I am about to head to the theater to see this movie for myself, and from early audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, it seems they like the film just as much as critics do. Exactly, in fact.
The movie is Obsession, which has a 95% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes with an enormous 137 reviews in. And now, audiences have also given it a 95% score from its early previews. That 95% score makes it the highest Rotten Tomatoes-scored movie of the year. Not just a horror movie, but any wide-released movie in 2026. That even includes edging out the crowd and critic-pleasing Project Hail Mary.
Here’s a list of some of the top scores
- Obsession – 95% critic score, 95% audience score
- The Sheep Detectives – 94% critic score, 96% audience score
- Project Hail Mary – 94% critic score, 95% audience score
- Hoppers – 94% critic score, 93% audience score
- Send Help – 93% critic score, 87% audience score
- 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple – 92% critic score, 88% audience score
- Hokum – 89% critic score, 82% audience score
- Crime 101 – 88% critic score, 84% audience score
- GOAT – 84% critic score, 93% audience score
- The Devil Wears Prada 2 – 78% critic score, 85% audience score
That’s not literally everything, but yes, Obsession is the highest by a single percent, and if it can hold onto that, it will be the highest-scored movie of the year. At least this first half of the year. It’s almost the highest audience-scored movie as well, just under the surprisingly fantastic Sheep Detectives, co-written by Chernobyl/The Last of Us writer Craig Mazin, of all people.
My question is whether awards shows, like say, the Academy Awards, is willing to pay attention to a movie with a million dollar budget starring nearly complete unknowns if critics and audiences like it this much. This is putting up close to Sinners numbers, after all. Horror is a somtimes neglected category at big shows like that, except, well, we have Sinners last year, though that was led by a big star. Frankenstein, Bugonia and The Substance all received nominations. Again, lots of A-list actors there and bigger budgets.
Could Obsession defy those odds? I even think a Best Actress nomination for Rachel McAdams in Send Help is justified as well. Horror is one of the biggest, most profitable genres in film, and a movie like Obsession deserves a spotlight despite a lack of stars (well, it might be star-making for its lead, Inde Navarrette). We’ll see how it does at the box office this weekend with relatively little competition. By default, its tiny budget is going to make it a huge success financially, at least, and we can already see what critics and audiences think of it as well. A slam dunk on every front.
Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.