Curry Barker's psychological horror film Obsession opened in theaters on May 15, 2026, following the director's widely praised micro-budget debut Milk & Serial. The film centers on a man who uses a magical novelty toy to strip away a woman's free will - and the sinister consequences that follow. For viewers who want to watch it from home, or from countries where it hasn't yet been released, the path to streaming involves both patience and, potentially, a VPN.
Where Obsession Will Land After Its Theatrical Run
No official streaming date has been confirmed, but the distribution picture is fairly clear. Obsession is a Focus Features and Universal Pictures release. Both studios fall under the NBCUniversal corporate umbrella, which means Peacock - NBCUniversal's streaming platform - is the near-certain eventual home for the film. Theatrical exclusivity windows for major studio releases typically run at least two months before a title moves to a streaming platform. Given the May 15 release date, viewers should reasonably expect Obsession to appear on Peacock sometime around August 2026.
For those unwilling to wait, pre-orders for the film on PVOD (premium video on demand) platforms are already live in the United Kingdom, priced at £17.99. No equivalent pre-order availability has been announced for other regions at this time.
Peacock offers three subscription tiers for those planning ahead:
- Select ($7.99/month or $79.99/year): Ad-supported entry tier covering new NBC and Bravo seasons, with partial access to Peacock Originals.
- Premium ($10.99/month or $109.99/year): Full ad-supported library access including originals, films, next-day NBC and Bravo episodes, and live sports.
- Premium Plus ($16.99/month or $169.99/year): Ad-free viewing, offline downloads, and a live 24/7 local NBC stream. Some live events may still carry minor ads due to rights restrictions.
How a VPN Helps Viewers Outside the U.S. - and What to Know Before Using One
Streaming rights are licensed on a country-by-country basis. A film available on Peacock in the United States may be blocked entirely for users in Europe, Asia, or elsewhere - not by choice, but by contractual geography. A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, addresses this by routing your internet connection through a server in a different country, masking your actual location and replacing it with one from the server's region. To a streaming platform's detection systems, you appear to be browsing from whichever country hosts the server you've selected.
Beyond unlocking region-restricted content, VPNs encrypt the data traveling between your device and the internet. This protects your browsing activity from being read by your internet service provider, monitored on public Wi-Fi networks, or intercepted by third parties. ISP throttling - where providers deliberately slow down video streaming traffic - is also commonly reduced when a VPN is active, since the encrypted tunnel obscures the nature of the traffic.
Two services stand out for streaming use cases specifically:
- ExpressVPN: Operates a network of more than 3,000 servers worldwide, with a strong reputation for fast, stable connections suitable for HD and 4K playback.
- VeePN: A more affordable option with over 2,600 global servers, optimized for consistent streaming performance without the premium price point.
Other widely used options include NordVPN, known for strong security features and reliable speeds; Surfshark, which allows unlimited simultaneous device connections; CyberGhost, recognized for its broad server network; and Private Internet Access, which emphasizes privacy-focused configuration options.
One practical caveat: streaming services actively work to detect and block VPN traffic. No VPN guarantees permanent, uninterrupted access to any given platform. Paid services with large, frequently refreshed server networks tend to maintain access more reliably than free alternatives, which often have limited server infrastructure and are among the first to be blacklisted. Free VPNs also carry additional risks - many sustain their operations by logging user data and selling it to advertisers, which directly contradicts the privacy purpose the tool is meant to serve.
The Film Itself: Why Barker Calls It a Tragedy, Not Just a Horror Story
What makes Obsession worth tracking is that it isn't purely a creature-feature. Writer-director Curry Barker has been explicit about the emotional architecture beneath the horror. The film's protagonist, Bear, works at a music store and is quietly infatuated with his co-worker Nikki. Rather than pursue a genuine relationship, he uses a novelty toy called a "One Wish Willow" to make her fall in love with him. The wish delivers exactly what he asked for - and destroys everything in the process. Nikki loses her autonomy entirely, becoming a dangerous, obsessive presence driven not by real feeling but by magically imposed compulsion.
Barker told TIME that "any time you wish for something, it's probably going to be selfish," and that the film's core message is simple: "Love should be earned. Anything that's not that probably isn't going to work out." The horror, in his framing, isn't the supernatural possession - it's Bear's refusal to let go of a relationship he knows was manufactured. The film uses its fantastical premise to examine something recognizably real: the destructive logic of treating another person as an object of desire rather than as an autonomous individual.
That thematic weight is part of what generated strong word-of-mouth around Milk & Serial, and it suggests Obsession is building toward something more lasting than a typical theatrical horror run. For viewers ready to engage with it - whether in theaters now or on Peacock later this summer - the tools to access it from anywhere already exist.
