Obsession ★★★★

Obsession is bleak. Every moment has a negative aura to it, filling the viewer with dread and feeling terrified of what new horror will occur next. Director Curry Barker’s Obsession focuses on four employees of a local music store. Bear (Michael Johnston) has a crush on Nikki (Inde Navarrette), one of his co-workers, and is unsure of how or whether to tell her. His best friend and fellow co-worker, Ian (Cooper Tomlinson), is a sounding board for him, offering advice on timing and approach. However, Bear is hesitant. He lacks confidence and is scared to tell Nikki how he feels. One night, as Bear, Nikki, Ian, and the fourth employee and member of the friend group, Sarah (Megan Lawless), get ready to go to trivia night, Bear stops at a local store. Nikki had mentioned losing her crystal necklace down a storm drain, so Bear thinks buying her a new one could be a good first step in establishing a romantic connection between himself and Nikki. Instead of buying a crystal, however, he buys a novelty item, a “One Wish Willow” that claims if the user breaks the packaged branch of a willow tree and wishes for something, it will come true. Bear will use this wish – though he first tells himself and Nikki he will give it to her – to wish for Nikki to love him more than anything. His wish will come true.

Obsession’s horror comes in many facets. As Bear’s wish comes true, Nikki changes drastically. She becomes obsessed with him, desperate to spend every waking second with him and freaking out whenever they are apart or he tries to leave the room. Her actions became erratic, violent, and entirely tailored around being the Nikki that Bear wants her to be. This is, naturally, terrifying, but Obsession works beyond this surface-level terror. Bear’s wish stripped Nikki of her autonomy. She had no choice in whether she could like him or not – and she very well may have – because Bear chose for her. Instead, she is trapped in a life that is no longer her own. The real Nikki is no longer in control, consumed by the wish fulfillment that compels her to obsess over Bear. Her hobbies and interests are gone. The Nikki that was and is shown in the early scenes as an aspiring writer, charismatic personality, and empathetic person, is gone. Everything is taken from her, all to fulfill Bear’s wish. 

The reality of it, that Bear’s cowardice in the face of possible rejection, has destroyed everything in Nikki’s life is a brutal one. There is a natural horror to it and as much as Obsession chills and scares in watching the obsessed Nikki obsess over Bear with unnatural body movements, disorienting behavior, and shocking acts of violence, the scariest moment in Obsession comes in the middle of the night. As Bear gets up to sneak out of the house for a moment, the real Nikki awakens while the obsessed version is still asleep. Nikki begs for Bear to kill her and end this horror. Instead, Bear declines and asks her, “What’s so bad about being with me?” 

Bear can only think of himself. His obsession with Nikki is introduced early in Obsession with him scrolling through her Instagram, an apt representation of how he has fallen in love with the image he has of Nikki. Nikki the individual is of no concern. He just wants Nikki to love him. Every action is tailored towards that and when confronted with the reality of his wish fulfillment on Nikki, his thoughts still return to himself. When he calls the number on the “One Wish Willow” box, his first request is to “alter” the wish not to outright cancel the wish. Neither are possible – Barker’s monotone delivery as the guy on the other line is fantastic – and the call builds up to yet another moment of abject horror with a great bit of sound design and devastating dialogue, but Bear’s focus even once he realizes the wish is cursed is still on himself and his happiness. Ian and Sarah are not innocent on this front either. Ian is Bear’s best friend and has his own secrets regarding Nikki, never bothering to tell Bear anything. When things begin to go publicly awry with Nikki, it is mentioned that Ian is convinced it is about himself as he thinks she is trying to make him jealous. Sarah has feelings for Bear and when things go awry with Nikki, she sees an opportunity to try to gain Bear’s affection as a confidant. All the while, Nikki is breaking apart. It is never about her. It is about how dating a deteriorating Nikki looks for Bear, what her actions say about her relationship with Ian, and what opportunities her behavior creates for romantic rivals. Obsession, in this, stands out as truly powerful interpersonal horror. It delivers the traditional scares, but the indifference and cruelty with which supposed friends will treat one another or allow their friends to be treated in order to advance their own desires creates a horror that lingers in the spirit long after Obsession ends.

In this, Obsession feels indebted to Hereditary. That permeating sense of dread and unease that works its way into every scene. The horror punches come later, once Bear has set these events into motion. Before then, Barker neatly builds out these characters and this friend group. They feel so alive and authentic that when the wish changes everything, one feels that absolute sense of loss. The people Nikki trusted and loved the most, the life they had all started to build is forever altered. As much as Obsession leans into the magic realism of its plot, this strong grounded foundation allows it to have a greater impact. Barker is also commendable for leaning into some of the absurdity of its story to mine moments for laughs and thrills. There is a Tim Robinson-esque quality to some of the scenes, especially as Nikki spirals. Barker consistently creates scenes with an unsettling vibe, an awkwardness or stiltedness that he then leaves the audience and the characters to marinate in the feeling of. A key example is a party Ian throws. Though hesitant to invite Bear, he does and Bear, of course, ends up bringing Nikki. The night takes a turn during a party game where Bear has to kiss the person to his left, who is not Nikki. Naturally, Nikki takes it poorly. The scene ends as Nikki declares nobody in the room will ever love anyone like she loves Bear, then pulls back and pretends to be kidding. Everybody else remains shocked, leading Nikki to declare, “Ok fine, I’m not joking. Deal with it.” Obsession has this attitude throughout. Barker unleashes a nightmare scenario on his audience, never lightens the mood, and then leaves it for the audience to “deal with” and to confront the uncomfortable feelings presented and that emerge within us as we watch Obsession.

The technical aspects of Obsession are consistently impressive. Barker and cinematographer Taylor Clemons create countless great compositions. Their usage of the entire depth of field is a staple of Obsession. The shadowy figure of Nikki lurking in the background, staring at Bear or moving about to get a better view. The blocking of where Nikki moves and how she moves through the set creates plenty of spine-tingling moments. The usage of shadows and how the characters are shot in close-ups shift once the wish is made – Bear, especially, with extra shadowing and an outer darkness creeping into every crevice of his face once reality of the wish sets in – with every shot reflecting this remarkable attention to detail.

While the entire cast impresses, Navarrette is tremendous. How she switches on a dime, how she captures the internal struggle between the real Nikki and the obsessed version, and how she captures this dead look behind Nikki’s eyes once Bear steals her life from her. Her delivery of the most outlandish moments in Obsession is terrific, but it is that physicality and expressiveness that defines Navarrette’s performance. She brings to life Nikki’s horror in a very tangible and haunting way, while establishing herself as a new “scream queen” with her deeply felt and guttural screams that pierce one’s soul.

Curry Barker establishes himself as not just a director to watch in anticipation of what he has next, but as a filmmaker now on the forefront of the current cinematic movement. Along with Kane Parsons, director of Backrooms, Barker seems set to become a key voice in ushering in a new generation of filmmakers. Obsession is tense and every frame carries with it weight, importance, and a natural horror that seeps into one’s mind and spirit. Yet, what is so fascinating about Obsession is what Barker has said about the “One Wish Willow” and what is expressed in Obsession. It is Bear’s wish that is cursed, not this item. There are countless ways that the events of Obsession could have gone, depending on how and what Bear wished. The events that occur are due to him and his spirit entirely, and watching such a dark and evil spirit unleashed on screen makes for an experience that does not leave the mind readily. Obsession is a truly great horror film.