A perfectly constructed horror movie. I love what Obsession is, but more importantly, I love what it isn’t.
Curry Barker – YouTube creator turned filmmaker – has emphasized that the film is partly inspired by a Simpsons episode where Bart gets his hands on a monkey’s paw. Which tracks, because Obsession is about exactly that and essentially just that: what happens when you get one wish and that wish goes so, so horribly wrong. It’s contained at such a small, intimate scale, like a messed up Twilight Zone episode that escalates in tension and stays committed to its absurdity without overbaking any of its characters or themes.
For the film’s protagonist(?) Bear (Michael Johnston), the wish is an innocent one. Just a little extra courage to help him ask his coworker Nikki out. He clearly likes her. She sends mixed signals to the point where, just as he’s on the verge of pulling the trigger and asking her out for drinks after trivia night, she announces that she’s so good at hiding her feelings that the boys she likes will never know. Bear chickens out on the spot and instead turns to a One Wish Willow – a novelty twig-like toy he picks up at a crystal shop that supposedly grants a single wish to whoever breaks it. Except it actually works. The moment he makes his wish and snaps it, Nikki becomes possessed – and obsessed – and all hell breaks loose.
Nikki is played by Inde Navarrette, who alongside Johnston are essentially newcomers to leading feature-length films and do so better than most studio movies made today. Which is astonishing given that this is an independent production made on roughly $750k. But that budget forces the film to be leaner for the better, zeroing in almost instantly on its true strengths: the chemistry between the two leads, Barker’s tight script and direction, and a keen eye for lighting and score that sets a very specific tone where you genuinely have no idea where the story is going next.
It delivers just the right amount of plot and backstory – no more, no less. The themes aren’t obsessed over, and the freakout horror elements are allowed to steal the show without a PowerPoint presentation on what it all means. Zach Cregger has quickly built a following doing exactly what Barker is doing here – remaining faithful to the idea that horror is first and foremost a communal, primal experience, and that the themes and motives can be tossed around in the parking lot afterward. How one is supposed to feel about Bear as a main character is never heavy-handed, which I particularly appreciated because modern horror would usually hammer that part home until the floorboards gave out.
Navarrette is the MVP. It’s a performance giving more Mia Goth than Mia Goth ever has – batshit insane and fully realized, where you see the emptiness behind a blind, consuming love for Bear as she’s been taken over by another spirit entirely. To the point where she’s literally pleading to be put down in her sleep as her possessor slumbers in the middle of the night. After Amy Madigan won an Academy Award for playing a creepy clown witch in Weapons, I’m ready for anything. I can’t remember someone emerging onto the scene quite like Navarrette does here. Given how critically acclaimed this film has been, the sensation it’s become at the box office, and how universally everyone seems to agree on just how remarkable she is – I wouldn’t rule her out come awards season.
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Barker isn’t wearing his influences on his sleeve so much as he’s quietly nodded to them and moved on. The trivia night bar, the awkward Jenga house party scene, the gore of the final thirty minutes – all of it feels specific and polished in a way that defies the budget conversation entirely. For someone to not overspill on ideas or visual tricks in their first film is really quite remarkable. This looks and feels like something new.
Score: 8/10
Obsession (2026)
- Cast: Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless
- Director: Curry Barker
- Genre: Horror
- Runtime: 108 minutes
- Rated: R
- Release Date: May 15, 2026
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