Review - Obsession

Rating: 8/10

Director: Curry Barker | Screenplay: Curry Barker | Cast: Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, Andy Richter | Cinematography: Taylor Clemons | Music: Rock Burwell | Runtime: 109 min | Rated: R

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Obsession ended up being a really enjoyable movie for me. And I don't like horrors at all. I get some of the criticism aimed at the plot and at certain character decisions and I'll come back to that. But the film absolutely succeeds at building an atmosphere that keeps you on edge the entire time.

Bear (Michael Johnston) works at a music store, can't work up the nerve to ask his childhood friend and coworker Nikki (Inde Navarrette) out, and instead buys a One Wish Willow from a crystal shop. He snaps it. He gets it. And what comes back wearing Nikki's face is not Nikki.

Curry Barker knows exactly where to put the camera

The standout here is the direction. Curry Barker has a genuinely great eye for visual dread. He can make an ordinary room feel wrong without touching the gore dial.

My favourite moments are the ones where Nikki just appears in the background of a shot and nobody, including the camera, acknowledges her. No sting, no push in, no music cue. She's simply there, and you notice her a half second late, and that half second is where the fear lives. That's playing with your perception instead of just detonating a jump scare in your face.

Inde Navarrette is the reason it works

The other huge reason the movie lands is Inde Navarrette. It's her physicality that does it. Sometimes she moves unnaturally slow, like something running at the wrong frame rate and then she'll snap into a sudden, almost inhuman motion that makes your whole body react before your brain catches up.

The image that stuck with me hardest is her standing at the front door, swallowed almost entirely by darkness, nothing visible but her eyes catching the light. It's such a simple shot. It's also one of the creepiest things in the film.

The horror is in the craft, not the shocks

What I appreciated most is that the scares aren't just shocks. So much of the tension comes from the camera work, the lighting, the sound design, and the constant low grade awareness that Nikki could be anywhere in the frame. The film takes ordinary spaces, a hallway, a bedroom, a doorway you've already seen ten times and quietly makes them unsafe. By the back half you're scanning every shot yourself which is exactly where a horror director wants you.

There's also a genuinely nasty streak running underneath all of it, given what the wish actually did to Nikki. The film knows it, and it doesn't let Bear off the hook.

Where it slips

The story isn't perfect. There are definitely moments where characters make questionable decisions. That's my biggest criticism of the film. But the direction, the cinematography and the horror sequences are strong enough to hold the movie.

The verdict

Obsession is one of those horror films that wins on execution rather than plot. It's stylish, it's genuinely creepy, and it's stacked with visual moments that hang around long after the credits. Go in knowing you'll want to yell at the protagonist a few times and you'll have a great time.

8/10