‘Obsession’ Heads Into the Golden Globes Comedy Race, and Horror Deserves Some Damn Respect

Curry Barker’s Obsession is making a run at the Golden Globes in the musical/comedy categories.

Scott Feinberg reports exclusively for The Hollywood Reporter that Focus Features and its fellow stakeholders have submitted the horror hit in that field, citing its dark humor. The report also puts the film’s worldwide gross above $500 million on a reported $750,000 production budget.

The submission still needs approval from the Globes. Insiders point to previous musical/comedy contenders such as Get Out and The Substance as precedents, and the placement could give Inde Navarrette a less crowded path to an acting nomination. Nothing has been nominated yet, but the campaign is underway.

And here we go again with horror trying to find a seat at the table.

I understand the strategy. I want this movie to have the best possible chance of winning something, and a horror movie can absolutely be funny. Focus made this submission; the Globes didn’t order the filmmakers to call their movie a comedy. But the conversation brings up a frustration that goes well beyond Obsession: horror still struggles to get the respect it deserves from an industry that depends on it.

We’re the black sheep until somebody needs a hit. Everybody wants the audience, the ideas, the imagery, the financial upside. Then the conversation turns to artistic achievement, and suddenly there’s this hesitation about giving horror the same consideration as everything else.