The lengths that people go for love can be a bit much, but what this couple goes through in Curry Barker’s directorial debut, Obsession, is on another level. This horror movie takes a simple monkey paw type concept and makes it creepy and unnerving, which inspires brilliant performances from our leads.
Obsession follows Bear (Michael Johnston), who is trying to vie for the affections of his longtime crush Nikki (Inde Navarrette). He feels like he’s being friend-zoned by her, and sometimes he can be a little bit over the top when it comes to expressing his feelings.
Bear wants to keep his friendship with Nikki without overcomplicating things with her, as well as their circle of friends, who all work together at the same place.
With nothing left to lose, Bear finds a novelty toy at a shop that can grant the user one wish to make anyone’s dream come true. He uses it to wish that Nikki loves him more than anyone in the world, and sure enough, Nikki starts to fall for him.
She becomes quite hands-on towards Bear, making him very happy to see that he has the girl of his dreams.
However, wishes do come at a hefty cost as Bear soon finds out when things start to get weird around Nikki. There are times when she can be very possessive of him and goes to great lengths to keep the relationship alive, even if it’s murder.
Soon, it becomes unsettling for Bear to witness, but he does everything he can to make it all work so he can spend his life with Nikki.
First off, Navarrette steals the whole movie with her scary performance. Her facial expressions are creepy, giving you that smile that just looks unsettling to look at. It makes everyone curious to see what kind of insane thing she’ll do on screen.
The camera angles on Navarrette really help with the creep factor of her character. The shadows on her make it mysterious, and only seeing that scary smile she makes.
Just hearing her sweet yet frightening voice really sells her character to the audience, so having her do these wild acts puts in a hell of a performance by Navarrette.
Even seeing Johnston’s character trying to keep things together while Nikki does these insane things to everyone around him really keeps things claustrophobic with the audience.
Watching Bear’s fear of Nikki grow with every scene makes Johnston’s performance more believable. Despite seeing that he has caused this catastrophe is more than enough to know things aren’t going to end well for him.
There is tension when things start to escalate towards the final act. The whole film speaks to the fact of forced love and how relationships are defined.
Bear’s need for love from Nikki causes his downfall, even though she’s being judged for her weird and crazy behavior towards him. Even though Nikki’s actions are a bit extreme, we are meant to understand that she’s not in full control of her actions.
The cinematography is very well done, thanks to Barker’s camera shots and control of lighting, which create a scary, dark atmosphere.
Don’t expect any jump scares here, but some things happen on screen that would make anyone shocked to the core. It would be nice to see more of Nikki as she battles for her soul, which we see some of that happening, but very surface-level at most.
Obsession is an excellent horror feature debut for Barker, delivering a love story gone wrong in the most horrible way possible. His simple concept, expanding on relationships, works and is worth exploring. His camera angles bring in that creepy factor thanks to a bonkers performance by Navarrette.
With incredible writing and pacing, Barker has crafted a dark and eerily fantastic debut in horror.
Obsession releases in theaters on May 15, 2026
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Mufsin Mahbub
Mufsin Mahbub is a TV and film fanatic who loves all things superhero, sci-fi, horror, and mystery. Outside of writing, he enjoys traveling, gaming, and watching some anime.