Nikki, Nikki, Nikki, can’t you see? Sometimes your presence just hypnotizes me. For “Bear” (Matthew Johnston), he’s been enthralled with Nikki (Inde Navarrette) for a long time. They grew up together. They work at the same music store with best friends Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) and Sarah (Megan Lawless). The foursome do once-a-week evening trivia. But it’s beginning to eat Bear up inside that he may never be anything more than a friend to Nikki. Yet he doesn’t know exactly how she feels because he’s never mustered the courage to say so.

With Nikki ready to put in her two weeks at the job and the prospects of seeing her less and less become likely, Bear decides one night after driving her home to spill his heart out. Except, he folds under anxiety again. Bummed, Bear uses a gift known as a “One Wish Willow” he purchased from a metaphysical supply store. His wish? For Nikki to love him more than anyone else in the world. Once broken, everything changes. Nikki doesn’t have to be told Bear adores her, she already knows. A relationship forms, but not without some bizarre behavior on the end of Nikki. Nikki definitely loves Bear more than anything or anyone in the world. Unfortunately, it’s pretty clear the Nikki before the wish and after the wish are two different people, which means Bear is now the 24/7 obsession of Nikki’s. Be careful what you wish for.

It’s an awesome feeling being in the theater and truly feeling an electricity emanating from a movie. The electricity can come from any genre, but there’s a specific kind of vibe horrors and thrillers carry. That doesn’t mean electric movies are impeccable, but I’ve typically found that they often linger for days, years, and even decades after an initial viewing. The electric feeling permeates Obsession for many reasons, as it finally gets its wide release here in the states after well-earned buzz from TIFF last year.

At least in the horror space, the current era is looking like it’ll be defined by filmmakers who are graduating from YouTube creation to the silver screen big leagues. Director Curry Barker has joined the likes of Markiplier and soon, Kane Parsons, in releasing their first wide-release feature presentation in the year of 2026. In Obsession, Barker triples as director, editor, and writer, and for the first two components, he’s already operating as if he’s a seasoned veteran in tandem with his cinematographer, Taylor Clemens. There’s not a poor shot to be found here, as the entire film is lit and blocked well, whether Barker is shooting over-the-shoulder or using close-ups. His editing accentuates some of the more scarier stretches of the film. Jump scares are present, but they aren’t cheap, and half the time they’re more audible than visual. Composer Rock Burwell, also a relative newcomer, puts together an underrated score that possesses romantic, longing underpinnings surrounded by ambient noise and swelling distortion. 

Elements of dark comedy are present (one visual gag at the end comes out of nowhere and lands well), but Obsession is a dark movie. Barker’s script is intensely interested in the connective tissue between infatuation and, well, obsession. Sure, infatuation can definitely lead to love under the right circumstances, but if unchecked, it becomes unhealthy, creating a loss of agency and subjecting the target of affection to something more resembling an object than a person. The supernatural aspect of the monkey paw One Wish Willow is never explained, but I don’t think it needs to be, and by not doing so, Barker leaves it open to interpretation on what could be inhabiting Nikki’s body and where the real Nikki may be. What’s also left open is whether Bear needed the wish at all to be with Nikki, as there is evidence on both sides to support him having a chance with her or not. That said, Barker’s story isn’t immaculate, and the inaction of Bear strains credulity in areas; however, that could be attributed to Bear’s own obsession with a woman he could never tell his feelings to.

As great as Barker’s directing, editing, and writing is, the star-making performance provided by Navarrette drives Obsession to the heights it achieves. Much is asked physically and emotionally, and her reactions and body movements are calibrated optimally for every scene. And yet, though she’s playing an unidentified “entity” who has stripped away any autonomy Nikki previously had, her role as written still requires her, albeit very infrequently, to have pre-One Wish Willow Nikki emerge in spots.

It’s these moments, sometimes seen in her when she’s cognizant of being a prisoner and forced to suffer through no fault of her own, that stick out the most, even amid the more chaotic instances, and solidify Nikki as one of the most tragic characters in the last decade or so of movies. In the horror genre, Navarrette’s performance is up there with the likes of Toni Collette from Hereditary, Mia Goth from Pearl, and Naomi Scott from Smile 2, absolutely deserving of end-of-year acclaim. The only downside of her stellar acting is she inevitably blows everyone else off of the screen to a noticeable degree, particularly Johnston. His character is clearly supposed to be meek and timid, but something with his delivery/screen presence feels weaker than how the character is conceived.

Two weeks into its release as of this writing, Obsession has emerged as the year’s first small budget breakout box office hit. The more I’ve had a chance to think about it, I’m convinced it’ll be a defining film of this generation, probably get even better on rewatch, and maybe inspire the next wave of genre filmmakers.

B+

Photo credits go to deadline.com, impawards.com, nbc.com, and gizmodo.com.