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Blumhouse Productions
Capstone Pictures
Tea Shop Productions
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Be careful who you wish for…
After breaking the mysterious "One Wish Willow" to win his crush's heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
Martin Oaks
Aug 19, 2026 · via TMDB
**Emotional Hijacking** Bear is a shy, introverted young man working in a music shop who is deeply and secretly in love with his friend and colleague, Nikki. Desperate over his unrequited romantic longing, Bear acquires a mysterious supernatural object called "The Weeping Willow," which has the power to grant wishes. Blind to the consequences, he wishes for Nikki to fall in love with him "more than anything else in this world." The spell works instantly, but the idyllic dream swiftly morphs into a nightmare: Nikki’s implanted love mutates into an irrational, suffocating, and deeply disturbing behavior. Her morbid devotion erases the boundaries of her sanity, unleashing a downward spiral of violence and obsessive possessiveness that threatens to destroy both their lives and everyone around them. In certain aspects, "Obsession" stands out as the great revelation of contemporary horror cinema. Operating on a shoestring budget of just $750,000, director Curry Barker achieves what many Hollywood blockbusters can only dream of: building an atmosphere of tension relying strictly on the power of ideas, a fresh approach to staging, and raw storytelling. Barker taps into 1980s cinematic references, taking the classic premise of magical manipulation (W.W. Jacobs' "The Monkey's Paw") and transplanting it into deeply uncomfortable psychological territory. The horror becomes visceral, psychological, and existential, confronting us with the terrifying facets of the human ego. It seeks to prove that forcing someone to love you does not stem from devotion, but rather from a craving for control and a pathological fear of loneliness or rejection. Finally, a humble piece of advice for a talented Curry Barker, who will never read this review but is still in the budding stages of his career: the overreliance on jump-scare audio stingers is symptomatic of an endemic disease—one that blends narrative laziness, behavioral psychology, and the familiar commercial pressures of Hollywood. Do not fall into the temptation of mimicking the cheapest tropes of late-career Shyamalan. Instead, fully exploit that aesthetic and cinematic creativity currently flourishing within you. Flee once and for all from cheap, gimmicky chords, and lose your fear of silence. Remember that true horror dwells in the stillness of masterpieces like "Nosferatu", "Les Diaboliques" or "Rosemary's Baby", by Murnau, Clouzot and Polanski, respectively.
Vinicius Monteiro
Jul 31, 2026 · via TMDB
There’s a fine line between genuine affection and possession, and horror movies usually thrive when crossing it. I went into *Obsession* expecting a psychological deep dive into emotional dependency, but what we actually get is an experience that violently swings between brilliance and frustration. Directed by Curry Barker, the film swings big in its attempt to show toxic masculinity and the loss of free will. The first thirty minutes are genuinely suffocating, doing a great job of making you feel trapped. But while Barker takes huge risks for his debut feature, the movie stumbles trying to keep that momentum going. The real trouble starts when the story needs to stretch past its initial premise. The second act drags hard, trapping the viewer in a repetitive loop of jealousy and chasing that goes nowhere. They could have easily chopped at least twenty minutes in the editing room. On top of that, the indie budget really shows; scenes meant to be psychologically oppressive are ruined by amateurish lighting and set designs that break the immersion. Worse still is the jarring mix of tones. Right when the discomfort peaks, the script throws in bizarre dark humor. A badly timed joke or a goofy reaction completely kills the dramatic weight, making it clear the director hasn't quite learned how to trim the fat from his own ideas. The whole plot with the mystical artifact hooks you at first, but it loses steam once the curse actually kicks in. Instead of building tension, the narrative just stalls. This makes the interactions suffer, too. Dedicated actors are stuck delivering stiff, unnatural dialogue, forced to spell out feelings that their body language was already showing perfectly. It makes some of the more dramatic scenes feel like a bad teen soap opera draft. Following the protagonist, Bear (Michael Johnston), for almost two hours is a tough pill to swallow. He’s a pathetic guy whose harmless neediness quickly turns into a sick, one-dimensional selfishness. While the movie doesn't shy away from exposing the ugliest sides of possessiveness disguised as romance, Bear has zero redeeming qualities, making the watch tedious since there's no one to root for. If the movie survives its structural flaws, it’s almost entirely thanks to Inde Navarrette. Tasked with playing a character who gets psychologically beaten down by both the male lead and bad writing, she delivers an incredibly mature, visceral performance. Her subtle shifts in posture and gaze anchor the whole movie, making her the only real emotional core in the story. Using folk horror to talk about toxic masculinity is the coolest idea here, but the execution completely lacks subtlety. The movie talks down to the audience, hammering its message home so hard that it feels more like a lecture than an organic psychological study. This also exposes a major flaw in how it handles its female lead. In trying to call out abuse, the narrative reduces her to a mere tool for suffering, tortured just to push the bad guy's arc forward. It leaves you wondering if it's genuinely critiquing misogyny or just exploiting women's trauma for shock value. The film's early strength is its grounded tension, relying on everyday paranoia rather than monsters in the dark. But by the third act, the director throws all that out the window and goes full grotesque. Instead of feeling earned, this sudden bloodbath of graphic violence feels like a desperate crutch to shock an already bored audience. The sound design also fumbles; they went for an eerie lack of music, which works at first, but ends up making long scenes feel empty. When loud noises do happen, they're poorly mixed and feel like cheap jump scares. After racing through a chaotic, blood-soaked climax, the movie just ends. An abrupt cut to black rolls the credits without explaining the artifact or the rules of the curse. It doesn't feel like a thought-provoking open ending; it just feels like the writers painted themselves into a corner and didn't know how to wrap things up, leaving you waiting for a payoff that never comes. In the end, *Obsession* is a tough, uneven watch. Curry Barker has the guts to poke at the painful wounds of toxic relationships, and Inde Navarrette’s amazing acting keeps things afloat. But the pacing issues, weird tonal shifts, and the rushed, gory climax really test your patience. Still, it forces you to think. Horror is supposed to push us out of our comfort zone, right? If you want to feel that oppressive atmosphere, it's worth a watch. Just go in with a strong stomach, ready for the messy pacing, and see how you handle the sudden silence when those credits finally roll.
The Fixate & Binge Podcast, w/ Joe Curdy
Jul 29, 2026 · via TMDB
Writer/director Curry Barker’s leap from YouTube viral fame to the big screen is one of the best success stories in Hollywood, and Kane Parsons’ **BACKROOMS** for A24 later this month appears to be further proof that the road from YouTube to Hollywood — while still less traveled — can make all the difference. The viral success of Barker's [**MILK & SERIAL** (2024)](https://letterboxd.com/fixateandbinge/film/milk-serial/) showcased enormous potential and a natural instinct for low-budget horror filmmaking, making his transition to the big screen feel like a well-earned graduation. In **OBSESSION**, Barker has crafted a slow-burn psychological horror film that steadily builds careens towards its shocking conclusion. While the deliberate pacing occasionally tested my patience, once Barker’s story fully unfolds, it seeps into the viewer’s psyche in ways few recent horror films have managed — provoking deeply uncomfortable questions about consent and free agency, while possibly making you think twice before blowing out candles on your next birthday. **OBSESSION** presents a seemingly innocuous setup centered on the lovelorn Bear (Michael Johnston), who literally wishes to escape the friend zone with his longtime pal Nikki (Inde Navarrette). After stumbling upon a “One Wish Willow” collector’s item in a new-age curio shop — one that wouldn’t feel out of place beside the Zoltar machine in the Tom Hanks smash hit BIG (1988) — Bear makes a wish without understanding the terrifying power he has unleashed. Encouraged by his best friend Ian (frequent Barker collaborator Cooper Tomlinson), Bear initially appears to get everything he wants when Nikki suddenly develops a romantic interest in him. But soon the wheels start to come off as Bear's happily-ever-after spirals into a nightmare after the possessiveness of Nikki becomes increasingly unhinged. Navarrette delivers a terrifying performance that has echoes of **FATAL ATTRACTION** and **SINGLE, WHITE, FEMALE** -- with additional layers of psychological torture for her loss of bodily autonomy With shocking moments of terror, expertly sustained tension, disturbing imagery, and a fearless performance from Navarrette, **OBSESSION** stands as one of the year’s best horror films.
Manuel São Bento
Jul 19, 2026 · via TMDB
Check out my full review @ https://www.manuelsbento.com/obsession-2026-inde-navarrette-gives-the-horror-performance-of-the-decade/ Rating: B+ There's a version of OBSESSION that lives up to its own hype, and the version that I watched. What bridges the gap is Inde Navarrette's lead performance, which is so dedicated, so physically all-in, that I genuinely believe it's the best horror breakout of the decade! Curry Barker's direction is patient and confident, favoring dread over noise. The story, though, plays it safer than it should, gesturing at real ideas without fully committing to them. A highly entertaining, satisfying horror flick that I wish (*wink wink*) was as great as I hoped it would be.
druscilla_of_old
Jul 5, 2026 · via TMDB
I know I'm supposed to say I love this movie and it's the best thing I've seen this year (cause, for some reason, it seems to be the current movie fad among White audiences) but I'm gonna be real: Obsession is a mess of a rag doll strewn up with overused clichés and age-old literary and movie tropes. Like, for instance, the use of wishes to weave a "be careful what you wish for" cautionary tale is a centuries old literary trope. So is the "crazy woman" trope. Yet, even if one chooses to ignore this, the movie is haunted by numerous other problems that are impossible to igore: pacing issues, poor dialogue writing, poor audio quality, and choppy editing, to name a few. The only saving graces for the movie seem to be a couple of well-timed jump-scares and the relatively well-done "boys night out" scene. Those aside, I've seen some people, bafflingly so, tout this movie as a "feminist" movie. Like, what?! In what world exactly is a movie made by a White man (Curry Barker), led by a White man (Michael Johnston), and whose main lesson seems to be cautioning White men to avoid getting into relationships with "crazy" women, feminist?? Also, the fact that Inde Navarrette is a fan of a court-adjudged wifebeater and rapist in real life (Johnny Depp) should be a massive red flag as to the kinds of people and work she'd be involved with. Speaking of Navarrette, I've seen lots of people praise her acting - even billing her for an Oscar [*eyeroll*] - but if you pay close attention to her scenes, special effects and editing do a tonne of work to help her achieve the kinds of emotions that may have moved audiences. In all, I wouldn't recommend this one to most people except avid horror fans whose interest in it would extend beyond pure entertainment. The 4-star I gave it were mostly due to the couple of positives I've mentioned above as well Michael Johnston's (sometimes) outstanding performance.
Acharya2062
Jul 3, 2026 · via TMDB
A chilling reminder that the shortest route isn’t always the fastest; in Obsession, it becomes a deadly psychological trap where the journey ends and the traveler vanishes.🫠🤫
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
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Bear
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1987 · 14 wins
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2019 · 11 wins
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