Joey Magidson
I truly hate being a severe outlier. Especially with a basically universally acclaimed horror title (I have a weekly horror column in Sunday Scaries, after all), it would give me nothing but pleasure to add my voice to the praise of Obsession. Unfortunately, I just did not see the same film that everyone else did. While I do think the filmmaker has a future (more on that below), this movie did not work for me, nearly at all. I did not care for it one bit and actually found it rather cruel, as opposed to fun. This is one of the bigger disappointments of 2026 for me, which I legitimately hate to say.
Obsession wants to be a crowd-pleasing fright flick, without question, but it just left a real bad taste in my mouth. I was on board for this monkey’s paw type tale, but as it progressed, it started to get particularly icky. There’s a cruelty towards the female characters that I don’t believe is intentional, but certainly colored things for me. What aspires to be a Zach Cregger style work can only gaze longingly at what Barbarian and Weapons managed to pull off.
Bear (Michael Johnston) is hopelessly in love with his friend and co-worker Nikki (Inde Navarrette). His other co-workers/friends Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) and Sarah (Megan Lawless) give him advice, but Bear mostly just crushes and wishes things would be different. Why can’t she love him? He’s a nice guy, after all. While looking for a gift for Nikki, Bear comes across a “One Wish Willow” in a store, buying it almost on a whim. It purports to grant you a single wish, and after an awkward night out with Nikki, he wishes that she would love him more than anything else in the world. Well, be careful what you wish for…
Almost immediately, Nikki becomes obsessed with him. Thrown for a loop, it takes a bit for Bear to buy into it, but from then on, they’re an inseparable couple. If not for the moments where she screams in horror and seems confused by her surroundings, it would be perfect. Well, at least until Nikki’s weird behavior has Ian and Sarah concerned that Bear is taking advantage of her during some kind of mental health episode. As he finds his friends backing away from him/them, her behavior becomes more and more bizarre, as well as dangerous. What is he to do, especially when the only way for the wish to end is for one of them to die? Well…
The best part of this movie is the performance from Inde Navarrette, who makes Nikki an interesting character before the wish, and then a chilling prisoner afterwards. The manic episodes are upsetting and break right back into a rictus smile, highlighting the war going on inside of her. My kingdom for the movie to have actually been, even in part, from her perspective. Sadly, we always stick with Bear, and Michael Johnston is fine, yet very bland. Moreover, but having us identify with the nice guy doing some decidedly less than nice things, we should feel conflict. Instead, we just don’t care. Megan Lawless and Cooper Tomlinson have very little to do, while Andy Richter has a thankless supporting role.
Filmmaker Curry Barker has received plenty of acclaim for Obsession, and it’s certainly a calling card film. I just wish I saw what everyone else sees in it. The jump scares and moments of gore are obvious and telegraphed. The humor rarely lands. There’s only lip service paid to how plenty of guys who are monsters claim to be nice guys. Barker’s direction should translate well to his take on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, though his writing feels half baked. Again, there’s also a cruel streak here towards the women, as well as a bit of animal cruelty, that just sat very poorly with me.
Obsession may well work for you, even if it did not for me in the least. Maybe I just saw it on the wrong day? The elements are there for a memorable fright flick. Given my passion for horror, it should have been up my alley. Instead, this is a scary movie that wants to be a crowdpleaser, yet only managed to leave me shaking my head. Alas.
SCORE: ★★
Comments
Loading…