YouTuber turned filmmaker Curry Barker’s debut feature, Obsession, is an engaging hybrid of gory horror, earnest romance, and outrageous dark comedy that plays on classic genre tropes. An examination of unhealthy romantic idealization filtered through the classic “be careful what you wish for” parable, Obsession has a few awkward moments here and there, but Barker gets everything right where it counts the most, making the viewer squirm uncomfortably and often asking if they should be laughing at some of this (which, yeah, you should).
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Lovelorn Bear (Michael Johnston) has been pining for his closest friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette) since growing up together. It’s now several years after high school, and Bear is no closer to telling her how he really feels, despite several grand gestures to try and get her attention. His best friend, Ian (Cooper Tomlinson), is begging him to stop, telling Bear that their other friend and co-worker – the kindly and musically inclined Sarah (Megan Lawless) – actually has tangible feelings for him. When Nikki drops a beloved crystal necklace down the drain, Bear springs into quick action, hoping to buy a replacement from a new-agey shop. But instead of buying gemstones, Bear gets a mysterious trinket known as a “one wish willow,” a stick that you make a wish upon, break it, and then hopefully it comes true. After blowing it again with Nikki, a frustrated Bear wishes that she would love him more than anyone else in the world. To Bear’s amazement, the thing actually works, but it’s not long at all before he wishes it didn’t, as Nikki’s beyond clingy behaviour and increasingly violent nature becomes a threat to everyone within his orbit.
Obsession takes the tale of the “friend zoned nice guy” and uses it to illustrate how messed up and horrifying romantic idealization can be. Johnston and Barker depict Bear not as a terrible person, but rather someone who can’t admit that they don’t know what they want out of life, getting stuck in an unsatisfying loop of emotions that has become inescapable. When it comes time for Bear to get everything he thinks he wanted, Barker depicts the shift with barely a hint of bliss and romance between the main character and the object of his affections. What Bear thinks he wanted was love, but what he got was an elevated level of the co-dependency he actually had from the start. It was a bad idea at the start, and it’s a bad idea throughout, which leads to some wonderful comedic and dramatic tension.
Barker’s vision of horror slots in nicely alongside other filmmakers who’ve made the jump from online videos and comedy to horror (like the Phillipou brothers and Zach Cregger). There are some first time filmmaking jitters and odd scripting choices, but Obsession maintains a balanced tone throughout, which is the most important part of crafting a blend of horror and comedy. And a huge part of the films success is due to Navarrette’s enthralling go-for-broke performance as “Freaky Nikki,” a turn that requires a ton of physicality and sharp tonal shifts that turn on a dime. It’s a star making performance that elevates and already pretty good film even further.
