Just when you think you’ve seen every premise imaginable for a horror movie, someone comes up with one that’s so simple, so perfect, so devious, you can’t believe it hasn’t been done a million times before. With Obsession, writer-director Curry Barker tells the story of Bear, a young man who is madly in love with his good friend and co-worker Nikki. Bear wants to tell Nikki how he feels, but he can’t muster up the courage. So, when he happens upon a gag gift that promises to grant you one wish, he figures it couldn’t hurt. But oh, how wrong he is.
Using the knick-knack called a “One Wish Willow,” Bear (Michael Johnston) wishes for Nikki (Inde Navarrette) to love him more than anything in the world, and it magically comes true. Almost instantly, things get awkward. Out of nowhere, Nikki starts acting incredibly odd, almost like there are two people fighting inside her. Bear’s okay with it, though, because she’s finally into him. Soon, things start to escalate, and escalate, and escalate. Their interactions are funny, then creepy, then violent, then really creepy, then really violent, then really really… you get the idea. For the entire film, Barker keeps us on our toes by constantly varying the level of intensity. Each scene changes wildly from one to the next, but, thanks in part to great performances from Johnston and Navarrette, the movie never feels tonally awkward. It all fits together seamlessly.
Both leads are incredible in the movie. Johnston starts as an aw-shucks, nice guy lacking confidence—at first, he seems okay with getting his wish fulfilled. But as things get weirder, more awkward, and scarier, we see him struggle with just how far he’s willing to push this, and how much he’s willing to forgive. The movie simultaneously wants you to love and hate Bear, rooting for him to reach his dreams but admonishing him for what he’s done to his friend, and with each scene, Johnston conveys all of that in his being. Then there’s Navarrette, who, as Nikki, is nothing short of astonishing. She’s got a huge range to play with in the role, of course, but she is constantly captivating, terrifying, and also insanely lovable. It’s a similar balance to the movie’s lens on Bear himself: you get why he would love her so much, but feel increasingly terrible for what is happening as she puts her body through the ringer and back again.
And while Barker could’ve just kept that story as the sole focus, Bear and Nikki’s two best friends, Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) and Sarah (Megan Lawless), provide much-needed perspective on all this. Just like a real relationship, sometimes when you’re inside one, you don’t really know how it looks to everyone else. Ian and Sarah figure out very quickly that something is very, very wrong with Bear and Nikki’s relationship, and that point of view provides even more twists and turns.
There’s even a throughline about the lore of this mysterious wish-granter called a “One Wish Willow,” which we would’ve loved to see explored even more. But maybe that can happen if we visit this world again. Because the idea that these “One Wish Willows” are out there in the real world, ready to screw up someone’s life, is just as ripe, if not more so, than the story we’re seeing unfold.
But the true brilliance of Obsession—and make no mistake, it is brilliant—is its simplicity. Bear wished for Nikki to love him more than anything in the world. Anything: that means more than herself. More than her friends. More than, well, anything, and the film pushes those boundaries and plays with the notion to incredible effect. It never gets too far over the top, but it also never lets you forget just how far the boundaries of those words can go.
At times during Obsession, I was laughing out loud. At other times, I was legitimately terrified. And there were plenty of moments along the way filled with shock and disgust. It has everything you could want in a horror movie. And the fact that it provides such a new, unique spin on the idea of wishes or love makes it all the better.
Obsession just had its U.S. premiere at Fantastic Fest 2025 and was recently picked up for distribution by Focus Features out of the Toronto International Film Festival. Which is great news. That means, at some point in the future, you will be able to see our latest horror obsession: Obsession.
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