Before Obsession was released in mid-May, I wasn’t familiar with Curry Barker. All I knew was that he’s well known online through his YouTube channel and his comedic sketches with That’s a Bad Idea. But over the past few years, an unexpected rise in popular YouTube creators tapping into the horror genre has given fans of what they do online something big. This was on my radar after its premiere at TIFF last year, and I’ve been craving a good horror movie to leave an impression. The thing that sat in the back of my mind was this: can this debut rival Danny & Michael Philippou’s Talk to Me, or will it land with the disappointment of Chris Stuckmann’s Shelby Oaks? What Barker has done, in his mid-twenties no less, is make a bona fide classic of an ordinary cautionary tale that has me anticipating what he has next in the works, and has had me completely obsessed since it came out.
What’s the Story: Baron “Bear” Bailey (Michael Johnston) has been carrying romantic feelings for his friend Nikki Freeman (Inde Navarrette). But he’s afraid to tell her his true feelings because she only sees him as a friend, though his friend Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) tells Bear to wait. While at a shop to get her a replacement gemstone, Bear spots and buys a novelty toy called “One Wish Willow,” which claims to grant one wish to whoever buys it. Without telling her, Bear parks outside her house and uses the One Wish Willow to wish that Nikki would love him more than anyone in the world. Sure enough, it works: Nikki spends the night with Bear, and he’s all she can think about every waking minute. Everything should be perfect for Bear in his romantic life, until those feelings turn into something darker.
The concept behind Obsession intrigued me most when I first heard about it. Barker takes the “be careful what you wish for” or monkey’s paw trope we always see and makes it so unsettling you can’t help but want to know how it ends. It came across as an unconventional stalker thriller with a supernatural twist that could only go wrong with these characters.
At first, it seemed almost too good to be true that Bear and Nimki would suddenly start hanging out more, only for him to realize their relationship is growing closer and deepening into an abnormal kind of love. As far as he knew, Bear didn’t think they could break up this way now that she liked him. We’ve all wanted to get our crush’s attention, hoping they would give us the time of day and know who we are. But in a universe where wishes apparently come true, it couldn’t be simple. Just think: if I used a One Wish Willow, do you think I’d wish Sarah Pidgeon knew who I was? Yes, but that’s beside the point.
Johnston’s Bear made us feel sympathetic toward him because we see him as a hopeless romantic we can sympathize with. But as the film continues and we see him make decisions that don’t help him or Nikki, you see Bear differently, and you start to hate who he becomes. He’s great, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Inde Naverrette because she was remarkably great as Nikki. Some might recognize her from Superman & Lois, but her performance goes all over the place in the best way; you can’t help but be freaked out by her aggressive reactions. Naverrette essentially had to be Nikki, the sweetest girl you want to hang around with, and then act crazy with this unpredictable behavior. Are we supposed to believe she’s fallen head over heels for Bear, or is something controlling her mind, leading to horrific circumstances? Her obsession starts normal enough for Bear to look past it, but as the relationship goes on, she gets clingier when they’re in the same room, and it’s even worse at night. Something about actresses in great horror movies makes audiences crave more. You get classics like Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween, Sophie Thatcher in Companion, or Mia Goth in Pearl. And Naverrette’s Nikki will be an icon for years to come, for a performance that probably wasn’t the easiest to pull off.
Both actors elevate Obsession by making the viewer wonder how it’ll end, and Barker’s involvement behind the camera and on the script signals early on that something familiar is coming, which adds to that. Not everybody knows he made an earlier film called Milk & Serial that premiered on his YouTube page, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this were his directorial debut. He does a terrific job building tension while showing moments of humor that linger, like awkwardness when reading the room. The lighting and Nikki’s appearance sometimes create a shadowy silhouette that uses darkness perfectly, barely letting you see her eyes except when they glow. It’s the kind of horror film that knows how to use effective jump scares, and it had me creeped out. Near the end, I could even tell what was coming from the framing, and it absolutely gave me The Invisible Man restaurant scene vibes.
Because this is a universe where the One Wish Willow apparently works and has probably backfired on millions of people, it’s not much of a surprise they didn’t go into detail about how the lore works and kept it as vague as possible. When I first saw it, the ending left me conflicted, wondering if it was too dark for what Barker was going for. Then, once I learned what was originally intended, I get why it went disturbing that way, and it feels like you have to take a breath when the credits hit.
Since I saw this the Thursday before it came out, I kept thinking it was monthly, and the fact that it’s a film with a budget under a million dollars got under my skin in a good way. Focus and Blumhouse made the right move to obtain the rights, which I didn’t know about months before it came out. And Obsession was a much-needed win for Blumhouse. Aside from one movie last year (Black Phone 2), their slate has been lackluster lately, with uninspired sequels and generic scares. This is the best thing to come from them in years, as it became an unexpected box-office sleeper hit and proved that general audiences will seek out original work based on positive word of mouth.
As for Barker, much like Zach Cregger or Jordan Peele, his name will attract attention in Hollywood, and I’ll be anticipating his next project, whether he shifts to another genre. We already got his and Tomlinson’s follow-up, Anything But Ghosts, next summer; it could be the first director to make a decent reboot of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Overall, Obsession is the definitive horror experience of the year, and it certainly lives up to the hype. It is hard to believe this film came from writer/director Curry Barker; he has not only elicited an unforgettable, chilling performance from breakout star Inde Navarrette, but also brought a refreshingly unique perspective to a twisted story you can’t look away from.
