Obsession (2025) - Movie Review | A Rare Masterpiece

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]This is real on the nose, but consider me obsessed.

[00:00:13]What is up, guys? Welcome to my full review of Curry Barker's horror feature debut, Obsession. This is a film that I was lucky enough to check out at last year's Fantastic Fest back in September, and I have been hyping it up like crazy for you guys ever since. It was easily my number one film of the festival. And when I ranked all of the new release films that I saw last year on a list of like 151 odd movies, it made the top 10.

[00:00:38]Well, 8 months later, I am finally able to watch this film a second time. I went to go see it during the little early screenings that they had on Wednesday.

[00:00:46]And a lot of times when I see a film at a film festival, months before it goes wide, there's always a question in my mind of is this movie going to hold up?

[00:00:55]Because when you go and see a film at its premiere at a film festival, especially with a rowdy crowd like uh the likes of FantasticFest, the experience of the premiere is always incredibly heightened. It's always way better, way more engaging than any theater experience you're going to have at a local theater. It's certainly better than what you're going to have if you wait to watch a film at streaming at home. And so there's always a little bit of doubt of is the movie actually that good or is it really good and it was just amplified exponentially by everything surrounding it. Well, after seeing Obsession a second time, I'm confident in telling you that even though this made my top 10 of last year, in hindsight, it should have been in the top two or three. And honestly, if I was to rank it among all of the films that I have seen that have gone wide in 2026, it would be my number one. And the basic premise of Obsession is that you have this young guy who has a huge crush on this childhood friend of his that is also a coworker. And he ends up buying this little gag gift called a one-wish willow, which is a stick that you make a wish and you break it. And he wishes that this young lady would love him more than anybody else in the entire world.

[00:02:07]and his wish comes true and he finally gets the thing that he has always wanted. Or does he? And starting off with the positives, the long list of positives for Obsession. First off, that's just an amazing premise for a horror film. I think some of the best horror stories ever told is when you take something very simple and incredibly relatable and you twist it to its most sickening and disturbing version of itself. Who among us has not had a moment in their life, hopefully a short moment, where they have felt that way about somebody that you have this long-distance appreciation for somebody and maybe it just doesn't work out because they're in a relationship. Maybe you've been friends too long and you have that friend- zone issue. Maybe you just don't have the self-confidence at the time to be able to confess your feelings. Maybe you know in your heart and you're just absolutely in denial of the fact that that person absolutely does not return your feelings and absolutely just wants to be friends. Or maybe even the most tragic version of it all, somebody that does have those feelings for you, but they have the same reservations and because of your guys's lack of agency, it just goes away and you never actually see what happens.

[00:03:16]Like we have all had some thing, some relationship, some desire like that at some point in our life. And this movie takes a very relatable character with a very relatable conundrum and immediately turns it into the most sick and depraved outcome of somebody getting what they've always wished for. And what I love about how Curry Barker twists that very classic tale. I mean, this is something that's as old as time with like the monkeykey's paw. We've seen so many different movies take some version of this type of life lesson about be careful what you wish for and give us some crazy outcome for it. But the way that Curry Barker approaches it from the moment the movie starts you have a sympathy for the main character Bear and to a certain extent you want him to be able to have his his love his admiration for this girl Nikki return. And then the moment that it's forced upon her because of this wish, you very slowly start to realize despite how much she is very much embodying like a psycho level codependent girlfriend type character that he is the one with the titular obsession. He is the one with the codependency. He is the one that feels like that relationship, whatever version, whatever sick twisted version of it is what gives him his validation that he cannot live without. And so it's a movie that kind of disarms you with its ultimate point where you feel like it's just this really exaggerated horror take on a crazy relationship. And the deeper you get into it and the more [ __ ] up details start to come in and as dark as things get as the film goes on, you start to really twist your idea of who is actually the victim and who is actually the aggressor in this situation despite one character very deliberately doing all the craziest [ __ ] throughout the film. And I have to give nothing but just huge praise and and huge kudos to Curry Barker as the filmmaker here because he is somebody that like me started on YouTube and very much was kind of driving things with his sense of humor. Had a lot of comedy skits and things like that. Had a very successful short film called Milk and Cereal which I I think was for like 800 bucks or something that he made that film and it was very widely acclaimed. He's made a couple of other shorts. This is his first fulllength feature. And it's not often that you see a filmmaker have such a tight grip on their idea of this concept. How they want the movie to feel, how they want the movie to look, exactly what moment he wants certain information revealed to the audience, how he sets up and executes certain moments throughout the film to get the reaction that he is going for. He's not just the writer of the movie or the director, he's also the editor. And of those three jobs, I think being the editor is probably the most important here and the most overlooked of all of them because this is such a tightly edited film where there is a deliberate slow burn at first. There's a lot of different sequences and scenes that lets it just draw out very slowly with camera movements moving very deliberately paced. And then certain moments that are supposed to get a shocking reaction out of you, whether it's through sound design or a creepy visual, it's masterfully executed because I have seen this movie twice and every single moment that is supposed to hit [ __ ] hits.

[00:06:32]There's a brilliance in the writing here with not just the the the twist on the whole monkeykey's paw scenario that I was talking about and its exploration of this codependency and toxic relationships that is very much the message of the movie but also in the way that he balances humor with the horror because this is a movie that is incredibly disturbing. There are images, there are sounds, there are things happening that are definitely bone chilling but also just stomach churning.

[00:06:58]Not just like in a nasty gorefilled way, although there are moments like that, but when you start to have realizations of what is actually going on and certain details come out about how this wish is actually being enacted, like it is a sickening film. But all throughout it, you find yourself laughing not only at deliberately funny moments, but uncomfortably funny moments. There's so many moments throughout the film that he is deliberately trying to make you as uncomfortable as possible either with the level of crazy [ __ ] that is happening or even sometimes with like the level of cringe of things that is happening deliberately on screen. And so you will have an image in front of you that you don't really your brain can't figure out whether you're supposed to be nervous in this moment or you're supposed to be laughing in this moment.

[00:07:42]And so you kind of just blend both of them together and you laugh while also feeling like I I'm in danger. I should not be having a good time with this. But holy [ __ ] what's happening?

[00:07:59]>> I think I even saw an interview with Curry where he was talking about the TIFF world premiere where he was watching the film live with his parents in a full audience and they were all like shocked and surprised at how much audible laughter the audience was having throughout the film. even in spots where he didn't intend it, which is again kudos to how well of a tonal balance he achieved and how tight the execution was that not only did he achieve it in the moments he was going for, but almost like accidentally oversuced on bringing that disturbing balance between being uncomfortably funny and just flatout hilarious. And so much of why that works is on the shoulders of Indie Navarretti. She is absolutely going to be the breakout star of this film. Like this feels like a hyperbolic statement, but her performance should get an Oscar nomination. Like this is the first performance that I have seen in a horror film since Tony Colette in Hereditary where it feels like we will [ __ ] riot in the streets if this woman does not get her kudos. Which of course, history proves time and time again horror performances and great horror film making is constantly overlooked by the Oscars. So, who knows if that's actually going to happen, but it's no exaggeration to say that the effectiveness of this film is entirely on the shoulders of Indy's performance.

[00:09:16]And it's unlike anything you've ever seen an actress do because not only is she very charming and very much somebody that you just immediately like and totally get why Bear, the main character, would have this infatuation with her and have this desire towards her. But the second that that wish is cast, there's this slow build of crazy with her physical performance, with her voice, with her facial expressions, with everything that she is bringing to this character that you never know what the [ __ ] is coming next. Like, this is not just something like disclosure or fatal attraction where it just turns into somebody that just starts to slowly go crazy because they have to have this person. It's taking a performance like that and just sending it into the sick and disturbing stratosphere in ways that you cannot imagine. Especially the physical performance. There are ways that this woman moves in camera in the background in just like a blink and you'll miss it corner of the shot or even when it's just full-on in front of you that will literally have you gripping your seat. Like it is one of the most disturbingly effective performances that I have seen in years.

[00:10:24]She is nightmare fuel and it's amazing at how well it works because she's always going for broke. Like there's something to be said about subtlety and how effective subtlety can be in someone being creepy with the stillness of their voice or the look in their eye or how calm they are with saying some very disturbing [ __ ] She kind of does the opposite where so many points throughout the story and it only gets more amplified as the movie goes on. She just turns the sliders up to 11 and it [ __ ] works because of how she balances all these crazy tones of Nikki all at once and can change them on a dime in the same scene. I'm saying it now. You can go ahead and clip this out like this woman is going to be the next huge horror actress that is going to just get so many opportunities after this movie comes out where you're almost going to get sick of seeing her because this is just an insane breakout performance where you're like, "Holy [ __ ] where were they hiding you?" And everybody else does great in the cast, too. Like, India is obviously overshadowing everybody because that's just what the performance gives her to chew on. Like, she is very deliberately supposed to be the one that commands your attention. But everybody else is great. Especially the lead character who's played by Michael Johnston. He's the one that plays Bayer. And what I like about his performance is that he kind of has like this innocent, nerdiness about him. like this very timid, shy guy where you can't help but immediately identify with the guy to a certain extent in the opening act of the film. But one of the things that makes the movie work so well is how well he is paired up with Indie Netti. It's almost like when they did casting and did chemistry reads for this movie, they casted people based off of who had the worst chemistry. Because for as much as you want the shy, timid guy to, you know, win the girl of his dreams, who's this very beautiful and outgoing and seemingly very fun person that Nikki is presented to be in the opening act of the film, their chemistry is always off in a very like palpable way. And the more that the wish and the story of the film pushes them more into this codependent relationship, like the reactions of all of the friends and characters around them matches your reaction as an audience member where no matter how in love they both are portrayed to be, it never gels. There's always something off about it which always keeps in the back of your mind that this is not a natural relationship that there is some other power forcing this to be that this is not right. It's not okay at any point. And because he's just such a a gentle toned guy and feels so disarmingly innocent and harmless, I think it just completely amplifies how effective the ultimate turns of the movie are and the ultimate message of the movie. like them working together is very much a symphony where Indie has to go hard, she has to go loud, but he has to command the quieter sides of things and so they work perfectly together.

[00:13:19]Speaking of symphony, this movie has an incredible score. This was something that didn't necessarily jump out at me the first time that I saw it, but it was the thing that I was actually no noticing and really appreciating the most about my second watch. Now, the score for this film is composed by Rock Burwell, and I actually reached out to him quickly before doing this review because I couldn't help but feel like his score was very deliberately inspired by Silent Hill. There is something very calming about the score, but it's tonally just off enough that that calmness kind of turns into discomfort.

[00:13:55]And that's the vibe of the entire composition and the entire movie is like this should be calming, but it's just off enough that I don't feel comfortable with what I'm seeing or what I'm hearing and just very much the same wavelength of Silent Hill. Now, when I asked him about that, he said that he was not overly familiar with Silent Hill, so it's probably just a bit of a coincidence, but I really loved the score to this movie. And just like any great horror score, it absolutely just sets the tone and amplifies everything that is supposed to be going on visually and gets certain emotions and certain vibes out of you as the viewer almost like subliminally. And so this is one where I've already pre-ordered the vinyl uh over at Wax Work. This is one of my favorite horror scores in recent memory.

[00:14:39]It was awesome. And carrying on with talking about how important sound is to a horror film. The sound design in this movie is amazing. There are so many points in the film where they are going for a scare. They are going to jolt you out of your seat. And it's not just your typical cheap ass jump scare where you just get a loud sound when a [ __ ] ball falls out of a closet or you know the fridge closes and there's somebody standing there. There's so many moments here where it's just what you are listening to that sound so unnatural and it's just basic sounds that all of us know. As simple as somebody turning off a shower. Turning off a shower in this movie will make you jump out of your seat because of the way that it is crafted and the different noises that are happening around it and what is being conveyed by the characters in that moment. And so, not only are they getting just a ton of mileage out of Indie Navarrett's line delivery, but there's a lot of points in this film where what is terrifying that is happening in a sequence is not actually on screen. Like, you're behind a closed door just listening to things happening or you're having something suggested.

[00:15:47]Phone conversations with customer service that should be pretty cordial and normal turn into [ __ ] nightmare fuel. and and some of the worst sounds you're going to hear, which is very much cut from a cloth of like Black Christmas. Curry Barker tries to use every single tool in the tool belt to try to get these reactions out of his audience without resorting to the same old dumb, tired tropes that modern horror audiences can see coming a mile away and absolutely hate having to endure. And I think he's one of those guys that just knows that. So, he just puts that to the side and says, "We're not doing any of that [ __ ] We're going to disturb people by showing them something that is just off enough that it [ __ ] them up and it lingers in their mind. We're going to disturb people by having them listen to things that they hear every single day, but twisting it and making it just off enough where it causes that discomfort in them. all these very subtle tricks and they're used masterfully, which just boggles your mind about how somebody can do this with less than a million dollars to this level of effectiveness, but so many other films with 10, 20 times this budget just resort to the jump scares. I could go on and on for a much longer time talking about all the things that I love about this movie, things that I enjoyed the first time and enjoyed significantly more the second time. And I will go ahead and bet money now that by the time I watch it a third time, there's going to be something else in there that I didn't pick up on or didn't really latch into that's going to make me appreciate the film even more. This is a generational horror film. Like you guys that watch me regularly know that I am not the type to go into hyperbolic terminology, not the type to throw out the word masterpiece or act like every brand new release that I'm excited about, especially at a film festival, is going to change your life. cuz YouTube and Tik Tok and I mean they're they're riddled with creators like that. This is a movie that I genuinely think is one of the greatest films in the horror genre to come out in the last decade. In fact, give me one more watch and I might be confident in saying it is my favorite horror film of the last 10 years. Right now, I would give that crown to Tai West's X. That is my favorite horror film to come out in a very long time.

[00:17:59]and that has all of the added power of being the kickoff to a trilogy that I love. Obsession is a standalone movie that I am almost willing to hand that crown over to. Keep in mind that it is very rare that I am doing a full review for a film that I have seen twice and have had eight months to sit on it. And that's one of the reasons why you never really see me give movies a perfect score, even with one watch, because that has to be earned over time for me.

[00:18:26]Nothing is truly a masterpiece or a perfect film until it proves that age will not diminish your enjoyment of it.

[00:18:35]This is the second time on this channel that I have reviewed a brand new film that I am absolutely going to give a five out of five to. To me, this is a perfect horror film. Perfectly written, perfectly edited. The acting is incredible. the sound design and the score, even the way that it's shot and having so much just empty void space around characters which conveys like this loneliness around especially the main character, but also just this twisted relationship, how they're just losing everybody around them. Like it is [ __ ] brilliant. And I've been very happy to have been getting tagged and have DMs sent to me like crazy over the last couple of days since Wednesday of so many people saying, "Man, I thought you were going to overhype this one. I thought this was never going to measure up, but holy [ __ ] this is amazing."

[00:19:22]Like, I have gotten dozens of people that have said that to me. And it's just so awesome to see that so many other people are enjoying this the way that I enjoyed it. And this did not end up being one of those times where I enjoyed it. so much because of my festival experience and then when it hits wide audiences they're like everybody I'm hearing from is just eating this thing up. So I I love Obsession. Like I'm consider me obsessed fully. I cannot wait to see what this guy does next.

[00:19:51]He's got a film coming out with Aaron Paul that sounds really interesting. It sounds like there's going to be a lot of inherent comedy in it which sounds great. And of course we all know that he has been tapped to do the next Texas Chainsaw Massacre film. And judging off of this one film, I think that, you know, tonally Curry Barker has exactly what that franchise is going to need.

[00:20:11]And I have all the confidence in the world to him. He's just a very exciting upand cominging filmmaker. And even more than that, as somebody that started on YouTube, seeing all these YouTubers turned filmmakers is so inspiring to me. I don't know if I will ever get there. I don't know if I'll ever get a script made or a script optioned or be able to direct a film. I don't know if I'll even be able to work on a film in any facet.

[00:20:37]But seeing people like Chris Stuckman, the Filipoo Brothers, Radio Silence, Curry Barker be able to do what I dream about and to execute it to the level of something like Obsession. It just inspires the [ __ ] out of me. So, I mean, there's just so much about this movie that I love that I hope you guys share even a portion of that. So, if I have not sold you enough on Obsession, I hope you guys go out and check it out this weekend. And I hope you support it. I hope you turn it into a massive [ __ ] hit because it absolutely deserves to be. And I will not be surprised at all if this is the most common and popular answer by the end of this calendar year of best movie of 2026. Well, that's it for this one, guys. If you enjoyed that, please click over here for all of my 2026 new release reviews. I'm also going to point you to my Fantastic Fest ranking so that you can see all the other films that I saw last year alongside Obsession. Please like, share, hit that subscribe button so you don't miss everything in the future.