#1 – Obsession

At least once a year, there is one film that reaches unheard of levels in the current cultural zeitgeist.  I’m sure by now some of you are sick to death of our algorithms being flooded with content and dog shit hot takes from men who aren’t getting laid crying about how Bear “really isn’t the bad guy” in this film. That’s right, we have to talk about Curry Barker’s Obsession. 

I normally try to keep my reviews as spoiler free as possible, but oh boy, that is not gonna happen here — I have a lot to say! So this is your official SPOILER WARNING!!! 

If you haven’t seen this film by now you’re probably seeing all the online discourse and thinking — is it really worth the hype? Can it be as good as everyone is making it out to be? You’re damn right it is. People I know who do NOT normally like horror movies raved about Obsession. I even had a man try to impress me by detailing his theory about how Nikki is actually possessed by the spirit of Bear’s dead cat Sandy the entire movie. And while, I don’t think that is necessarily the case. I do think Sandy is a metaphor for Bear’s negligence, carelessness, and disregard for those he is responsible for that he displays throughout the narrative. 

So let’s really talk about it — specifically let’s start off by talking about Bear, and how as a single woman in this day and age I have come into contact with many MANY men like him. The innocuous “nice guy” who isn’t really as nice as he first appears. 

Bear played by Michael Johnston —  has harbored a crush on a girl he works with and is friends with, Nikki for seven years. Instead of asking her out and letting her make her own decisions on if she has feelings for him like a normal person, he makes a wish on what he thinks is a toy from a metaphysical shop called the One Wish Willow. It turns out this kitschy looking little stick isn’t a scam or a toy, but an actual wish granting object. So when Bear wishes for Nikki to love him more than anyone else in the world that’s EXACTLY what happens.

Bear is the type of man who feels entitled to a woman he has feelings for simply because he thinks he’s a good person. He thinks she’s exactly what he wants, but he doesn’t actually KNOW her. So when the One Wish Willow grants Bear’s wish it takes away all of real Nikki‘s agency and instead replaces her with some kind of sinister entity that is obsessed with him. Nikki quickly starts acting strange, and it starts to freak him out.

From the beginning, Bear is well aware of Nikki’s suffering; he even regularly sleeps with her knowing she’s not in her right mind. Bear doesn’t do anything to get help, or to figure out if his wish can be undone until Nikki’s behavior turns too extreme to laugh off. Like self-mutilation in front of an entire house party extreme. Since Nikki isn’t his imagined ideal of her, and she keeps making scenes in public that embarrass him, Bear decides he doesn’t want this anymore and tries to alter his wish. Not cancel it, not undo it, he doesn’t want her to stop loving him, he just wants to alter things so maybe she’s not so freaky. Obviously that doesn’t work. And it is revealed the only way a wish can be undone or canceled is if the person who made the wish dies. 

Bear is so absorbed in being hung up on Nikki that he completely ignores and disregards the really cool, artsy, beautiful girl that’s ACTUALLY into him named Sarah. In the end Bear’s selfishness ends up getting her killed. Sarah gets too close to him, and wish Nikki, in a fit of jealous rage, kills her by bashing her skull against the steering wheel of her car with a brick. After that, Nikki also kills another friend of theirs that tries to stand between her and Bear. Ultimately, it’s the death of his male best friend Ian that’s the catalyst for Bear to realize he has to do something to end this. So Bear tries to kill himself by swallowing a handful of his dead grandmother’s pills. (The same pills that killed Sandy the cat because he left them out for the cat to eat).  But, as soon as he gets the pills down, he realizes he doesn’t want to die and tries to throw them up again, turning perhaps the one good choice he made the ENTIRE movie into an act of cowardice. We finally reach a conclusion when wish Nikki uses a One Wish Willow of her own to wish Bear loved her JUST as much as she loves him. This puts him under the same trance-like spell that she’s under. The magic stops him from trying to throw up the pills, which means they finally do their job and take him out. As soon as he drops dead the wish on Nikki is broken, and we fade to black with some of the most agonizing screams from her as she grapples with the aftermath of everything she just had to live through. 

I do not feel bad for Bear. I do not sympathize with Bear. Every single awful thing that happens in this movie is because of his poor choices, his selfishness, and his carelessness. Leaving behind a traumatized woman in his wake to deal with the repercussions. I truly do not think there has been another character that has pissed me off this much from start to finish. He is not the victim, Nikki is. 

What makes this film such a standout is not only the relevant social commentary, but Inde Navarette’s striking, gut-wrenching, and unforgettable performance as Nikki. Inde really commits ten toes down to the insanity written in the script. Her contrast between real Nikki and wish Nikki is so distinct that you never question which is which. That’s true acting skill. Specifically the moments of lucidity where real Nikki peaks through and we are able to physically see the reality that wish Nikki is piloting her body. Real Nikki is entirely lucid — she could see everything that’s going on, everything she’s doing and that’s being done to her, but she’s stuck like a prisoner in her body and can’t do anything about it. The first time we see this moment of clarity of real Nikki BEGS Bear to kill her, to offer her mercy and take her out of her misery. Obviously he won’t because he’s a selfish, self-absorbed prick. He never stops to think about how she’s feeling or what she wants — only what benefits HIM.

On top of this intense narrative, Curry Barker pairs striking and effective gore throughout as well. I’m not squeamish when it comes to most things, so it’s very rare for me to have a visceral reaction to things on film, but the scene in the car where Sarah is killed is one that REALLY got me. I still think about how brutal it is. I find myself thinking about when Bear goes to work and wish Nikki stays home and literally stands in the EXACT same spot all day, pissing herself, shitting herself, and throwing up on herself because she was eating cat food. THAT was the scene that actually made me the most uncomfortable throughout the entire film. There are so many instances in addition to these where you as the audience member feel a sense of violation just from seeing what Nikki has to endure. I truly don’t think I’ve been this unsettled watching a film in a good while. 

It’s rare to see a low budget horror of this caliber not only be so well done in all aspects, but be so well received and go on to earn so much at the box office. It drives home the fact that viewers are yearning for original creative concepts. We don’t want to see another remake or reboot of the same franchise or characters over and over and over again. Horror, specifically indie horror, is where creatives are allowed to play. They are allowed to take risks and make choices that they wouldn’t be able to make under the control of larger film corporations. And oh boy do those risks really pay off here. To me, this is proof that making art you want to consume and that you’re proud of will always be the correct creative choice. 

Obsession has surely secured not only the cast, but Barker himself as one to watch. I know I’ll certainly be paying attention to his upcoming projects from here on out.