Disclaimer: I’m a blind film critic, and to my knowledge, there’s no audio description. It wouldn’t surprise me if an audio description track for this would cost more than the film itself.

Remember a few years ago we got the pandemic horror surprise with Skinamarink, a film that at the very least is experimental, and at the most, challenging. Well, this one has a bit more of a narrative structure, but this is basically like if Skinamarink and I saw the TV Glow had a baby, and that baby was in black and white. Obex will be one of the strangest films of 2026, and I commend Oscilloscope for releasing it and saving it from Tubi obscurity. Words just cannot do this film justice.

While it is true it doesn’t meet my accessibility needs, and really probably should, stylistically, there’s something about this film that feels like if H.P. Lovecraft was born in a different decade, and did one of those soul searching drugs like peyote or Ayaiushca and found himself. This comes from the mind of Albert Birney, who I’m just now learning has directed something before that I need to see, and he is proving himself as a voice for the future. For everyone complaining there’s never anything new, directors like Birney are fighting hard to buck that trend. If all you do is go online and whine about the state of Marvel or Star Wars, then watch films like Obex. the better these do, the more there will be.

But this isn’t for everyone. I’m not going to lie, it is an odd film. Birney has decided to write, produce,direct, and star in a microbudget black and white horror film, in which he uses a lot of his own things, including his own dog. The cast is really small, and the only thing I can’t give a ringing endorsement to. the film is low budget, and this fits that mold. Low budget acting. I’m sure his friends are in the film. He’s a gifted director, a strong writer, but perhaps… not on onscreen talent.

Birney plays a man who has decided to not leave his property in quite some time. His neighbor brings him food, but otherwise, he’s pretty homebound in a pre-internet 1987. This could be a boy and his dog type film, but then he plays Obex, and everything changes. he finds himself sucked into a world, on a quest to find his missing canine companion. Except, this film is super cheap, so there aren’t little cartoon characters flying about. Everything is a representation or approximation of, relying on practical effects, and a forgiving black and white overlay.

the sound design was insane, and I loved it. His film is just so weird. i read that he filmed this in 2021 during the great Locust uprising, and instead of battling the locusts, he incorporated them. That knowledge made me accept a scene where someone on TV is trying to make a locust omelette. Eeeew.

yes, there’s some semblance of a plot. yes, it is technically horror, though not actually scary. And, it even has some emotional baggage it unpacks that perhaps answers why he’s tuned out the rest of the world. It’s a ferocious directorial experience from someone who heard the phrase A24 vibes and said hold my beer.

this movie is to film almost like what John cage was to music. Instead of just doing what everyone else does, you reinvent the concept of it, and add a new layer, or definition to the medium. birney’s film is so interesting, I can’t help but go positive. we keep saying we want more things like this, that are bold risks, and perhaps if they get more mainstream, they’ll get audio description more often.

I also imagine, for those of you inclined in the illicit substances market, this film is one hell of a ride if you are high. I don’t know how it can’t be.

Albert Birney might be a genius auteur in the making, and Obex is definitely one of the weirdest films, in all the right ways, of 2026, and we’re just getting started.

Audio description would get a higher score, but this is so unique, I refuse to be negative here. We need more films like Obex, an with the saturation, they can move mountains.

Fresh: 6.5/10