Love, in all its forms, has the power to transform us. To make us kinder, braver, and above all, happier. It has the ability to reshape our entire being – but with that force of good comes the potential for a darker path. Curry Barker, known for his horror shorts on YouTube that have amassed millions of views, makes his theatrical debut with Obsession, a deeply unsettling tale of love gone horribly, irrevocably wrong.
Bear (Michael Johnston) is a mild-mannered young man with unspecified mental health issues who is secretly in love with his music store co-worker Nikki (Inde Navarrette). His best friend and colleague, Ian (Barker’s creative partner Cooper Tomlinson), urges Bear to muster up the courage to tell Nikki how he feels, but he’s too afraid that she will reject him and he will ruin their friendship. After visiting a crystal shop where he picks up a seemingly innocuous toy named a “One Wish Willow”, Bear makes a wish that Nikki loves him “more than anyone else in the world”. In the wake of this, Nikki starts to exhibit increasingly odd behaviour, but with the change in her personality comes what Bear has always wanted: her love. They have a dreamy honeymoon phase, with tons of kissing, sex, and outright adoration, but when this sours into something more dangerous and possessive, Bear is forced to reckon with the cost of getting what he always wanted.
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Barker’s moody colour grading and grip on scare timings combined with two truly remarkable lead performances and sparing but effective use of gore elevate Obsession’s familiar premise. His YouTube catalog shows a preoccupation with the uncanny, a person switching from loving partner to deranged in under a second, and Obsession brings these nightmares to unsettling new heights. Barker never opts for the easy scare, constantly surprising and teasing his audience with off-beat movements, invasive sound design, and clever shadow work. It’s a compelling allegory for toxic relationships, co-dependency, and how the person of your dreams can easily turn your life into a waking nightmare. If Obsession has any fault, it’s the noticeable absence of a female perspective, but that may well be the point; much of the terror in Barker’s work begins and ends with the theme of hapless young men seeking purpose and love in the world.
Despite Obsession’s psychological horror leanings, the film doesn’t skip out on gut-wrenching gore. One scene in particular (involving a steering wheel) is enough to leave you frozen in your seat as you try to process the sudden violence, while Inde Navarrette gives an all-time horror performance as the sickly sweet Nikki, who snaps in and out of a truly terrifying possessed entity. More than anything, the film announces an exciting voice in horror filmmaking. While the subtextual gleanings may not be particularly illuminating or fresh, Obsession delivers everything you could want from a story that is as terrifying, maddening, and tragic all at once.
