OBSESSION (2026)

New in theaters from Blumhouse and Focus Features!
Directed/Written by Curry Barker.
Check out the trailer here! !

Bear (Michael Johnston) has been hopelessly in love with his co-worker Nikki (Inde Navarrette) for close to seven years but is afraid to tell her. Nikki is clearly interested in only being friends with him, but when she decides she wants to move on and leave her current situation to pursue a writing career, Bear feels his time is running out. So, he decides to buy Nikki a present and happens upon a One Wish Willow, a gimmick souvenir that promises to grant a wish to a person who breaks the willow in half. When he misses his chance to give Nikki the present, Bear breaks the willow branch himself, wishing that Nikki would love him more than anything in the world. But as they say, be careful what you wish for.

Having already been a fan of the “That’s a Bad Idea” shorts by Curry Barker and Cooper Tomlinson, especially the found footage nightmare “Milk & Serial,” I was excited to see OBSESSION fully knowing the comedy team’s gift at coming up with skits filled with uncomfortable humor and unsettling situations. While this is a hard-core horror film, Barker sprinkles in darkly comedic moments all the way through—some genuinely funny and some moments that make you laugh because of how uncomfortable things get. This is Barker’s wheelhouse and much of the first half hour of OBSESSION is filled with moments of fun beats.

Barker and actor Michael Johnston don’t go out of their way to make Bear likable though. Bear is a schlub. He’s too much in his head, doubting every move, and has absolutely no game to speak of. On top of that, in the opening moments, his grandmother has recently passed away and now, his cat somehow got into his sleeping pills and is found dead. Add a scene where Bear pitifully practices what he is going to say to Nikki with his best friend Ian (played by Barker’s partner in crime and co-producer Cooper Tomlinson) and you’ve got a Bonafide loser on your hands. Still, if one is being honest, we all (and I’m talking to the gals and guys out there) have been made into an idiot once or twice in the name of love and when that happens, life does tend to shit all over you. So, while it’s not fashionable or completely accepted in most social circles, you can’t help but identify and feel for the poor guy. I’ve seen criticisms that say otherwise, but I feel those people just aren’t being genuine with it.

But I don’t really want to talk about how identifiable the protagonist is. My concern is how Curry Barker crafts a wonderfully entertaining Monkey’s Paw tale where a wish is made and it ends up biting the protagonist in the ass in the end, only in OBSESSION, Bear starts feeling the burn from the wish early on. Bear is no idiot. Yes, he goes along with Nikki’s advances, and this is a very creepy thing to do. But I’ll give it to Barker and actor Johnston, they do their due diligence to try not to make Bear into an opportunistic creep. Bear questions Nikki’s advances for quite a bit and doesn’t believe the One Wish Willow actually worked for quite a long time. I understand in this current climate, some hesitation is necessary in order not to offend or highlight that Bear is taking advantage of Nikki. He’s basically given her a cosmic roofie and while he feels bad, Bear does begin to go along with it as he is just so happy to be getting her attention. But I can see many people shrieking from their fainting couches at how OBSESSION is a male power fantasy over the dominance of unattainable women. Those folks, though, might want to watch the entire movie, as this is a film where no one gets out unscathed and while Bear’s morals might be in questions in this situation where Nikki is falling all over him only due to a spell cast upon her, he definitely pays for it in the end.

But what I really want to talk about in this review is how Curry Barker handles horror and I want to do it by dissecting the three ways he scares you with OBSESSION. Barker’s previous works are steeped in comedy, so many of the film’s scariest moments are put together like a joke. Long lead in to get you comfortable and then BANG! goes the punchline or in this case, the jump scare. There are a few of those in OBSESSION and they are potent little blasts of action and sound, but this is the easiest of the three scares I wanted to talk about today. Still, if you’re looking to jump out of your seat, this film has a few very good ones that will make you do so.

More prominent is Barker’s mastery of the feeling of discomfort. This is another aspect that stands out in his comedy skits, as most of them center on someone doing something in public and another person calling them out on it or making a scene about it. Reminiscent of CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, these skits highlight the mundane and amp the reactions to ten. Barker does the same thing with his horror. There are numerous scenes in OBSESSION where Bear and Nikki are out in public and because of her obsession with him, Nikki does something so cringe inducing that it makes you sink in your chair out of empathy for the poor schlub. Have you ever seen a person in public being berated or humiliated by their partner? It just makes everyone feel awful. It’s that specific feeling that Barker has honed to razor sharpness in OBSESSION as the cracks in Nikki’s psyche begin to show not only to Bear, but to all around them. It’s the kind of feeling that makes you want to turtle-shell your neck and disappear and OBSESSION is full of those types of scenes.

But there’s a third type of horror that Barker taps into with OBSESSION that is a bit less obvious. For a new filmmaker, Barker is a master of the entire screen in front of you. Reminiscent of another first time filmmaker’s work, Ari Aster with HEREDITARY, Barker’s OBSESSION forces you to scan the entire screen for horrors. Many times something is lurking in the corner or just out of sight and covered in shadows. There’s an amazing scene where Nikki appears on Bear’s doorstep and her face is covered in shadow. They have a whole conversation, which would be a regular conversation anywhere else, but filmed in this way, where Nikki is completely darkened, it makes the words insignificant and tells the viewer that this is dangerous. There are many scenes in OBSESSION where this shadowed effect is on Nikki, signaling that something absolutely terrifying is about to happen. And sure enough, it does. Not only that, but Barker does some great scenes where the focus is on one thing in the foreground, but there is an out of focus threat in the background. Again, it’s this mastery of space that you just don’t see enough in horror, but it is such an effective way to give a scene weight and a level of threat.

I’m making such a deep dive into the effectiveness of OBSESSION’s horror, mainly because it’s been announced that Barker has been tapped to helm the next TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE movie. And…damn, I just don’t know. I don’t know if it’s the right fit. I plan on doing a series of videos about TCM soon, but I have nothing, but high hopes Barker can nail it. I know he is a fan of horror and TCM is probably a dream project for him. He has shown the talent to scare in very different ways, a lot of which are necessary in a TCM film. Now, I don’t know if he can both capture that rawness that Hooper was able to tap into, yet I don’t want to see a remake or duplicate of the film either. I just need to think a bit more about my thoughts on Barker and TCM, so look for more about that in a future video.

Back to OBSESSION. Inde Navarrette makes this movie. The way she snaps back and forth from loving to psychotic is horrifying. Navarrette gives her all in this performance, not caring how terrifyingly pathetic or selfless she seems. It’s a star making performance that should signal a long career for the beautiful actress. And somehow, some way, Michael Johnston makes you like Bear, even through the schlubby pitifulness and creepy manipulation. Yes, he’s a weak protagonist, but honestly, the actor makes it all difficult to turn away from. Cooper Tomlinson is given a few scenes to shine comedically and Megan Lawless is adorable in her smaller part, but this is Navarrette and Johnston’s show and they shine.

Though we really don’t get too far into the minutiae of the mechanics behind the One Wish Willow, what we do get is quite terrifying. OBSESSION doesn’t necessarily tread new ground with the subgenre. It’s just the way he delivers his scares that sets him apart from the herd. The little peeks into the lore behind One Wish Willow, such as the screams Bear hears over the phone when he calls the number on the back of the box of One Wish Willow, is enough to chill your bones without outright showing you anything.

I hope I have illustrated with this review how much I loved OBSESSION. Barker really does show a huge amount of skill in orchestrating an energetic horror film that never lags or fails in its attempts to creep under your skin. It’s a remarkable debut and the attention Barker is currently getting is well worth it. Having watched his YouTube skits for a few years, I can’t help but feel proud of the guy for achieving so much in so little time and I can’t wait to see the unique style of horror Barker has in store for us next time.