Obsession by Curry Barker
It feels like we're in the middle of a horror movie renaissance.
In 2022 we had Barbarian by Zach Cregger, in 2024 we had Longlegs by Osgood Perkins and Nosferatu by Robert Eggers and in 2025 we had Bring Her Back by Michael and Danny Philippou and another Zach Cregger installment with Weapons.
This year, we get Obsession, the theatrical debut from YouTuber Curry Barker. It's been a box office smash hit and currently has more than a 95% rating from critics and audience members on Rotten Tomatoes.
I somehow convinced Madi to come watch it with me recently, and—for me at least—it lived up to all the hype and praise.
The plot is a straightforward Monkey's Paw twist on a one-way relationship. We watch as Bear (Michael Johnston) breaks a magical "One Wish Willow" to win over his crush Nikki (Inde Navarrette), and then has to deal (or not) with the terrifying consequences that come from that.
There's a lingering tension that is built up through this entire film. It's scary in an unsettling way that's more reliant on making you sit through that tension for far longer than you'd like more than just throwing a bunch of cheap jump scares. Because of that, one of the few jump scares used in this movie comes from something super simple, unexpected and tremendously effective.
There were a number of legitimately funny moments in the film that cut the tension and give you a break, and our nearly packed theatre had four or five real laugh-out-loud moments.
Navarrette's performance as Nikki carries this movie and would absolutely be the reason to go watch it. Her ability to flip a switch after the willow is snapped and become a pure nightmare-fuel obsessive girlfriend, with a few brief flashes of the real Nikki trapped behind her own body, is both terrifying and captivating. Her facial acting and movements in this are going to stick with me for a while.
Overall: 65
I use the 20-80 scale to rate things.