"It's not a romance. It's a love story."
Spoler Alert:
If you have not watched the film yet, please do so before reading this article. This article contains heavy spoilers.
There are many cinematic tools in the horror genre to play with, but here debut feature writer-director Curry Barker chooses the most unconventional path. He uses human nature to scare the audience and relies mostly on the performance quality of his actors. Obsession is a new benchmark in the horror genre, especially in psychological horror. The film feels like a sweet dream in the first 15 minutes, but as soon as the first act finishes, it begins to ruin that very dream you saw at the start.
The film follows the relationship of Bear and Nikki. Bear loves Nikki but is too afraid to confess his feelings. He buys a product called the One Wish Willow, and he makes one wish: that Nikki would love him more than anything in the world. And then, BOOM, things start taking a very bizarre and disturbing turn. The theme of Obsession is that love without freedom, consent, and respect ceases to be love and becomes a destructive obsession that harms both the person pursuing it and the person being pursued. It blurs the dangerous line between love and possession. Bear wants a wish that is too good to be true, but he is not ready for the brutal consequences, and that is exactly what the film explores across its 108 minute runtime.
Obsession offers a commentary on the current state of the Gen-Z generation. It becomes a critique of fear, loneliness, unhealthy attachment, dependency, and the desire for validation. The brilliance of the film also reflects on viewers themselves, prompting them to question their own reality. Bear is deeply relatable in many ways. He is insecure, recognizable, and above all lonely despite having friends.
One of the key characters of the film is a cat, which is dead within the opening minutes, yet remains one of the most important presences in the story. In my reading, the cat represents Nikki’s freedom. In one scene, after Bear makes his wish, she says the line “I lost my cat too,” in response to Bear saying “I lost my cat.” But what Nikki seems to mean is that she has lost her freedom, because she is now a byproduct of Bear’s wish. There are multiple interpretations of the cat, and each of them feels right, because the narrative is constructed that way.
The Performances
Inde Navarrette delivers a jaw-dropping performance in the most literal sense. Her portrayal of Nikki feels scary, lovable, helpless, and frightening all at once. In my opinion, it is one of the best performances by any actor in a horror film. People in my theater got chills watching her, and it is very tough to pull this off, because you do not have many resources as an actor. All you have is your ability to make people scared.
On the other hand, we have Michael Johnston, who plays Bear as vulnerable, likable, and the most humane character of the film. He brings honesty to the performance, because his character is flawed and relatable in so many ways. He and Inde share great chemistry on screen, and that makes them one of the couples of the year.
Curry Barker's Direction
I still cannot process that Curry Barker, who is just 26 years old, made Obsession as his theatrical writing and directing debut. He first gained attention through the YouTube channel “that’s a bad idea,” which he runs with creative partner Cooper Tomlinson, and through the viral micro-budget horror feature Milk & Serial (2024). With Obsession, his first film to reach theaters, he gave a new voice to independent filmmaking, shooting it on a budget of $750,000. That film has since grossed over $300 million worldwide, surpassing even The Blair Witch Project to become one of the highest-grossing horror films of all time.
Chekhov's Gun and the Devil in the Details
The film uses the Chekhov’s Gun rule beautifully, teasing viewers from the very beginning through its dialogue. For example, when Bear buys the One Wish Willow, he asks the shopkeeper why people complain about it, and the shopkeeper jokes about the product ruining their lives. That is exactly what happens to Bear later in the film. Another great example is the gun introduced in the bar scene in the first ten minutes, when a character mentions that Sarah’s father keeps a gun for self-defense. The same gun reappears in the climax with devastating consequences. Every detail and every mention of an object serves a purpose, woven smartly into the narrative.
Verdict
If horror cinema is meant to disturb, provoke, and challenge audiences, then Obsession achieves all three with remarkable precision. It is not just one of the best horror films of the year. It may very well be one of the defining psychological horror films of the last decade.
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