How Obsession Became Apple TV's Fastest Hit in Three Days

Three days. That’s all it took for Obsession to go from indie curiosity to Apple TV’s most requested film, according to Polygon. A splash? Hardly. More like a tidal wave.

Written and directed by Kari Barker and released in May, the horror thriller follows a peculiar boy named Asen Beir who turns to a wish-granting toy in a desperate bid to make the girl he loves fall for him. Predictably, the wish delivers—but not in the way he imagined. The film twists sweetness into something unnerving, the kind of small-idea horror that lingers long after the lights come up.

Made on a shoestring budget of $750,000, Obsession pulled in $17.2 million in its first week and has since grossed roughly $370 million—a staggering return for such a modest production.

While theaters were still filling, the movie landed on Apple TV and climbed to the top of the platform’s request chart in three days. Streaming momentum like that changes how studios and audiences reckon with indie horror: it proves word-of-mouth still moves mountains, and that a tight concept executed well can outpace even the most polished tentpoles.

Kari Barker’s profile is rising fast. He’s already in post-production on Anything But Ghosts, a supernatural horror he wrote and directed starring Bryce Dallas Howard and Violet McGraw. Expect more of Barker’s appetite for unsettling ideas and character-driven dread.

Meanwhile, A24 has hired Cory Baker to write and direct a reboot of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Baker has described his take as intentionally disturbing and merciless—language that suggests the franchise will lean hard into its original, bone-deep brutality.

So what’s the takeaway? Indie horror’s hunger for audacity is far from sated. If Obsession’s sprint up the charts teaches us anything, it’s that a bold voice and a provocative premise can still break through noise—on the big screen and in our living rooms. Keep an eye on Barker and the next wave of filmmakers reshaping horror’s playbook.