Haley Nicole Johnson is still grappling with the breakout success of producing Curry Barker’s Obsession.
“It’s a lot. I’m not gonna lie. It’s a lot. But I’ve been overwhelmed with how welcoming the industry has been to everyone from Team Obsession,” Johnson told a TIFF: The Market panel on Saturday about making horror movies as a co-producer on Obsession and as a follow up recently wrapping production on Alex Ullom’s 4X4: The Event for Neon.
Barker’s own breakout directorial hit went from being sold to Focus Features for $15 million to becoming a summer 2026 box office hit with $500 million in ticket receipts, along with Kane Parsons’ Backrooms.
Fellow horror producers and directors at the Toronto Film Festival talked tactics and strategies in making their own breakout horror hits for the local multiplex. Adam Hendricks, co-founder of Divide/Conquer, said he got into producing horror movies because they touch people deeply, there are opportunities in the marketplace after Obsession and Backrooms became box office hits, and you can make movies without a big cast.
“This is the place we can do the most,” Hendricks argued. Nyla Innuksuk of Mixtape VR — who followed up her debut feature Slash/Back with In the Heart of the South, having a world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival this week — said connecting with audiences calls for being fresh with storylines and genre tropes.
“There’s this wanting to connect with ideas and feelings that feel universal and being able to tell something unique to a place and culture, while also being able to connect to strong feelings that are familiar, whether fear or obsessive love,” Innuksuk explained.
Hendricks insisted the genre space is a minefield when fans crave something new and not derivative of what came before: “We’re averse to stories we’ve seen before,” whether zombies or werewolves.
The audience will anticipate the narrative, having seen it before and knowing its beats and what’s coming on screen. “What are the new mythologies and new stories?” Hendricks questioned as he and Divide/Conquer co-founder Greg Gilreath field scripts for potential projects.
Gilreath, for his part, said he’s looking for filmmakers who use the “full tool-kit of making films,” including effects and stunts beyond just script and performances.
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