Written By Alivia Stonier
Photos from Focus Features
Have you ever wanted love more than anything? So much that it could tear you apart? What lengths would you go to in order to get it? Those imagined scenarios that dangle in your mind, clawing themselves to the surface, till the smell of desperation pools out from within as bitter as blood that dries on the skin.
Debut film director Curry Barker plays with these very questions warped within a fun house of possibilities in his production Obsession.
The film opens with Bear, played by Michael Johnston, a nice guy practicing a love confession for his friend and co-worker Nikki (Inde Navarrette); sitting between a diner booth, he loses his nerve as his friend critiques the intensity he displays.
After losing his cat, Bear almost doesn’t make it to the group’s weekly trivia night. However, after hearing that Nikki has something to tell him that night and that she is feeling down after losing her necklace, he decides to go in spite of the sad news, and he comes bearing a gift.
The gift is a one-wish willow that he found at a local grocery store. Ignoring warnings that returns aren’t allowed, Bear goes through with buying it and heads to trivia.
After Bear gives Nikki a ride home from the night,things get difficult. No longer wishing to be tied down to that and instead wanting to focus on her dreams of writing, Nikki shares that she wants to leave her job. Here’s the catch: the pair shared a music store. She shares to Bear that she feels she can talk with him about anything in a way that she doesn’t feel she can with anybody else – a quick instance that we see of mutual intimacy between the pair that goes undefined and exists within a gray area for audience interpretation.
Nikki shares that she wishes to write about love, and it is here that she circles around the pulse of the movie in her own way. It’s after the car ride home that she tells Bear that if he has feelings for her, now is the time to tell her. Instead of claiming the same vulnerability he showed in the restaurant, he instead chokes up and lies about his feelings, forgetting all about the gift he meant to give her in the process.
It’s here that Bear decides to use the gift for himself, wishing that Nikki loved him more than anything in the world.
A seemingly innocent act that he assumes will not work quickly sends everything spiraling as Nikki begins acting in ways he’s never seen, buckling his seatbelt for him and even getting in the car to cry, insisting that she is home with him; she is in hysterics. Confused and bewildered Bear agrees, and it is here that a twisted form of a relationship begins.
The performance given by Inde Navarrette, as Nikki, is truly unforgettable. She is able to transform herself into a version of the character that feels uncanny, as if there is an other worldly being trying to learn how to become Nikki. All the while, she is also balancing the soft nature that lies beneath – the true version of herself – that has been forced to be hidden away.
The use of unsettling movements and emotional performances, from actors that aren’t afraid to get unhinged, allows the film to explore what the edges of obsession can bring out of people when they’re hungry for love with such intensity.
The true horror here, however, is not the blood that Nikki sheds as she harms herself in moments of clarity from the willow’s spell, or even the moments where she lurks in corners at night with a warped look on her face, eerie as that may be – the real threat is Bear.
Bear is an example of what happens when a fantasy shatters and you’re left with the guilt of your own selfish actions. Unable to take accountability, Bear instead tries to bend will to work in his favor, and it is this decision that brings him from innocent to something truly despicable.
Having realized that the wish is responsible for Nikki’s unsettling and dangerous behavior, Bear instead pleads with Nikki to act like herself, to which she admits that she can’t. Instead of sitting with himself and what he has done, he grows frustrated with her.
Knowing that a relationship isn’t what Nikki wanted, after pleading for him to kill her before the version of her fulfilling the wish can wake up in the night, Bear decides to take action. He calls the number for the hotline on the back of the box for the one wish Willow, instead of deciding to cancel the wish, asking if he can change the wish. Instead, he begs the bitter question of what’s so bad about being with him, falling under the trap of fragile ego and masculinity that can plague someone when these feelings go unchecked.
It’s here that he is faced with the option of speaking to the real Nikki and hears nothing but painful screams; despite this, he still goes on with the relationship, bargaining with himself over what it means to love her and what he has done.
Barker is not afraid to show how quickly things can descend into chaos, surprising audiences with fast-moving gore and situations that will leave the characters changed forever and with scars that can never quite fade.
By the end of the movie, Nikki survives him and the wish, but at the cost of everyone she loves and the life that she could have had.She is left with the horrors of knowing that the person she trusted the most was willing to strip her of her autonomy for his own gain when it came down to the decision. This is the real horror behind Obsession and can be an unfortunate reality for people all over the world; no matter how outlandish Barker makes the stakes between duct-taped doors or death seem.
As the CDC estimates, one in three women (34%) will experience physical violence, sexual violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime, signifying a very real fear behind the film’s intense subject matter.
Curry Barker has made clear his ability to not only make viewers’ skin crawl long after seeing the movie, with shots that linger a few seconds too long, but also make a social commentary that feels a little too close to home; even when it’s wrapped in absurdity.This film marks an exciting beginning to Barker’s work as a director, with excitement already building around his upcoming supernatural horror Anything but Ghosts. Barker is part of a new generation of horror, with many filmmakers coming from a background of online content creation. Obsession shows just how promising the future of the genre is becoming.
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