We’ve all heard it before: “playing video games will ruin your life!” (Or rot your brain, or make you violent, or whatever misnomer your parent/guardian/teacher/etc. chooses to use.) But what if that was actually true? If you’ve ever wondered that, then the trailer for Oscilloscope’s new hi-tech horror film OBEX is perfect for you.
Directed by Albert Birney, who stars, produces, and co-writes alongside Pete Ohs, OBEX also features Callie Hernandez, Paisley Isaacs, Frank Mosley, and Tyler Davis, with producers Emma Hannaway and James Belfer. The film’s synopsis is as follows:
In pre-internet 1987, Conor and his dog Sandy live a life of seclusion, lost in the slow-rendering graphics of early Macs and televisions aglow with late night horror movie marathons. But when he begins playing OBEX, a new and mysterious, state-of-the-art computer game, he finds himself trapped in a low-tech, but high-stakes analog hellscape as the line between reality and game blurs.
“When I make movies, I try to be open to images and objects that come into my life. I think if you can open yourself up to the universe, or whatever you want to call it, and you're searching for things with meaning, the stories will find you,” Birney says, “If you're making a film you get to create the world. So if I'm creating a world, I want to be filled with all of these objects that I personally still love and find so much beauty in.
Some people might call it nostalgia. And I guess there's an element of nostalgia to it, but for me, it's not just that…the sound of the dot maker's printer, or the sound of a VHS tape ejecting, or the sound of an old tv turning on — I love these sounds and images. If I'm in charge when I'm making a movie, then that's what I want to hear and see.”
OBEX hits theaters on January 9, 2026. Check out the trailer below:
