Obsession (2025) Review
- Viktoria
- Jul 14
- 5 min read
Director: Curry Barker
Year of release: 2025
Country of origin: United States
Spoiler status: Spoiler-heavy
Genre: Psychological horror
Not many horror movies leave me staring at a blank screen after the credits have rolled, but Obsession managed to do exactly that. A lot of hype was created around it, so I was definitely looking forward to watching Curry Barker's second feature-length film. What I didn't expect was how disturbing I would find it. While doing my usual after-watch research, I looked into some reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Of course, the naysayers were there, claiming that it's boring, bleak, and mean-spirited, with an ending that's hard to understand. A majority of these came from men. As I'm writing this, I still can't understand how someone would be able to say that the loss of body autonomy and being forced into a role are anything less than terrifying. It's astounding how someone's able to watch a movie that's obviously a social commentary and treat it as just another depthless horror fail.
Obsession is a magnifier that enlarges the obvious problems in society so we can see them clearly. Whether you're able to see them says more about you than the movie.
The plot of Obsession
Curry Barker's horror hit follows a shy "nice guy", Bear (played by Michael Johnston), who's hopelessly in love with a young woman who could never love him the way he wants her to. Nikki (played by Inde Navarrette) sees him as a brother, a best friend, someone she can confide in when times get tough. In his desperation, instead of confessing his feelings to her, he decides to make a wish using the One Wish Willow. What he didn't know was that this wish would cost much more than he was prepared to pay.
As soon as the One Wish Willow was broken, Bear knew that something was off. Nikki's always been a free spirit who didn't ask for anyone's approval. And now, all of a sudden, she was clingy, obsessive, and desperate to fulfill Bear's every wish. The Nikki he fell in love with was nowhere to be seen. But he was too selfish to admit that he had made a mistake, so instead of owning up to it, he kept pretending that everything was fine. He violated not only her mind but also her body. The scene where they are in bed together will forever haunt my nightmares. Her empty expression while looking into the distance was truly heartbreaking because you just know she was in there, aware of everything that was happening to her, but she couldn't do anything to stop it. Her control over her body had been taken away, and even though she could break through for a few seconds from time to time, it was of no use. No one was treating her as a person signaling for help, but instead as someone who was going through a mental breakdown. And the worst part is the fact that no one was willing to step in and ask her what was going on. She became the crazy girlfriend, and Bear was her proxy. All communication went through him first, so he was able to "explain" the situation the way he wanted to. While she was losing control over herself, he was gaining it. Even though this movie had some supernatural elements, it didn't need them to make the story scary. The fear it brought came from the painfully realistic elements many women are forced to face around the globe.
Is Obsession scary?
Obsession isn't only scary, it's terrifying, but not for the reasons you think. Sure, the movie has a few good scares, but what gets you has nothing to do with the supernatural elements shown on screen. As I mentioned above, Obsession heavily leans into the topics of losing body autonomy and control, but the list doesn't end here. It also shows the male ego at its finest. There's this one scene where Nikki manages to break the entity's control over her for just a bit, and she begs Bear to kill her. The scene is heartbreaking. She's so desperate that she'd rather die than stay in this state for a second longer. Bear's immediate reaction is to ask if it's really that bad to be with him. No empathy whatsoever, just pure ego.
Good movies are known for causing an intense emotional response. Let me tell you, the rage I felt after watching that scene was immeasurable. The audacity and entitlement one must have to see a person in pain and make it about themselves is just sickening. And let's not forget that Nikki's in this much pain because of him. He was a selfish coward who couldn't gather enough courage to ask her out, so instead he forced her to be something she never wanted to be. But he's not the only sickening character in this story.
We also need to mention the "friends" surrounding the two main characters. Ian (played by Cooper Tomlinson) and Sarah (played by Megan Lawless) were supposed to be Nikki's and Bear's best friends, but both were just as selfish as Bear. All they saw was how this weird relationship that shouldn't even exist would affect their lives. They saw Nikki's outbursts, and instead of finding help or sitting down with her to see what the issue was, they kept going to Bear. They were literally useless as friends. They both had their own agenda, and Nikki served only as a puppet or an obstacle to overcome.
So yes, Obsession is extremely terrifying because it shows how selfish, manipulative, and unreliable people who you'd count as friends can be.
Final thought
Rating: 🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️(5/5)
We read about women having to fear for their lives every day. Domestic violence, the online rape academy, femicide. This is our sad reality. This movie did nothing more than put a very real problem under a magnifier and pointed out that it's not only the assailant who's at fault, but also the compliant bystander. The ones who see and hear all of it, yet do nothing. Maybe you don't find it as scary as others because you can't imagine yourself being in that kind of situation, but it could be happening while you're reading this. It could be happening to your neighbor, sister, mother, cousin... It happens every day, all around the globe. Women are losing their voice, their freedom, their autonomy. They are losing control over their life. So to all the people out there who said that this movie is boring, bleak, and mean-spirited: Watch it again while keeping all the above in mind. If you still can't see it, it's not the movie. It's you.
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