Current viewing: Obsession

 ****THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS****

Obsession** (Curry Barker, 2026)

Let's get some important things out of the way: Inde Navarrette gives an excellent performance with a near-impossible task, and I am LIVING for the one queen in the denim jacket who keeps giving Nikki side eye at Ian's party. What we're left with then, is a movie that keeps letting its cowardly leading man behave in ways that are vile as he continues violating this woman he has long since realized is under a spell and not actually, miraculously, in love with him.

Obsession is YouTuber Curry Barker's take on ye olde monkey's paw tale in which Baron, who everyone calls Bear (Michael Johnston), is hooked on his friend Nikki (Navarrette) and aching to tell her. Bear & Nikki remain friends with schoolmates Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) and Sarah (Megan Lawless), and still work at the same music store owned by Sarah's dad (Andy Richter). As expected, Bear is unable to confess his feelings after a trivia one night when he drives Nikki home. Earlier, he was trying to buy her a replacement for the crystal necklace she lost, but instead gets something called a One Wish Willow. Navarrette is interestingly mysterious in this scene, leaving it unclear whether she'd respond by firming up "friends only" with Bear if he declared himself, or if she's been kinda waiting for him to say something so she can surrender to their feelings. Frustrated with himself, Bear tears open the trinket, wishes for Nikki to love him more than anyone in the world, breaks it in half as instructed, and traps both himself and Nikki in a horrifying mess.

We are early in Nikki's strange behaviour when Bear starts to put the pieces together, and we get repeated notice not only that he's aware of what happened, but that the trapped Nikki is aware she's being harmed by whatever magic was in that wish. There's something in Bear's complete inability to act once he hears a clear plea from the real Nikki begging to be freed from this hell he's stuck them in. It could be heartbreaking and haunting that he realizes he isn't what she wants and never will be. OR, it could have explored what a monster this 'nice, shy guy' Bear actually is as he leans into the control of Nikki that he has, now consciously acting to keep her devoted to him. But the movie rushes past those possibilities to another revelation from Sarah in her car, which is really only a setup for Nikki to brutally murder her as Bear watches.

Barker gives us these glimpses of what's really happening and Bear's awareness of same, but continually dodges complicating his narrative by investigating how he feels about it, or if he should change course. This could be meant as commentary on the way a Nice Guy might behave when a compliant woman offers herself completely to him, but we get none of that, and are forced instead to imagine Barker isn't interested in such commentary, but rather how damn hilarious it is when a woman goes to extremes to show how committed she is to her man. Bitches, amirite?

The movie's refusal to see Bear for who he really is and act on it meaningfully ends in his ultimate cowardice as he leaves Nikki to suffer the consequences of his actions. And again, instead of seeing how often cishet men make messes others (frequently women) have to clean up as worthy of commentary or challenge, Barker rolls the credits while the once-again real Nikki's tears mockingly continue to fall.