*MAJOR SPOILERS, PLEASE WATCH THIS MOVIE BEFORE READING
*TRIGGER WARNING: MENTIONS OF SUICIDE, MURDER, AND LOSS OF BODILY AUTONOMY
I saw Curry Barker’s modern masterpiece, Obsession, the day after watching Backrooms, and the latter wasn’t even a warm-up for how scary Obsession was.
Barker got popular on YouTube with his sketch-comedy channel, run by him and his friend, Cooper Tomlinson. The two released a found footage horror short film on the channel in 2025 called Milk and Serial. As funny as their sketches are, Barker was born to create horror movies, and Milk and Serial was just a warm-up for what he creates in Obsession..
Obsession follows a hopeless romantic, Bear, as he is in love with his best friend, Nikki, who he is too scared to ask out. After buying the mysterious “One Wish Willow” novelty gift item from a store, he wishes that Nikki loved him more than anyone in the world. He, at first, does not believe that wish fulfillment is a real phenomenon, but when his relationship with Nikki gets more intense and darker, he becomes convinced.
The performances in this movie are all-timers for the genre and movies as a whole. Inde Navarrette as Nikki puts in my favorite performance in any horror movie that I have ever seen. The sheer range on display, from real Nikki to the doting, perfect yet still unnerving girlfriend Nikki, to the terrifying wish Nikki, is absolutely jaw-dropping. Navarrette absolutely nails down every part of the role. One of my favorite moments is when she is on a date, and she says that she loves Bear “so so so so much,” and I could just see in her eyes that this wish Nikki doesn’t actually feel this way, but is being forced to say it because of the wish; her whole purpose is to be obsessed with him.
Michael Johnston also gave a great performance as the main character, Bear. At first, he seems like a guy who is simply in love with his best friend and is too shy to tell her. But, as the story progresses, we see that his cowardly and selfish behavior impacts every important decision he makes. From making the wish in the first place, to not questioning why Nikki is suddenly head over heels in love with him, to not being there for her and committing to helping her and making her happy, and to waiting until the last minute to act, only to flake on that too. Johnston plays the role so well and all of his shades are visible and well-acted. He is mostly sympathetic until the scene where he actively ignores real Nikki’s pleas to put her out of her misery and interprets her words to be that she would rather die than be with him.
Wish Nikki is truly a tragic character. Wished into existence because of a man’s cowardice and desire for romance, all she can do is love him, but as the movie progresses, she sees that he doesn’t love her the same way. Whenever she does something strange, he tells her to just be normal and to stop doing these things. In one of the best scenes of the movie, Bear tells her to “just be Nikki,” and she screams and cries at him that she can’t be Nikki, but she will try. She is trapped in this hell of being forced to love someone who doesn’t feel the same way about her, and she even tries dressing up as Bear’s friend Sarah, whom she killed in a fit of jealousy because Bear was showing feelings for her. Real Nikki obviously has it the worst, effectively being trapped and forced to watch herself commit these horrible acts, but wish Nikki is also a super sad, and super terrifying, character.
The ending is so poetic and true to the characters. Bear, learning earlier in the movie that the only way to undo the wish and free Nikki is to commit suicide, is a coward. He doesn’t commit to the wish he made and find a way to make wish Nikki happy and live with the consequences of his own actions, and he waits until all of his best friends are dead to even try to commit suicide. After being unable to bring himself to use a gun, he opts to overdose on pills. Even after he takes them, he tries to make himself throw up; his cowardice is a fundamental part of his person, so he can’t commit. It’s at this moment that wish Nikki breaks a “One Wish Willow” to make him love her as much as she loves him, stopping him from saving himself. His cowardice and her desire for her love to be reciprocated cause Bear to die and Nikki to be freed. But by this point, the damage is done. And, since Bear took too long, Nikki cannot use a “One Wish Willow” to undo it all. A dark and tragic ending.