Alex Wheeler Movie Ops

Oh, you’ve heard this one before. Like many that came before it, Obsession hinges on a conceit so familiar you’ve probably seen it more times than you can count. That isn’t an automatic death knell, though. These concepts are used so often because they work, and as long as the filmmakers build something unique around them, their familiarity won’t bother you.

What Obsession is built on is the ominous warning: be careful what you wish for. It’s about a young man named Bear (Michael Johnston), who pines after his friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette) but is unable to tell her. Instead, he makes his move secretly, using what looks like a toy to make the very real wish that she would love him more than anyone in the world. And so she does, proving quickly that there’s a reason she would never love anyone like this. She clings, manipulates, and draws blood for him, no matter how much he objects, because not even he can understand how deeply the wish traps her. 

The lack of consent is an obvious horror here, and thankfully writer/director Curry Barker doesn’t make this a startling revelation. He mines the idea for more pointed critiques, making sure that the real villain isn’t the overbearing woman but the timid man who caused all this to happen. Bear is the one that took away Nikki’s choice of who to be with, not even giving her an option between him and a real bear.

Navarrette hits on the horror of this hard with her performance. In fact, much of the film rests on her shoulders, as her strange behavior is what makes this chilling. Sometimes she scares by going big, contorting her face and body into odd positions that show too much of her instability. These are the big moments that are easy to pluck out for memes and advertisements. The more upsetting moments, though, are more grounded, namely when the real Nikki overrides the wish and we see her reaction to everything that’s happening. It seems she is aware the entire time, forced to passively observe as her life becomes unrecognizable, and understandably, her breakthroughs become more and more desperate.

Johnston, on the other hand, plays his villainy quietly. That lack of consent doesn’t immediately bother him is one thing. After all, it’s arguable that he doesn’t believe it’s the wish at first. How long would it take you to accept that something so absurd was actually happening? His demeanor contributes to excusal of his early actions as well. Johnston is perpetually softspoken, stumbling over himself even when the girl he’s long wanted is literally at his beck and call. You would never peg him as a horrifying monster, but as events unfold, it’s revealed that denial isn’t behind his decisions. It’s pure selfishness, and watching him respond to the increasingly desperate situation by trying to preserve his wish is bone-chilling.

Barker places this immoral horror show in layers of darkness. Much of the film occurs in gloomy nighttime settings, obscuring Navarrette’s odd contortions in ways that highlight just how much she’s doing. An odd cock of the hips, a too-big smile. You lean in a bit to make sure you’re seeing things correctly, setting you up perfectly to recoil when Navarrette takes it to the next level. And Barker pushes this film about as far as you can go with an R rating. It’s as bloody and brutal as it is shocking, which prevents its over-the-topness from becoming too much fun.

That care and attention to tone is perhaps Barker’s greatest achievement. This is a storyline that can easily be misinterpreted in places like the US, where the patriarchy trains people to take shots at women whenever they can. Barker makes sure that Obsession rides the line of playing with how women are dismissed and denigrated while firmly condemning it. There will always be outliers who are so morally lost that they miss the obvious, but to everyone else, it’s an entertaining way to make a sharp point.

Release: now in theaters
Director: Curry Barker
Writer: Curry Barker
Cast: Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, Andy Richter