The Thinking Mind Podcast: Psychiatry & Psychotherapy
Jul 24, 2026 · 34 min · 12 segments
Can we really love another person, or only the version of them we have created in our minds? Today Dr Alex explores *Obsession*, directed by Curry Barker, a psychological horror film about desire…
Alex CurmiHost
It was pretty much one of those films where even as I was watching it, I was thinking of how relevant it might be for you guys.
And it's also worth pointing out that horror in general is a really interesting genre right now.
I think for the past ten years, we've gotten some really interesting films out of that genre.
What you can find often, if you look at the history of films, is you find a new up-and-coming genre often is offering the stuff that's exciting and creative but also risky, and studios are often reluctant to take a risk on those kinds of films.
But eventually they do because there start to be really interesting examples of films made in that genre.
And then over time, as that genre gets more and more successful, it tends to ossify, and the material coming out of that becomes more stale.
So you see that a lot with the comic book franchises, where if you go back to the year two thousand and you have films like X-Men coming out, these were films which were considered very risky, but they paid off.
They reached their peak perhaps in the late two thousands, early twenty tens, and then the genre began to ossify and calcify, and now we're really seeing the decline of comic book movies.
And if you look at the past, say, ten years or so, you have really, really interesting horror films.
Films like Hereditary, uh, The Substance, Midsommar, Obsession, Backrooms, which has also just came out.
They obviously use a lot of supernatural tropes, and when you can use supernatural tropes and motifs, it means you can use symbolic language.
Because horror films necessarily are dealing with dark material, they're a wonderful vehicle for dealing with our anxieties and maybe some of the darker aspects of our nature.
So I've been excited at the whole-- the slate of horror films that have come out recently.
It was pretty much one of those films where even as I was watching it, I was thinking of how relevant it might be for you guys.
And it's also worth pointing out that horror in general is a really interesting genre right now.
I think for the past ten years, we've gotten some really interesting films out of that genre.
What you can find often, if you look at the history of films, is you find a new up-and-coming genre often is offering the stuff that's exciting and creative but also risky, and studios are often reluctant to take a risk on those kinds of films.
But eventually they do because there start to be really interesting examples of films made in that genre.
And then over time, as that genre gets more and more successful, it tends to ossify, and the material coming out of that becomes more stale.
So you see that a lot with the comic book franchises, where if you go back to the year two thousand and you have films like X-Men coming out, these were films which were considered very risky, but they paid off.
They reached their peak perhaps in the late two thousands, early twenty tens, and then the genre began to ossify and calcify, and now we're really seeing the decline of comic book movies.
And if you look at the past, say, ten years or so, you have really, really interesting horror films.
Films like Hereditary, uh, The Substance, Midsommar, Obsession, Backrooms, which has also just came out.
They obviously use a lot of supernatural tropes, and when you can use supernatural tropes and motifs, it means you can use symbolic language.
Because horror films necessarily are dealing with dark material, they're a wonderful vehicle for dealing with our anxieties and maybe some of the darker aspects of our nature.
So I've been excited at the whole-- the slate of horror films that have come out recently.
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