After breaking the mysterious "One Wish Willow" to win his crush's heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
Rated 4.4 / 5 from 12 logs on Katalog
Obsession is a 2025 American supernatural horror film written, directed, and edited by Curry Barker. The story follows Bear, a music store employee who purchases a mysterious supernatural toy that grants his wish for his friend Nikki to fall in love with him. What begins as a dream come true quickly spirals into a nightmare with horrifying consequences. The premise is simple, but the screenplay is focused and effective, maintaining tension from beginning to end. The film's unsettling atmosphere is one of its greatest strengths, supported by strong performances from the cast. Inde Navarrette is particularly impressive, delivering a phenomenal portrayal of Nikki. What makes Obsession even more remarkable is its modest $750,000 budget. It's a great example of how creativity, strong writing, and effective filmmaking can achieve more than massive budgets alone. Tense, creepy, and effective. 8/10
Really good horror movie, I had no doubt going in that Curry Baker could handle oppressing atmosphere and being able to go from light and fun time to complete horrific and unsettling vibe. Something that's also really good is his way of making dialogues interesting and nice to follow BUT the problem is when u have seen a few of his back and forth u can almost see that he's building up to a pun or joke || like the I want a biklion dollars wish ||. That's a bit sad cause other dialogues, most of the time those who aren't with his "that's a bad idea" collegua/friend(?), are really well done and flow naturally. Inde Navarette did a stellar performance that transcribed exactly what was needed a sort of dreadful rage but also fear and cluelessness. Michael Johnston was also really convincing in this role of sorta innocent guy that's doing his best and is friendly in general but still got some big issues. || the part at the end when after taking the pills he tries to vomit but gets stopped by Nikki's wish was so insane and really shows that he's not ready to let her be free even after all the horror she (had) to do || || next to this I almost had an issue with the 'random' creepy moments Nikki was proposing, I was ready to accept them ccause they were really well done or served the purpose of shitting my pants really well. But after the sort of reveal there were 2 Nikki's in a way I started to think that maybe it was a way for Nikki to scare Bear to make it stop hopefully || really cool movie, hopefully it becomes a stsrting point for more movies made mlby creatives that started online and build their way up and also please the start of the horror era where people give a fuck about building tension and giving a fuck to movies instead of free jumpscare without decent build up.
Not really a fan of horror movies so I do not have much to compare it with, but I trusted my friends and decided to watch it (shadaut @monkey @tuttifunghi ) I literally screamed and jumped from my bed couple of times, and felt so tense through the whole thing that I did not even have the time to formulate a deep thought between one scary scene and the next one ||I guess I was supposed to feel bad for the guy with the "obsessive and crazy girlfriend", while all I could think about was how he caused all this because he could not deal with his emotions and with rejections... And what made me tense/scared the most was seeing her real self realising that she is trapped, and her attempts to be free...||
My partner saw it at the theater, alone, so one can imagine my expectations gradually rose as I listened to her spoiler-free feedback. Then, since last movie I watched - I don't remember exactly which one - surely the last horror movie I watched was Pulse, Kurosawa - and since, while watching it, my partner explicitly compared a scene from Obsession to one from Pulse, I watched the entire film with very high expectations and one eye always comparing the two productions. These two things together are a fatal combination, but Obsession still managed to overcome them and made me enjoy it, a lot. The photography is impeccable, the settings, landscapes, scenography although simple, are excellent. Navarrette is delivering an astounding performance, one that genuinely made me uncomfortable and tense. Johnston is also so good it made me want to slap him in the mouth and drag him by the nostrils on a long and lonesome highway east of Omaha. Paradoxically, what's equally scary is the character Bear's behavior in the whole story. We know he's not the victim, we know he's the culprit, and yet we fear for him (until we don't). He's the one that's bewitched by himself, by his own obsession, not for Nikki, but for a body. I don't know if it was intentional, but the movie is great at this, at leaving us confused, knowing Bear is a dirty piece of shit and yet we can't fully blame him. It's not that we get him and we'd do the same thing, it's that this is what happens also in real life. We pity them, poor lonely kind young men being rejected even though they were always so kind! This is a great movie, considering the crew's experience, the relatively small budget (one million is a small budget only when we compare it with other hollywood's production. one million is not a small amount. eat the rich. always), the actors experience. If we don't, consider, I would say many things could have been done better (I'm writing this with my dirty ass comfortably sitting on a dirty ass chair, never shot any movie, never studied anything about filmmaking). If they relied less on jumpscares and more on the environment, maybe less on music and more on empty spaces, this would have probably turned, in a few years, in a memorable lesson for all the new filmmakers on the block. I can still hear Nikki's cries, though, mamma mia che paura pipo, and I still double checked the bedroom's corner at night to see if @tuttifunghi was standing in the dark. and yes, she was, but because the temperature was lower there
Loved it, despite the fact Im neither a horror person. It was a really well made film, start to finish, a show of what you can do when you actually want to make a film, like making films, and the budget constraints force you to be clever about it. The jokes were funny, tension was tensioning—acting was nuts. The discourse after is hilarious too, which is always a funny cherry on top. That anyone could watch a film this straightforward and defend the take “Bear did nothing wrong” is just straight up hilarious. The director couldn’t have made it more obvious. It was almost too much, like, I could have done with a little less moral signposting myself. Christ.
Had to watch this and finally had enough of waiting. So much so that I dragged myself to a terribly expensive movie theater to watch it after work (another horror). It's been more than an hour and I still feel unsettled. The performance of Inde Navarrette is absolutely magnificent, the pure horror she made me feel is insane. This movie handles consent and "being a nice guy" in such a scary way that you almost (not really) forget that ||he's the villain|| but when you remember it hits you like a brick and you feel absolutely disgusted. I love how horrors can be so different, see Backrooms and Obsession, and how I managed to love them both and be scared by them in two completely different way. ||Backrooms triggered a fear of foreign and unsettling spaces. The lack of space that is actually filled with a teeth-clenching unknown. Memories that, because of their very own existence, are always a little bit less themselves each time. Obsession was terrifying for the lack of space you feel. Claustrophobic and dirty. How people can crave love so much it's not love anymore. How men suck!! How cowardly people can be. How your personal interest can trample everything else, even the purest thing.|| I got a cramp in the cinema because of a jumpscare and that was amazingly fucked up.
Certified banger. Had me on the edge of my seat the whole film. Creepy as hell. Indie Navarrette was amazing. I both wanted and didn't want to see every next scene. The rhythm of the film, ||her softness mixed with her rage,|| was so captivating, almost like jazz. There is something ethereal for me about how it's paced. ||Nikki was in literal torment the entire movie, it's so depressing. And the thinly veiled "nice guy" Bear just cause he's shy at the beginning is an absolute villain OK with keeping her in permanent damnation, genuine ninth circle of hell shit, as long as she behaves normally. Complete and utter physical and psychological torture.|| ||The first time she's taken aback in lucidity unsettled me instantly. God damn.||
Some dudes really be doing demonic shit (literally and figuratively) instead of just appreciating having a friend… The movie heavily relies on its main actress and simple, creative tricks to create tension and oscillations, and it works. I thought the three very recognisable main sounds (silent, dreamy, creepy) were a bit overused and it looked too pretty for my taste. If it were grittier and the actors weren’t as good-looking at all times, it would have more emotional weight and give me the long-term creeps, but I suppose that’s not what they were going for. The few moments when Nikki came through is what hit me emotionally, and, you know, the very thing Bear did and kept doing the entire movie. With movies like Die My Love, Pearl, Obsession and the upcoming remake of Possession, could we be seeing a trend in a new wave of portrayals of women going insane while their partners are just kinda being there hoping it will pass by itself (and in some case being actual villains)? If so, Antichrist might start getting some attention again, too. That could be interesting.
