Backrooms vs. Obsession: Settle the “Score”

The Horror Titans of 2026

The talk of Hollywood in 2026 has centered around two mega-horror film releases: Backrooms, directed by Kane Parsons, and Obsession, directed by Curry Barker. The films have some similar roots — they’re both directed by former YouTube phenoms and produced with modest budgets. This is with the major caveat that Obsession was filmed with an especially meager budget of roughly $750,000!

Though Backrooms and Obsession are horror films from directors with similar backgrounds, the similarities stop there. The dramatic themes, environmental ambience, performances, and humor/dread devices all differ dramatically.

Backrooms explores an internet-born phenomenon known as “the backrooms;” a liminal space that exists between realities. This internet sensation was largely propelled into popular culture via Parsons’ early YouTube content exploring the fictitious world. Meditative and sprawling, the film feels cavernous, ambient, dirge-like.

Obsession is almost as much a dark comedy as it is a horror film, using a “monkey’s paw” storytelling device to explore a relationship gone wrong. The film is much faster paced and features a more traditional, linear storytelling structure. Things get really intense really fast.

Let’s explore the musical scores for these two films, explaining how the serve the cinematic arcs of the film, how they differ in purpose and tonality, and techniques and instruments we can use to achieve similar results!

Enter the Backrooms

The score for Backrooms is co-composed by Edo van Breemen and Kane Parsons (also the director). Breemen is a Canadian composer known for atmospheric, experimental work. He has composed on multiple film scores in the past, most notably 2025’s The Monkey. Parsons, on the other hand, is not a composer but did participate in creating the score of Backrooms through sound design.

The atmosphere and musical undertones of Backrooms rely heavily on the eeriness and liminal aspects of the sound design. Parsons captured source audio from many of the filming locations, manipulating them in a DAW to create atmosphere and dynamic ambient soundscapes which Breeman’s synthetic score sits on top of.

In comparison to Obsession, which features a more traditionally composed, dark synthwave aesthetic, you’ll notice that the timbres in Backrooms, even when they are synthetic, feel more organic and memory-like. This is in part due to the “real sound” elements as well as some organic instrumentation like piano and woodwinds. In addition to the differences in instrumentation, Backrooms heavily features sine-wave modulation. Every pad and sound feels like it is being warped like a tape. This adds to the retro-leanings of the film.

What are some of the tools one might use to create similar sounds to Backrooms? Let’s begin with the source audio manipulation Parsons uses in the score. Much of this can be done in any standard DAW (such as Reason or Fender Studio Pro). The Teenage Engineering OP-XY offers a more tactile format for granular synthesis manipulation. The cue “Local Network” features the glitching and hatcheting of granular synthesis and effects. This can be created in a digital sampler, with a granular synthesizer like the OP-XY, or with more granular effects and delays like the Walrus Audio Fable.

The more traditional analog synthesis in the score can realistically be recreated on any number of analog or hybrid synthesizers. An instrument like the ASM Ashun Sound Machines Leviasynth offers endless digital manipulation to warp your sounds into ambient washes. Much of the score also features electronic winds/clarinets which can be created using a wind controller like the ASM Diosynth. This adds a more organic, performed quality to a cue and allows for infinitely variable bends and dynamics.

Your New Tonal Obsession

Burwell leans on more traditional analog synthesis to create the score for Obsession. The textures in this film feel much warmer and emotional. Obsession actually follows characters and their relationships with one another, which contrasts Backrooms’ more psychological, top-down approach.

Many of the cues in Obsession are bathed in long, modulated reverb, creating warm washes. The cues “Nikki” and “Sandy” are great examples of this effect. These were almost certainly created using Moog or Korg classical analog synths and are pretty easily replicated. You could lean on more hands-on keyboard synths like the Moog Matriarch or Korg Multi/Poly, but these sounds are also easily created in DAWs with plug-ins like Spectrasonics Omnisphere 3 or a more trimmed down plug like Arturia KORG MS-20 V.

Obsession also leans into more traditional horror territory with jumpscares aided by loud percussion, risers, 808 drops, etc. A cue like “Date Night” is a long, brooding crescendo accented with brutal synthetic percussion. Instruments like the Moog DFAM or Elektron Syntakt were born for this type of synthesis and manipulation. The crushing distortion can be created through outboard effects like the Elektron Analog Heat, or with plug-ins in the box like u-he Satin Tape Saturation.

Who wins? The viewers.

While these two horror films may differ greatly in their plot designs and ultimately their compositional structures, both heavily feature synthetic instrumentation that allows the composers to find their specific sound. Whether you are looking for a cold melancholy to wash you away (Backrooms) or a warm pad to lull you into a deceptive sense of security (Obsession), these two scores deliver the chills and the thrills. If you are looking for more film scoring break downs and content, check out our dissection of Kinds of Kindness, or a breakdown of using the ASM Hydrasynth in a scoring context!