Movie Review - Focus's Obsession

Be careful who you wish for.

Obsession is a 2025 supernatural horror film directed by Curry Barker, written by Curry Barker, produced by Capstone Pictures, Tea Shop Productions, and Blumhouse Productions, and distributed by Focus Features and Universal Pictures. It stars Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette.

"Bear, I love you so, so much." - Nikki Freeman

Plot

Bear Bailey is a meek, insecure young man who cannot bring himself to confess feelings to his crush, Nikki. When he decides to use a mysterious wishing stick to make her love him, her infatuation slowly descends into madness until Bear's dream come true becomes the ultimate nightmare.

The Sweet

So Obsession came out this past weekend, and everybody is talking about it. I had heard some positive early buzz from some accounts I follow on social media, but as the release date approached, the hype became stronger. Now, this movie is everywhere. For a film with a budget of about a million dollars, this thing is absolutely dominating pop culture discussion right now. It has made nearly twenty times it's budget at the box office. For reference, that is like if Endgame made $7.1 billion dollars. That's completely insane and almost unprecedented. And I love it. I love that an indie, low-budget horror movie is performing this well. It demonstrates that moviegoers are still hungry for great original films.

Naturally, I had to check this movie out. The previews looked awesome. My brother had seen it this past weekend and said it was crazy. I was very excited going in.

The best thing about this movie (and the most universally praised) is Inde Navarrette. Navarrette plays Nikki Freeman, the crush of the main character, who is thus possessed by whatever wish-fulfilling demon comes from the One-Wish Willow. She delivers a star-making performance in this film. She is a 5-foot tall, beautiful, normal-looking woman...and she creates one of the scariest and most unpredictable movie characters I have ever seen. I was absolutely terrified of Nikki throughout this movie, and so much of my discomfort was due to Navarrette's uncanny ability to switch moods. It's like she's got this switch that she can turn on and off. Sometimes, she is normal, and then the switch turns to "on" and she goes becomes completely nuts. Sometimes, she's completely nuts and then switches back to normal.

The way she smiles and moves feels almost human...and that's the most unsettling part. She plays this character who is trying to pretend to be human, and you feel that in the performance. She smiles too widely. She moves at a pace that's just off-kilter. The way she glides through the darkness will honestly haunt my nightmares. I'm sitting in my dining room at 10:30 P.M. writing this review and I am terrified of Nikki popping up somewhere in my house. The other thing that Navarrette does so well is sell the real Nikki's terror when she shows up, which makes it even scarier when we get the possessed version back. There's a quick scene where the real Nikki breaks through and talks to Bear, and it is one of the most unsettling and heart-breaking scenes in the movie. You barely even see Navarrette on screen when this happens, and her performance is still what sells the scene. From her absolutely blood-curdling scream to her super creepy facial expressions, this lady just gave arguably one of the best performances I've ever seen in a horror film.

And let's talk about that. This is a horror film. Oh, yes, it is. I feel like there's usually one movie a year that is really able to break through and get to me. And even those might scare me a bit when I see them in the theater, but they really don't stick in my mind like this unwanted parasite. Longlegs and Weapons were scary, for sure, but I don't think any movie that I remember has truly traumatized me in the way that Obsession did. There was something else about this movie that almost felt nauseating. The combination of true psychological horror with the physicality of Navarrette and a few shockingly horrific moments made Obsession one of the most nightmarish experiences I have had in a theater.

I also think this film does a great job of having a message behind all of the dread and horror. As a guy, the setup for this film is very relatable. Everyone has been scared to admit feelings to their crush, especially if its someone they are good friends with. Everyone has had these moments of frustration where they can't build up the confidence or they get rejected. That is a universal experience, and Obsession shows what happens when that reaches unhealthy levels. At the end of the day, this film is really an allegory for how toxic and dangerous co-dependency can be. You need to be able to be your own person. You need to be confident in yourself and comfortable in your own skin without having to have another person to build that self-esteem off of. What made this movie so horrifying to me is that I have been Bear. And I've wished that girls who probably don't reciprocate feelings like me back. The premise is so relatable and grounded, which makes the horror feel more real, even if it is a classic Monkey's Paw-type setup.

I also loved Curry Barker's direction in this film. It's kind of funny to me that a lot of YouTubers are becoming film directors, but it does make sense. Creativity on YouTube translates easily to creativity on a film set. Barker is masterful in the way that he builds tension and suspense in this film. There's an intention in the way that the shots, editing, and sound mix together. The cinematography in this movie is often static - there's not a lot of camera movement, so it forces you to sit with often uncomfortable images for longer than you want to. Characters will be framed in corners of the picture so that you can see the background and get glimpses of something unsettling. The sound design was also a huge aspect of the horror. Quiet scenes will be broken by exaggeratedly loud sounds, which just makes it feel like the world is caving in around these characters. I just loved how this movie was able to linger so long on so much discomfort. It made it so that the horror seeped itself into your skin and stayed there for the entire film.

Obsession also has a few scenes that are just absolutely shocking. Like, there's no other way to put it. There were multiple times where my hands were on top of my head and my jaw was basically on the floor. It earns these masterful strokes of utter terror through intricate character work and beautiful tension building. There are two scenes that come to mind. Without spoilers, the first involves a sticky note. The shock from this specific moment comes psychologically. When you get the revelation on this sticky note, your stomach just twists into knots as you realize how far this has gone. I won't even give specifics on the second moment I'm thinking of. I'll just say that it is the biggest jump scare of the film and it is a scene that is tattooed like an ugly scar into my mind. It was terrifying.

Finally, I think the thing that elevates this movie to one of the scariest films I have ever seen is its unwillingness to soften these blows. This movie is dark. It's not quite Hereditary-level dark, but it's in that same territory. This is certainly the most a movie has traumatized me since I watched Hereditary, and I think that is because the script makes these characters and scenarios believable. Bear is a relatable protagonist, but all of the stuff he does and the bad choices he continues to make have such horrific consequences that it will make you not want to relate to him...and yet, you do. The idea of Nikki and the horror and intensity that she brings as a psychological presence is just so dread-inducing and sickening. The constant fear that she is lurking around every corner and waiting for Bear to make one move that proves he doesn't love her is horrifying. These characters are trapped in this un-winnable, endless situation that continues to escalate and become more disturbing as it goes along. And, yet, despite the constant escalation and near absurdity, everything feels logical because these characters are so well-crafted and the script carefully builds the tension and dread.

The Sour

As much as I think Obsession is a great movie, this is also one that will test your guts.

Even if you aren't as scared by it as I was, it's an intense, edge-of-your-seat thrill ride from beginning to end. And I'm not saying edge-of-your-seat in the way something like Se7en or Gone Girl or Prisoners. This is edge-of-your-seat in the way that you are stressed at every single minute of this movie. You will constantly be anticipating scares and something terrible happening. Nikki is so unpredictable and freakishly unnatural that every single scene with her feels like something pulled directly out of a nightmare. It is an exhausting movie, but I mean that in a good way. That's what it's trying to do. It will stress you out. If you didn't workout on a given day, just go watch Obsession. It's great cardio! Your heart won't stop trying to pound it's way out of your chest!

I realize that's not really a negative, I'm just saying that this is not a movie for everyone. I have already told some people to stay far away from this film because I know it will be too much for them. Hell, it was almost too much for me.

The one thing that really did bug me a bit was the inconsistent dark humor. Some people have described this as a sort-of black comedy horror film. I could not disagree more. This is straight bleak horror with a few small instances of black comedy sneaking their way through. And I don't think those moments always hit. This movie is so intense and so disturbing that the moments where it tries to break the tension with a joke don't really work. Alfred Hitchcock famously said that comedy can often heighten tension and horror, and I do think that's true...but not really in the way that Obsession does it. Obsession will break up the horrific story with a full scene that is really devoid of tension and devote it to laughter in its own dark, twisted way, and these moments just don't really fit in. Because you are so focused on the suspense, you almost can't even pay attention to the attempted comedy. I think there was a way to make it more natural: Nikki, as infinitely horrifying as she is, could have moments where she's funny because of how creepy and weird she can be. But they never do that. Instead, there are a few comedic beats that just feel out of place within the larger narrative.

Besides that, I just don't have much. This was one of the best movies I have seen this year. And it is also one of the scariest movies that I have ever seen. Period.

Final Thoughts and Score

Curry Barker absolutely delivers with Obsession, an absolutely nightmarish ride through the insecurity of relationships helmed by a breakout turn from Inde Navarrette in one of the scariest performances I have seen in recent memory.

I am going Sweet here. Age range is 17+.

SWEET N' SOUR SCALE

Sweet (Great) Savory (Good) Sour (Bad) Moldy (Terrible)

"Obsession"

Fun Factor: 8.5/10 Acting: 9/10

Story: 9/10

Characters: 9.5/10

Quality: 9/10

Directed by Curry Barker

Rated R for strong bloody violence, extremely frightening themes and images, language, nudity and sexual content, thematic elements

Released on May 15, 2026

1 hour and 39 minutes

Michael Johnston as Bear Bailey

Inde Navarrette as Nikki Freeman

Cooper Tomlinson as Ian

Megan Lawless as Sarah Harper

Andy Richter as Carter Harper

Haley Fitzgerald as Viola

Darin Toonder as Harry