days, you are fortunate if you happen to can stroll right into a Walgreens and discover a non-pharmacy worker. That is, in fact, an indication of a excessive functioning society, one which collectively made a want and plummeted us into our present dwelling hell. Horror’s massively widespread for a cause, people!
“Obsession” is in theaters now.
