Step Into the Dreamlike, Pre-Internet World of ‘OBEX’ With New Moving Poster Sneak Peek [Exclusive]

From the mind behind Strawberry Mansion comes OBEX, a lo-fi fantasy about isolation, imagination, and the ghosts of technology. As part of Collider’s Exclusive Preview event, we’re pleased to unveil a 15-second teaser that unveils a new poster for the film to offer audiences a fleeting glimpse of the heartfelt and slightly uncanny film set to release early next year.

Set in pre-Internet 1987, OBEX follows Conor (Albert Birney) and his dog Sandy as they live in quiet seclusion, their days marked by the glow of late-night horror movies and the slow-rendering graphics of early Macintosh computers. When Conor discovers a mysterious new computer game called OBEX, the borders between the game and reality begin to dissolve. Soon, he’s pulled into a high-stakes analog labyrinth — a place where technology’s promise of connection gives way to isolation and dread.

‘OBEX’ Is a Lo-Fi Nightmare for the Digital Age

Described as “a delightfully skewed lo-fi fantasy,” OBEX uses its retro setting not as nostalgia bait but as a mirror to our hyperconnected present. Shot in striking black and white by co-writer and cinematographer Pete Ohs (Erupcja), the film channels the tactile aesthetic of early computing to explore loneliness in a pre-digital age. Birney, known for his handmade visual style and bittersweet storytelling, once again creates a world that feels like a dream halfway between reality and broadcast static. With music by Josh Dibb, OBEX hums with the eerie warmth of an era when technology was still magic, and just as dangerous.

Produced by Emma Hannaway, Birney, James Belfer, and Ohs, OBEX stars Birney, Callie Hernandez, Paisley Isaacs, Frank Mosley, and Tyler Davis. Running 90 minutes, the film is an audacious and uncanny dive into the imagination of one of indie cinema’s most inventive voices. Where Strawberry Mansion examined the commodification of dreams, OBEX turns its gaze backward, uncovering horror in the birth of our digital dependency, a theme that feels eerily resonant in today’s always-online world. In his review, Collider’s Jason Gorber described OBEX as “strange enough to feel a bit avant-garde, familiar enough in its odd tropes to make it coherent, and sympathetically told to be engaging even for those without much patience for the patently odd.”

OBEX premieres in theaters January 9, 2026. Stay tuned for more from Collider’s Winter Exclusive Preview event coverage, spanning the most exciting television and film releases in the coming months.