“Why, do you like me?
“Would it freak you out if I said yes?”
If you peruse social media at all and come across the endless IG reels and Tik Toks offering unsolicited dating advice you’ve surely been told that everyone deserves, or should desire, to date someone who is “obsessed” with them. While wanting to feel desired or loved is natural, wanting to be someone’s end all, be all can not only seem a little self-centered or narcissistic, it’s also a case of people not necessarily considering all that the concept of obsession entails. What would it be like for someone to truly be in love with you to the point of obsession? A much buzzed about low budget horror film takes this question to its most gory and fantastical conclusion.
Obsession follows a group of young, longtime friends and now coworkers at a musical instrument shop. Baron “Bear” Bailey (Michael Johnston) has developed romantic feelings for his childhood friend Nikki Freeman (Inde Navarrette), and is being coached by their friends Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) and Sarah Harper (Megan Lawless) on how to finally confess them to her. While shopping for a gift for her at a mystic shop, Bear buys a “One Wish Willow”, a novelty toy that claims to grant a wish when broken. After he nervously fumbles the opportunity to finally be honest with Nikki, he impulsively wishes that Nikki would “love him more than anyone else in the world.” It turns out, the toy works and his wish is granted. But Bear soon gets more than he bargained for.
This film skillfully takes the classic “Be careful what you wish for” (as suggested by its marketing tag line “Be careful who you wish for”), monkey’s paw horror story and modernizes it for the world in which we currently live. When Bear uses the One Wish Willow to ask for Nikki’s undying attention and love since he himself is unable to, he believes it will result in all he ever wanted; the idyllic relationship he’s constructed within his imagination. And while it is that during the honeymoon phase, Obsession slowly reveals the true nature of what it means to be someone’s singular focus like a horror version of Fatal Attraction. Nikki caters to him and wants nothing more than his attention or to please him, but to an increasingly uncomfortable degree. The line between love and insanity is made clear as is the difference between being loved as a person and as an object. This twisted version of Nikki becomes smothering and unpredictable, a scary version of a stage 5 clinger.
The result is one of the most awkward movie viewing experiences you’re sure to ever have that balances a tone between humor that you can’t help but laugh at and discomfort that makes you want to look away from the screen at times out of second hand embarrassment. Writer/Director Curry Barker masterfully builds tension through Nikki’s unhinged behavior with small bits of gore to accentuate the horror element of the film. The audience is made to sit right alongside Bear and his friends as they watch Nikki spiral and feel the same helplessness as they try to anticipate what crazy will come next.
While Barker is responsible for crafting this story, its world, and its characters, what really sells Nikki as an unpredictable obsessive is Navarrette’s stellar performance. as a character, Nikki demands an absurd range from the actress who portrays her and Navarrette more than answers the call. Essentially playing two characters in one body, she is able to instantly switch between an unhinged crazy person and a confused sweet girl trapped inside her that surfaces for only seconds at a time. The role also calls for facial contortions and precise, eccentric bodily movements that Navarrette sells perfectly and elevates the horror that her character represents. All of these elements are encapsulated in what is perhaps the best scene in film so far this year, an unhinged house party where Nikki’s insanity and unpredictability fully come to the surface in one of the most awkwardly terrifying and hilarious scenes we’ve seen in quite a while. Navarrette first commands the screen with a powerfully morose monologue followed by a fit of insane jealous that you can’t take your eyes off of or stop thinking about afterward. Her performance in this film is what it means for an actor to announce their arrival.
What elevates Obsession is the additional layer added to the film’s theme by what we learn about Bear and his role in what happens. He is after all the impetus for what Nikki becomes as it was his inability to be honest about what he felt and what he wanted that brought about the cursed magic of the One Wish Willow. Before Nikki became obsessed, it was his obsessive ideation of her that led to this chain of events. He professed his love for her, but as we learn as the film goes on, he knew little of her past his own infatuation with her; not her family life, her thoughts about him, or her thoughts and experiences with others. His only concern is fulfilling his desire for her; his own selfish ends. This is made clear in a pivotal scene that adds a supernatural element to the film where he’s faced with the full picture of what has happened and his place in it all and he selfishly asks the question “What’s so bad about being with me?” It is here, and in a conversation immediately following this scene where Bear lies to Sarah, that Bear is just as much of a villain as anyone and Nikki is the one being victimized. By the time Bear realizes what he’s done and wishes to make amends, it’s too late and things have spiraled past the point of no return in an explosive and murderous third act. Johnston portrays all of this well as the thought-provoking layer Bear’s role in it all strengthens Obsession even further.
The way in which this film highlights the communication issues that exist not just within Bear, but the friendship group as a whole makes Obsession feel like a film that examines the Gen Z’s much debated socialization problem and increasing disconnect with real world communication and reliance on virtual mediums. Bear cannot communicate his feelings to Nikki, nor Ian to them both, nor Sarah to Bear, and it all results in a cluster that snowballs into a supernatural mess. From there, the film uses horror to analyze how the modern world deals with love, relationships, and our unhealthy desire to have both on our own idealized terms even to the detriment of ourselves and others. A supernova of a performance from Inde Navarrette and a well executed theme from Curry Barker in his film debut combine to make this one of the more impressive low budget, early forays from a filmmaker since 2024’s Strange Darling. Obsession is impressive and sure to only grow in esteem as more people are able to see it.
Image: Focus Features
