Released on May 15, the psychological horror film “Obsession” directed by Curry Barker has done amazingly well at the box office so far. The opening weekend alone brought in $17.2 million. 

Shot in just 20 days, the up and coming director Curry Barker’s second feature film was impressive in many ways. There was no time requirement for filming on set, having a small and talented cast and a relatively small set allowed for the movie to take less time to shoot.

The public is loving the film. Rotten Tomatoes currently rates it a 95% on their critics’ rating scale. This is all very impressive for a film with a budget of around $1 million, which is quite small in Hollywood terms.

The main debate throughout the film is who the main protagonist is. I believe it is Baron (Bear) Bailey, the lovesick twenty-something who uses the first ‘One Wish Willow’ seen in the movie. 

While all of the problems Bear faces throughout the story are of his own creation, he is also the main character facing those issues. This creates the beautiful conundrum of “who is the good guy and is there even a bad guy?” Some might see this as a plot hole, but I see it as a gray area of the film in which the meaning behind the story has room to grow. 

Nikki Freeman is the character who Bear’s wish targets. He wishes for her to love him more than anyone in the world. To his surprise, the wish works. However, it does not go how he expected it to, beyond his initial expectation that it would not to work at all. This wish ends up being very problematic; Nikki becomes possessed and acts completely insane.

Previous to the timeline in which the movie is set, Bear and Nikki were in a friend group with two other people their age during their middle school years. One of these friends was called Ian and the other Sarah Harper. All four went to public school together, Bear was the last to move to town. Fast forward to when the friends are in their 20’s, and the friends are working at Sarah’s dad’s record shop. 

The exposition of the movie has wonderful foreshadowing. It begins with just a camera on Bear in a diner booth. He pours his heart out to whoever is sitting across from him, saying he has always been able to confide in them and really likes them as more than a friend. 

Then the view shifts so the viewer can see that there is a girl sitting across from him. She seems to take the message well. Then, Ian steps in and criticizes Bear for not knowing Nikki well enough, saying she will not like it if he is so emotional about how he tells her how he feels. Finally, Ian dismisses the girl sitting on the opposite side of the booth. 

The viewer is presented new information about the situation in rapid fire. This mirrors events that happen later in the story in the perfect way, and looking back to this moment helps the audience understand the film even better. 

A little later in the movie, the friends are at the bar. No wish has yet been made yet. It is in this series of scenes that we learn more about each of the characters’ personalities. 

Before Bear is convinced to go out with his friends, he found his cat dead on the floor of his grandmother’s house, foaming at the mouth. He also finds some of his grandmother’s pills opened and scattered near his cat’s food bowl. However, when he arrives at the bar to meet his friends, he does not immediately share this information. 

Ian seemed to be the friend that wanted everyone to go to trivia the most. He is also adamant that Bear not make a move on Nikki. He is the most outspoken of the group and acts as a sort of big brother, mostly lacking in empathy. 

Sarah, however, immediately notices that Bear had been acting oddly compared to his usual self. She asks him what’s going on and seems to be truly concerned for her friend. He tells her that his cat had died, and she responds by hugging him tightly. Ian and Nikki, however, seem to pay him no mind and are more worried about getting on with the evening’s events. 

When the group is leaving the bar, Nikki asks Sarah for some money. She gives it to a homeless person outside of the bar. This teaches us two contradictory things about her. She is giving, but she also takes her friends and all they do for her for granted. When watching the film this came off as really performative. We also learn that she is preparing to quit her job to focus on writing. 

Overall, the movie was one of my favorite horror films I have seen in a while. The jumpscares were predictable but on point. The music building up to the scares throughout the movie was perfect as well. Seeing the movie in the theater probably added to these elements because the screen is as big as speakers are loud. 

I had never watched the actors featured in the movie before, but I enjoyed their work very much, especially Inde Navarrette, who plays Nikki. She perfected her role. My personal favorite elements were the oddly exaggerated smile and frown which fit her character just right. Every creepy moment in the story starring Nikki elevated the film incredibly. 

The theme of the movie was wonderfully developed. It showed what happens when a relationship becomes too obsessive or codependent. It also explored what happens when there is no clear or specific villain in the plot. 

Although the possessed version of Nikki could be viewed as the villain in this story, I do not think she was. She is the cause for most of the gore throughout the plot, but she would not have been possessed if it was not for Bear’s wish. I see Bear as both the villain and the protagonist.

I do not see any character in the story as the hero. Bear is both the protagonist and the villain because he is faced with the issues that he caused and is forced to find a way to solve them; however, he does not always attempt this in the correct way. The uniqueness of this plot made the film even more interesting to watch.

I think that this movie fits the genre of psychological horror to a T. It has all of the elements of horror needed to satisfy a scared lover. Packed full of gore, screams and discomfort for the characters, anyone who enjoys seeing these sorts of things on the screen will adore the movie just as much as I did. 

However, if you are not a fan of seeing any blood or possession, I would not recommend this film to you. Although the film has its funny moments, the musical score and the lighting lets you know no one is safe for too long, especially the audience, who are always in for a scare.

Overall this movie did just what I wanted it to do and more than I expected. It was perfectly scary and the message or warning shown throughout the movie has definitely changed my day-to-day. 

*Past this point the review spoils the movie’s plot*

Barker is an expert in foreshadowing, planning the score, coaching the actors, and adding detail to sets. The death of Bear’s cat was one of the many given throughout the film. The death of the cat connects to multiple events later in the movie.

First, is Bear’s death. Eventually, he resorts to taking his own life in order to save Nikki from being possessed forever. He uses the same pills his cat ate to overdose. He eventually dies on Nikki’s lap on the couch, once she returns to her normal self she shoves him off. The final place we see Bear in in the movie is on the carpet, the same place and position his cat was in when he saw her dead for the first time. 

Throughout the film’s plot, the possessed Nikki brings Bear’s already deceased cat back multiple times. In fact, one of the first things that she said to Bear after the wish was made was claiming that her cat was dead, presumably because that was the last conversation topic Bear had been on with the real Nikki. 

Later in the movie, Nikki somehow finds the cat in the trash, and brings it back into the house and sets up a memorial. This terrifies Bear significantly and he gets very upset with her. Once Nikki stops working at the record shop she makes lunch for Bear because he is still employed there. She cooks the dead cat into a sandwich. 

I saw the cat’s continuous reemergence as a repeated warning to Bear. A reminder of how his cat died, and an admonition of what might happen to him in the future. However, Bear does not heed any of these warnings, and this results in the tragic events that occur later in the film.

Another interesting connection had to do with the “One Wish Willow.” The production company of the wish making stick was called “Tabi Cat Curiosities.” A nod to the common phrase “curiosity killed the cat.” Just like how curiosity killed Bear’s cat, the One Wish Willow eventually killed bear. 

One easter egg I liked a lot was that one of the trivia questions in the bar scene was about the genie of the lamp. His stipulations for wish making were: no bringing people back from the dead, no asking for more wishes and no making people fall in love with you. These warnings are also listed on the One Wish Willow’s packaging. Bear did not abide by these rules and he paid the price. 

This acted as a reflection of relationships that happen in real life, the horror just made situations like that even more scary. Bear’s selfishness to keep Nikki’s fake obsession over him while the real Nikki suffered was amazing and disgusting all in one. It showed the audience that Bear didn’t really like Nikki the way he himself thought he did, he may have just wanted love.

Another of my favorites was when Nikki would snap back to her old self. It shows there were more layers to the wish and the situation the real Nikki was in. It also showed that Nikki was strong. She was suffering as heard on the call with the number on the ‘One Wish Willow’ box, yet she kept coming back to ask for help. 

Inde’s acting of confusion and horror during these quick moments made the fear in the audience grow exponentially and made seeing the movie even more enjoyable. She mastered two personalities for one film, both impressive and effective.

The possessed Nikki seemed to have to learn what being a human was like. In her first appearance she had a very limited vocabulary and didn’t speak the truth. Over the course of the film the viewer got to see her learn how to be a human. Through her growing vocabulary, attempted smiles and frowns, and her odd acts of expressing love like bringing back Bear’s dead cat multiple times through the film. 

It was also interesting to see Bear’s progression. He went from a love sick and awkward young man, to a traumatized and rather apathetic character. Initially he was terrified of Nikki’s odd and horrific actions because he had no idea his wish had worked. Once he connected the dots, though, he realized why she was acting the way she was and resigned because he knew the only way to stop it was die. 

A good example of this was when Nikki first harmed herself brutally at Ian’s party. She broke a bottle and hit herself repeatedly in the face with it. While Bear sat staring off anywhere but at her, a completely neutral look on his face, while the other people at the party screamed. 

Early on in the film, before Bear made his wish, Nikki revealed that Sarah had a crush on Bear. This clarified why Sarah hugged Bear so tightly that night. And throughout the film, whenever Bear was with Sarah the audience was tense, knowing Nikki would not allow this after she had been possessed. Eventually the viewer’s fears become real and Nikki somehow knows the Bear’s location and kills her. 

The audience can infer that Nikki killed Sarah as revenge for spending time with her boyfriend that she is completely codependent on. Not only did she overkill Sarah, but she also brought her body back to Bear’s house. When he arrived home, he saw Sarah’s dead and mangled body on a chair in a dark room. All of her clothes had been removed. 

Then the audience notices something different about Nikki’s appearance. She was donning drawn tattoos, clothing, and a hair style all near identical to Sarah’s. This is a beautiful reflection of how jealousy impacts relationships. By taking Sarah’s personality and appearance, that Bear had supposedly shown a liking to, Nikki thought this would make Bear love her more, maybe even as much as she loved him.

I found it very interesting how much it took for Bear to decide to end the wish. He knew what he had to do to reverse it before any blood was spilled. It took him multiple times of Nikki brutally harming herself, murdering two people, and terrifying him repeatedly, for Bear to commit to ending his own life. 

I also find it interesting that Nikki was able to make a wish. Although the audience does not know exactly what she wished for, it can be assumed she wished the exact same thing of Bear that Bear wished of Nikki. Thankfully she did, or Bear would not have gone through with the suicide and Nikki would have continued to suffer inside of her possesed form. 

By the end of the movie, three of the initial 4 friends have perished in Bear;s house. Leaving only Nikki alive. Her possessed form attempts to kill her, but when Nikki wakes up for good she is stunned. The end credits scene consists of a view of Bear’s dead body, and the background noise of Nikki’s continuous screams and wails. 

The end scene was a perfectly chilling close to a beautifully written psychological horror. Every element in the plot, the set, and the acting added to the story and warned the audience to take away from watching the movie