With a small budget and just 20 days of shooting, Curry Barker’s Obsession had audiences captivated from the start. To capture its haunting visual world, Barker enlisted Company 3 Colorist Jake White to craft further the film’s unsettling subversion of the classic psychological horror genre.

White credits much of the film’s visual identity to the early creative alignment between himself, Barker, and cinematographer Taylor Clemons. Ahead of production, the trio discussed “the look, the vibe, the script, and what they wanted the film to feel like,” a conversation that White says became a pivotal foundation for the project. That vision informed some of the film’s most memorable imagery, particularly the treatment of Nikki, whose face often appears in a near silhouette. To achieve the effect, White relied on extensive shot-by-shot grading, using “Power Windows on the eyes, the face, and different areas of the frame” to carefully control where the audience’s attention would go. “You can’t simply drop a black shape over someone’s face and call it a day,” he explained, describing the meticulous process of balancing mystery with just enough visual cues for viewers to register subtle emotion.

That level of precision was made possible by Clemons’ cinematography, which White says took “the opposite approach” from many modern productions by shooting at ISO 100 and lighting scenes heavily to create “a very clean negative to work with.” The collaboration continued throughout the grade, to the point that the team ultimately restarted the process after deciding an early version wasn’t serving the story. “We actually graded the film twice,” White revealed. “The first version was a bit punchier and more contrasty, but as we watched it together, we realized it wasn’t serving the film.” Instead, they embraced the look built into the cinematography, refining the image to support Clemons’ guiding principle: “We’re never going to feel the sun.” This allowed the visual language to guide audiences’ viewing experience without ever overwhelming the story.

Read Jake’s full interview with People of Post here. Obsession is now available to stream on Peacock.