A new wave of horror films, including the recent hits Obsession and Backrooms alongside Jane Schoenbrun's Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, are embracing analogue props and retro settings rather than sleek modern design. The trend reflects a belief among film-makers that today's minimalist, tech-driven aesthetics lack the texture and menace horror needs, since smart devices and clean surfaces leave little room for the shadowy, unsettling details the genre relies on.

Obsession and Backrooms, made on modest budgets by gen Z directors Curry Barker and Kane Parsons, both grossed hundreds of millions of dollars and drew large youth audiences, featuring items such as vintage cars, cassette tapes and boxy televisions. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, starring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson, extends this approach by following a director attempting to reboot an 80s slasher franchise at its now-abandoned original set. The article argues that old-fashioned objects, such as record players, creaking floorboards and grandfather clocks, create the sense of a "haunted house" that contemporary, cloud-connected interiors simply cannot replicate.