Curry Barker Reveals Netflix Wanted to Take ‘Obsession’ Straight to Streaming Before Focus Features Won It

Few horror films have had a rise quite like ‘Obsession,’ the micro-budget breakout that turned director Curry Barker into one of the industry’s most sought-after new voices practically overnight. What started as a modest festival entry quickly became one of the genre’s biggest success stories in recent memory.

That kind of trajectory rarely happens without a chaotic scramble behind the scenes, and Barker has spent the past year slowly filling in the gaps of exactly how wild that scramble actually was. Details about the film’s origins have trickled out gradually, each one adding another layer to an already unlikely success story.

The latest revelation might be the biggest one yet. Speaking with Tom Power on CBC’s “Q,” Barker confirmed that Netflix made a serious push to acquire ‘Obsession’ with an offer that would have bypassed theaters entirely, sending the film straight to streaming instead of the theatrical run that ultimately turned it into a phenomenon.

Barker recalled waking up the morning after the film’s Toronto International Film Festival premiere to a flood of missed calls from his manager, agent and financier, all trying to reach him about an unexpected bidding war. “Dude, like everybody’s putting in a bid for this thing,” he remembered his manager telling him. “You name it, you know, every company. Neon, Focus, A24, all of these companies are wanting to do your movie.”

Among that crowded field of interested buyers, Netflix stood out for taking a fundamentally different approach than everyone else at the table. Rather than fighting for a traditional theatrical release, the streamer proposed skipping cinemas altogether.

“Netflix was in the conversation at one point,” Barker said. “They put in an offer to just put it straight on Netflix.” Focus Features ultimately won the rights instead, paying around $15 million for a film that Barker says cost roughly $600,000 to $700,000 to make, a gap that still strikes him as almost unbelievable.

That decision to go the theatrical route ended up paying off in a massive way. ‘Obsession’ became one of the biggest sleeper hits of the year, eventually crossing $500 million worldwide against its shoestring budget, a result that would have been impossible under a streaming-only release model.

Barker also used the conversation to reveal a separate near-miss from earlier in his career. He came remarkably close to making a feature-length version of his viral short film “The Chair,” which nearly became his debut feature before ‘Obsession’ took shape instead.

That detail adds context to just how unpredictable Barker’s path to feature filmmaking really was, with multiple projects vying for his attention before ‘Obsession’ emerged as the one that stuck. Given how things eventually played out, it’s hard to imagine the industry’s current excitement around Barker existing in quite the same way if either “The Chair” or a Netflix-only release had happened instead.

First trailer for ‘OBSESSION’ spin-off ‘THE BARTENDER FROM OBSESSION’

Starring The Bartender from ‘OBSESSION’ pic.twitter.com/nlKD3oe6dP

— Cinema Solace (@SolaceCinema) September 25, 2026

Barker’s stock has only continued to rise since ‘Obsession’s release, with Universal reportedly signing him to an eight-figure deal to write, direct and produce an original horror feature. He’s also attached to ‘Anything but Ghosts’ at Focus Features and a reimagining of ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ for A24, giving him one of the more stacked upcoming slates of any young genre filmmaker working today.

For a movie that almost skipped theaters entirely, ‘Obsession’s eventual box office run stands as a reminder of just how much a theatrical release can still matter for the right film.

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