The Scene in Curry Barker’s Next Film That Confirms an Obsession Cinematic Universe
It looks like Obsession sickos won’t have to wait too long for their next fix.
Curry Barker and his long-time creative partner Cooper Tomlison (he plays Ian in the movie, in case you didn’t know) wrapped filming on their follow-up, Anything but Ghosts, a whole month before Obsession went into theatres. Knowing how fast the duo work, we can optimistically expect this one to surface at some point early next year.
What we weren’t expecting to find out so soon is that the two movies are not just thematically connected; they appear to take place in the same universe.
What We Know So Far About Anything But Ghosts
If you told someone in March that Obsession was going to make somewhere in the region of half a billion dollars at the box office, they probably would have looked at you the way Bear looks at Nikki in the latter stages of the movie. That said, the producers at Blumhouse clearly knew they had something special on their hands because they greenlit Barker and Tomlinson’s next project before Obsession had even premiered at TIFF last September.
Ghosts follows two scam artists posing as ghost hunters who (you guessed it) are unlucky enough to happen upon something real and terrifying—which sounds slightly similar to Bear’s worst-karma-ever situation in Obsession. So far, we know that Barker and Tomlinson play the two phoney ghost hunters in a cast that also features Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad), Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World) and the great Violet McGraw (the young breakout star of M3GAN). Naturally, Barker and Tomlinson have kept their regular DP (Taylor Clemens) and composer (Rock Burwell) on board, so we can probably bank on it having a similar look, sound and feel to their previous work, too.
The Scene That Connects Obsession to Anything But Ghosts
Not a single frame of Anything But Ghosts has been released yet, but Barker has already confirmed one fascinating detail in the movie.
Speaking at a recent post-screening Q&A, the director confirmed that his upcoming project takes place in the same universe as Nikki, Bear, and those Wishing Willow. “There’s like a news article thing on the next movie,” Barker explained, “where you hear a news anchor talking about a triple homicide [by] a woman.”
In a way, this helps clarify what fans have been speculating about regarding what happens to poor Nikki after the credits roll. Naturally, she was always going to have some explaining to do whenever the police, or whoever, arrived, and this appears to confirm that some form of incarceration is in store. Surely most people watching were quietly hoping that she’d get a moment or two of peace after all she’s been through. Then again, we all remember poor Laura’s gruesome fate, so why kid ourselves?
What This Means For Nikki Going Forward
Whether this will be a little Easter egg for fans or something more remains to be seen. Is it possible that the entity terrorises the characters in Anyone But Ghosts is in some way linked to the same people who answered the helpline in Obsession? Might Nikki be called upon to help or visited in her asylum like the classic ‘Final Girls’ of old? At this point, anything is possible.
If I had to guess, I’d say both are unlikely. There’s just no way anyone at Blumhouse (or anywhere else) predicted Obsession’s success with enough foresight to suggest linking it up with their next movie. I’m guessing this will be more like the lineages and brands that tie the 'Tarantinoverse' together—which has always been good clean fun, even if we know that Django is never going to show up in The Hateful Eight, or whatever.
In any case, all will be revealed (hopefully) sometime next spring.
