OBSESSION : Tuesday 26th May 2026.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'OBSESSION' at my local multiplex earlier this week, and this American supernatural horror film is Written, Directed and Edited by Curry Barker who made his feature film debut with 'Milk & Serial' in 2024. He also has 'Anything But Ghosts' currently in post-production for an as yet undisclosed release date. This film saw its Premiere showcasing at TIFF in early September last year, was released Stateside and here in Australia earlier this month, has garnered favourable critical acclaim, cost just US$1M to produce, and has so far taken US$96M at the global Box Office.  

Baron 'Bear' Bailey (Michael Johnston) has romantic feelings for his childhood friend Nikki Freeman (Inde Navarrette), with whom he works at a music store together with their friends Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) and Sarah (Megan Lawless). Bear returns home after practicing his chat-up lines to a waitress in a diner, as Ian watched on and gives his less than enthusiastic opinion. As Bear walks into his kitchen, he is greeted by the sight of his cat, Sandy, lying dead on the floor having gotten into a container of pills and consumed a reasonable amount. Bear is devastated. Later that evening he receives a call from Nikki asking him if he is intending on joining her, Ian and Sarah at a local trivia night. Bear declines, but he is reluctantly persuaded by Nikki to go. While on the call Nikki looses a crystal necklace and so Bear goes shopping for a replacement for Nikki at a mystic shop, but instead on buying a new crystal he buys a 'One Wish Willow' instead - a novelty toy that claims to grant one wish when broken in two. 

Later that evening after trivia, Bear drops Nikki off at her house and she asks him if he likes her - which he denies out of fear and complete lack of confidence around women. Frustrated with himself, Bear breaks the One Wish Willow, wishing for Nikki to love him more than anyone in the world. Nikki reappears and asks to sleep at Bear's house, revealing her father is dying of cancer. In Bear's bed, she kisses him, but abruptly screams and pushes him away, apologising profusely just a moment later.

The next morning, Nikki creates a memorial on the kitchen floor with the remains of Bear's cat by taking its body from the trash. This greatly disturbs Bear. She later explains her erratic behaviour as a result of taking MDMA and admits her feelings for him. In turn, they become a loving couple, to the complete amazement of Ian and Sarah, and their friendship group.

At a restaurant over dinner, Nikki and Bear are sharing each others goals and aspirations in life. Bear, perhaps jokingly says he'd like to be a food critic. Ian calls Bear and tells him that Nikki expressed disinterest in Bear shortly before they got together and that her estranged father is not dying of cancer but is in fact fit and healthy. Upon being confronted with this news, Nikki causes a scene at the restaurant and becomes very upset until Bear de-escalates the situation and promises not to mention it again. That night, Bear wakes up at about 3:00am to find Nikki not in bed next to him. He looks around the darkened room, and Nikki reveals herself from a far corner saying that she was watching him sleep, and accuses him of not loving her as much as she loves him. The next morning, she duct tapes the front door shut. Bear forces the door open and still leaves for work, where he discovers, having taken a couple of bites, that Nikki packed him a sandwich made from Sandy's cooked remains, with a post it note which on one side read for the food critic and on the other, how do you like cat? Needless to say he vomits it up.

Bear calls One Wish Willow's customer support as written on the back of the packaging, hoping to alter his wish. The voice on the other end says the wish cannot be altered or reversed, and will only expire when Bear or Nikki dies, then asks if Bear would like to contact Nikki - when Bear answers yes, he hears Nikki screaming in anguish, and he abruptly hangs up. 

Nikki joins Bear at a party at Ian's house, which was originally intended as a boys night because Ian didn't want Nikki there, because of her increasingly erratic and unpredictable nature. Nikki however, became emotionally unstable again when Bear said he was going to Ian's on a boys only night, and so he relented and let her join. During a game of drunk Jenga, Nikki recites a violent, incestuous retelling of Hansel and Gretel, disturbing and horrifying the guests. Bear draws a block daring him to kiss the person to his left, which is Sarah. Nikki ousts Sarah from her seat and kisses Bear instead, then suddenly begins screaming and stabbing her own face with a broken bottle, before snapping back. Back home that evening, Nikki threatens suicide to make Bear join her in bed. 

Later that night as Bear and Nikki lie in bed, with Bear wide awake and Nikki sleeping, Sarah texts Bear at about 2:00am, asking him to meet her in a nearby park. While Bear gingerly untangles himself from Nikki and attempts to leave, the real Nikki claims her obsessive persona is asleep and pleads with Bear to kill her, but Bear refuses and leaves. In her car, Sarah reveals Ian and Nikki were in a casual sexual relationship for years, before hinting at her own attraction to Bear. Nikki suddenly appears, smashes the window and then repeatedly slams Sarah's head into a brick, mangling her face completely to mush, and killing her outright. Nikki calmly reminds Bear that this is what he wished for and instructs him to go home while she disposes of Sarah's body.

Bear revisits the mystic shop and buys the last two One Wish Willows and tries to use one to reverse his wish, but it fails to break in two as hard as he tries to snap it, as each person is limited to just one wish. He explains everything to Ian and begs him to use another One Wish Willow to undo the wish on his behalf. Ian, in disbelief, instead wishes for a billion dollars and cash immediately begins raining down on them both from his ceiling, much to Bear’s frustration.

Feeling hopeless, Bear returns home with the last One Wish Willow to ask Nikki to reverse his wish. He discovers Sarah's nude, mangled corpse sitting in an arm chair in the lounge and Nikki wearing Sarah's clothing, and has new tattoo's above her breast and on her upper arm, just as Sarah did. Nikki threatens Bear and herself at gunpoint. Ian arrives exclaiming his joy that the One Wish Willow came true, and Nikki shoots him dead with a bullet to the head before he could even finish his sentence. Bear says that they should go take a shower to wash off the blood and gore from their faces and bodies, but Bear locks Nikki out of the bathroom. She frantically bangs on the door demanding to be let in, but Bear has decided to kill himself. After deciding not to shoot himself though the heart or in the head with the gun he extracted from Nikki, he decides to overdose on oxycodone instead to forcibly end the wish. After swallowing a mouthful of pills he has second thoughts and attempts to make himself vomit, but before he can, Nikki uses the final One Wish Willow on Bear. Under the control of Nikki's wish, Bear emerges from the bathroom and kisses Nikki before he collapses from the overdose and dies in her arms, Heartbroken, Nikki prepares to shoot herself, but once Bear dies she becomes her real self again and starts wailing upon seeing the carnage around, and on her.

With 'Obsession' the horror genre has has found its latest auteur in Curry Barker, who here has delivered us a film that is creepy and freaky, gruesome, emotional, at times darkly humorous and one which adds a chilling dimension to the traditional RomCom with an innate sense of atmospheric dread. Inde Navarrette gives an outstanding performance as the obsessive and possessive Nikki, changing from seemingly lovey dovey sweetness and light girlfriend to totally unhinged yet at times relatably believable antagonist. The film will leave you pondering over its meaning and messages long after the end credits have rolled, and hails a new voice in the genre just as it did with Zach Cregger with 'Barbarian', Jordan Peele with 'Get Out' and Ari Aster with 'Hereditary'. The only downside to this movie is that at times its gets a little repetitive, but don't let that stop you from seeing this film on a big screen, and as a timely reminder, be careful what you wish for!

'Obsession' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-