Analogue evil: why today’s horror film-makers are obsessed with obsolete tech
Why This Matters
Key context: <p>From Obsession to Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, a new wave of movies are ditching minimalism for retro settings</p><p>The indie-horror hit films <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/sep/06/obsession-movie-review-tiff">Obsession</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/may/27/backrooms-review-kane-parsons-icily-disturbing-horror-rewrites-the-genre-rulebook">Backrooms</a> opened this summer’s movie season with a bang, each grossing hundreds of millions of dollars and turning out legions of younger moviegoers. Many have pointed out the similarity between the films: both were made for comparatively minuscule budgets by gen Z directors – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/may/14/curry-barker-obsession-horror-movie">Curry Barker</a> and Kane Parsons – who first rose to prominence on YouTube.</p><p>Fewer people are talking about the other quality the two movies share: a steady stream of analogue props and production design that plunges you into some bygone pre-digital era. Obsession’s lead characters Bear and Nikki work at a mom-and-pop music store, take rides in Bear’s vintage station wagon and the plot centers around a kitschy, old-fashioned gag gift. In Backrooms, Mary hawks her self-help cassette tapes on late-night infomercials, Clark smacks his TV to adjust the fuzzy signal – in the HDTV age, no one has done this for decades – and the wall-to-wall carpeted, ceiling-tiled backrooms look straight out of a long-abandoned office park on the side of the highway.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/aug/05/horror-movies-obsession-backrooms-tech-props">Continue reading...</a> This development from The Guardian highlights ongoing changes in the sector.
From Obsession to Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, a new wave of movies are ditching minimalism for retro settingsThe indie-horror hit films Obsession and Backrooms opened this summer’s movie season with a bang, each grossing hundreds of millions of dollars and turning out legions of younger moviegoers. Many have pointed out the similarity between the films: both were made for comparatively minuscule budgets by gen Z directors – Curry Barker and Kane Parsons – who first rose to prominence on YouTube.Fewer people are talking about the other quality the two movies share: a steady stream of analogue props and production design that plunges you into some bygone pre-digital era. Obsession’s lead characters Bear and Nikki work at a mom-and-pop music store, take rides in Bear’s vintage station wagon and the plot centers around a kitschy, old-fashioned gag gift. In Backrooms, Mary hawks her self-help cassette tapes on late-night infomercials, Clark smacks his TV to adjust the fuzzy signal – in the HDTV age, no one has done this for decades – and the wall-to-wall carpeted, ceiling-tiled backrooms look straight out of a long-abandoned office park on the side of the highway. Continue reading...
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