Obsession (2025)

We have all fantasized about being able to make a wish and how it would change our lives if they really did come true.  Besides the obvious of trying to find loopholes by wishing for infinite wishes I am sure that, as in most things, the wishes would come down to love or money.  However, despite being willing to talk about almost anything to a million strangers on the internet, most people today won't sit down and have simple conversations with the people close to them.  It's a recipe for disaster and, when a poorly worded wish is thrown in the mix, it makes for one of the more creative horror movies in recent memory.

Bear (Michael Johnston) works in a music store and is in love with his friend and coworker Nikki (Inde Navarrette).  Problem is he is afraid to reveal his feelings for her as she has never indicated specifically that she likes him.  After rejecting a litany of bad advice from his best friend Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) Bear decides to keep quiet as usual.  However, out of frustration, he uses a novelty toy called a One Wish Willow that he bought at a new age store to wish that Nikki loved him more than anything else in the world.

He doesn't expect anything to happen but, to his surprise, Nikki suddenly becomes his girlfriend.  The problem is she is not the Nikki he is used to.  She is now dedicated to being with him and to pleasing him no matter what the cost.  She reaches the point where she loses all sense of her former self.  When Bear realizes the consequences of what he has done he must face a hard choice if he is to return her to normal. 

Curry Barker and Cooper Tomlinson are YouTube creators who produce content for a channel called That's a Bad Idea.   The pair create comedic content.  The reason I enjoy it is that much of it feeds into my dark sense of humor, and although Obsession has some horrifying ramifications that humor is always on display.  It is also not a surprise that it would be some of the more creative people on YouTube slowly leading a bit of a revolution in low-budget filmmaking, something that hasn't been seen since the early 1990s.  Many of the people making their own content, though based in the Los Angeles area, did not necessarily come from the usual film school pipeline that traditional Hollywood directors did.  They are just creative people who figured out how to do what they did and, in this case, made a movie that was initially under a million dollars.  

Unlike a lot of more traditional Hollywood material Obsession brought people to the theater and largely by word of mouth.  I was originally unaware of who had made this and was afraid that this was going to be another movie that succeeded on hype alone, like The Blair Witch Project.  Thankfully Barker knows how to make an actual movie and, though this uses some old-fashioned tropes and even a little influence from Get Out, he managed to make a movie that is funny, disturbing and intellectually stimulating all at the same time.  The One Wish Willow is not an evil product, but rather something that some people like Bear misuse despite all the warnings on the box.  Although he never intends for horrible things to happen to Nikki they do and, when given an out, he is too cowardly to take it, just as he was always too much of a coward to have a conversation as well.

This doesn't just extend to him.  Ian and their other friend Sarah (Megan Lawless) both have information that, if they had been willing to impart to Bear, would have eventually ended his obsession with Nikki.  It may not have been a happy, romantic ending all tied up in a bow, but just a few words could have prevented everything, although I am still quite sure that Bear would have ended up wishing for something he shouldn't as he barely acts like an adult as it is.  

Inde Navarrette is the one that does most of the heavy lifting, having to phase in and out as the perfect girlfriend and a rage-filled psychopath, while at the same time reminding the audience that the real Nikki is still in there.  Refreshingly Barker does not make her look like an innocent angel as she never bothers to communicate with Bear either, as she seems aware of his feelings but also appears vague on whether or not she reciprocates them.  

Obsession is one of those films that will spark conversation afterward and is memorable for all the right reasons.  I admire Barker for bringing back this type of movie making as it is sorely missed.  

Obsession (2025)

Time: 109 minutes

Starring: Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless

Director: Curry Barker