Film

Obsession

Name: Obsession
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Drama
Released: 1976
Cast: Cliff Robertson, Geneviève Bujold, John Lithgow, Sylvia Kuumba Williams, Wanda Blackman

Other titles called Obsession: the 1943 film, the 2026 film.

Drama
Romance
Very dark

A wealthy New Orleans businessman spirals into obsession when he meets a woman who's the spitting image of his dead wife. Brian De Palma's stylish thriller is a masterclass in visual storytelling and psychological manipulation, playing with perception and desire in ways that feel both elegant and deeply unsettling. It's for anyone who loves watching a filmmaker toy with your certainty.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love Hitchcock-style suspense built from lingering looks, a mournful score and a story that trusts its dread, and you don't mind the mood doing the work.

Skip it if you want a brisk plot, since this is slow, deliberately stylized and leans on operatic emotion that some will find overheated.

What it asks of you: Expect under a hundred minutes of patient build-up, with long held shots, a sweeping score and grief played at full volume rather than whispered.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Vertigo1958

Hitchcock's definitive exploration of obsession and the danger of seeing what you want to see rather than what's there. A man becomes fixated on recreating a woman in his mind, and the film documents the beautiful horror of that compulsion.

But It's deliberately paced and relies on sustained mood rather than plot momentum. Some find it glacial; others think that's the whole point.

Marnie1964

Another Hitchcock deep dive into a man's need to possess and 'fix' a woman, with Tippi Hedren magnetic in the title role. The psychology is queasy and fascinating, the colour cinematography stunning.

But The sexual politics are very much of their era, and not in a good way. It can feel uncomfortably paternalistic by modern standards.

Body Double1984

De Palma's own follow-up to Obsession, even more audacious in its play with voyeurism and identity. It's trashy, explicit, and structurally brilliant—a film that knows exactly what it's doing.

But The sexual content is graphic and occasionally exploitative. It's deliberately provocative in ways that won't land for everyone.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Obsession

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Repulsion1965

Both films use a beautiful woman as a screen for male fantasy and projection, but Repulsion makes us feel the horror of that from the inside, while Obsession maintains an elegant distance. Together they bracket the obsession from both sides.

Roman Polanski's descent into a woman's fractured psyche as reality warps around her. It's the inverse of Obsession—instead of a man projecting his desire onto a woman, we're inside a woman's terrified mind as it collapses. Brutal, beautiful, and genuinely disturbing.

But It's unrelentingly dark, sexually charged, and the body horror is visceral. It's not a pleasant experience; it's designed to unsettle you completely.

Taxi Driver1976

Scorsese captures the same year's fever of male obsession and urban alienation. Travis Bickle's descent is hypnotic and terrifying, anchored by De Niro's unsettling performance.

But It's bleak, violent, and the subject matter—a man's sexual fixation on a teenage girl—is deeply disturbing. Not a comfort watch.

Dressed to Kill1980

De Palma again, crafting a Hitchcockian murder mystery about desire, identity, and mistaken perception. Michael Caine is brilliant, and the set pieces are audacious.

But It's violent and sexually charged in ways that can feel gratuitous. The gender politics won't sit right with everyone.

The Invisible Man1933

A man's obsession with his own power and invisibility corrodes his humanity. It's thrillingly performed by Claude Rains, visually inventive, and surprisingly dark about male ego unchecked.

But The pacing can feel theatrical by modern standards. It's more about mood and performance than plot propulsion.

Rebecca1940

Hitchcock's exploration of a woman haunted by her husband's obsession with his dead first wife. It's gothic, beautiful, and understands how obsession poisons a household.

But It's slow-burn melodrama, not a thriller with incident. Some find the heroine too passive for modern tastes.

The Hunger1983

Stylish, erotic, and genuinely strange. A vampire couple's relationship fractures when one becomes obsessed with a new love. David Bowie is mesmerizing, and it's visually unlike anything else from its era.

But It's deliberately artificial and slow. The narrative is secondary to mood and image; you have to surrender to it.

Suspicion1941

Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine in a marriage where obsessive doubt curdles everything. It's intimate and claustrophobic in a way that feels almost uncomfortable to watch.

But The ending is famously compromised by studio notes, and the film suffers for it. It never quite lands with the force it should.

The Face of Another1966

Where Obsession mines the erotic charge of mistaken identity, The Face of Another uses the same mechanism to explore metaphysical questions about who we are beneath the surface. It's obsession as philosophical crisis rather than sexual pathology.

A Japanese film about a man who obtains a new face through surgery and becomes obsessed with testing whether his wife will recognize him. It's philosophical, darkly funny, and structurally brilliant—the obsession is with identity itself rather than with a woman.

But It's slow, deliberately artificial in its staging, and proceeds from a Japanese sensibility about performance and selfhood that won't be familiar. The twist is philosophical rather than narrative.