Hollywood loves to make money from a horror movie, but when it comes to celebrating them, it’s much more complicated. This year, Curry Barker’s Obsession was the biggest success story in the genre, making over half a billion dollars on a budget of less than one million. It turned its director into a hot commodity, as well as its stars, Michael Johnston and Inde Naverette, the latter of whom has a legit chance at some awards.
The two biggest awards, mostly because they’re both broadcast on television, are the Academy Awards, aka the Oscars, and the Golden Globes. At the Oscars, all movies are equal and compete against each other for most of the main prizes. At the Golden Globes, though, that’s not the case, as the films are separated into two categories: drama or musical/comedy.
For most movies, this is a very easy distinction to make. For others, it’s not. Ultimately, the decision is made by the studio releasing it, and the Hollywood Reporter just revealed that Focus is putting Obsession into the category of musical or comedy.
Musical or comedy? Really? The movie with the woman who’s forced to fall in love with a man and then murders a bunch of people? Obsession might have a few light moments in it, but, for the most part, it’s incredibly visceral and intense. And obviously, there are no musical moments. But there’s much more to it than that.
While the film almost certainly is closer to drama than musical/comedy, the drama category is usually much, much more competitive. It’s where all the traditional Oscar bait movies go, and Obsession will not be beating any of those.
So, often, studios look for any chance to label their movies musical/comedy just for the easier road to the awards. In recent years, films like The Substance, Get Out, and Poor Things have all competed in that category as well. None of those are musicals or comedies (Poor Things being, probably, the actual funniest in a dark way), but the Globes accepted it, and the studio went ahead.
Also, the Hollywood Reporter piece points out that going into musical or comedy makes Inde Navarrette’s chances of not just a Best Actress nomination but maybe even a win much higher. And that’s a good thing.
So while Obsession being labeled a musical or comedy is very stupid, it’s merely exploiting a loophole in an even more stupid system. And if that means more people hear about and see Obsession? It’s worth it.
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