Obsession

Obsession

***1/2 out of ****

2026, 109 mins, R

Written and Directed by Curry Barker

Produced by James Harris, Haley Nicole Johnson, Christian Mercuri, and Roman Viaris

Cast: Michael Johnston, Inde Navarette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, Andy Richter

It’s a pleasure to come across a movie like “Obsession” every now and then. This is a film of extremely modest means, with a budget of $750,000, that relies on creativity and ingenuity rather than piles of Hollywood millions to entertain its audience. If anything, 2026 may well be the year of the Youtuber, the coming of young talents who have gained popularity online and chosen to invest in their own creativity for the big screen. Curry Barker is one of the latest individuals to do so. That Barker has created one of the more original films of the year shows that he has defied all odds and expectations given his online origins.

The film follows the character of Bear (Michael Johnston), a shy and awkward guy who struggles to work up the nerve to ask his crush out on a date. When we meet him, he is practicing what he would say to her on a waitress while his friend Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) observes and gives pointers. The crush in question is Nikki (Inde Navarette) who works with Bear at a music store that sells instruments. Nikki is only interested in Bear as a friend but a relationship, to her, is not in the cards.

Bear visits a curio shop to see what kind of superstitious artifacts would possibly used to “help” him get ahead in his pursuit of Nikki and comes across the One Wish Willow which will grant the wish of the person who speaks and breaks it in half. When he takes Nikki home after a night out with friends, Bear makes his wish for her to love him more than anyone else in the world, breaks the Willow and things change instantly. Nikki is no longer standoffish towards him and sending him to the friend zone. She starts behaving in a manner, in which she is desperately, hopelessly, and psychotically attracted him. She will, all of a sudden, will do any for and to him and the consequences are Bear’s to endure.

Nikki starts clinging to him and wishing him to come inside, going to bed with him, telling lies about deaths in the family to gain his sympathy, feeding his dead cat to him, and attempts to prevent him from leaving his apartment by putting mounds of duct on the front door. The irony is that she is actually the victim because he made the wish, which makes Bear the real villain of the story.

Barker and his amazing and spirited cast defy and play with our expectations every step of the way which the film all the more pleasurable even when it’s shocking us. That Nikki behaves like the villain and Bear the victim on the surface are a couple of ways in which they do this. She screams at him and relentlessly pines for him while he tries to avoid the situation, seemingly unaware of the kind curse that he has brought on both of them.

The performances effectively play into the irony with Johnston playing the loser that we’re supposed to root for and Navarette being the girlfriend from hell. What makes both of them work is the fact they have a friendly chemistry at the beginning of the film making the off-the-rails behavior more surprising. Navarette is tremendous in a showstopping performance that you won’t soon get out of your head. We’ll be talking about this one for a long time. One of the things that makes her so memorable is not just the fact she’s playing the psychosis to the hilt but she also adds a sense of humor to go along with the creeping dread. She earns our sympathy as well as our shock.

What’s all the more gratifying about “Obsession” is the ingenuity in which the film is made. This is not a film that relies on a constant array of special effects to engage but rather employs real world solutions and problem solving behind the camera to effectively put things on the screen. When Bear is prevented from leaving his apartment, in one scene, by the mounds of duct tape on the front door, that’s actual mounds of duct tape on the door. When we see the title of the film stitched into a quilt, it’s actually stitched into the quilt. When we see moments of shock that require a special effect of some kind, the effects are done practically.

The experience of watching “Obsession” is akin to seeing other such low-budget films of the past, like “Halloween” or “The Blair Witch Project”. It’s a film that expands beyond its limitations and is alive and free to surprise and entertain us.