As one of the year’s most anticipated horror releases, Curry Barker’s Obsession has not disappointed viewers, garnering 95% critics and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes, nor at the box office, after turning a $750,000 budget into a $31 million financial success. Putting a new spin on the classic cursed objects/Faustian deal-style horror, Obsession is already one of the top 10-grossing horror films of 2026, just a week after its release.
Focus Features and Blumhouse’s newest horror flick stars mostly unknowns, with Inde Navarrette and Michael Johnston leading the cast, and supported by Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, and a fun cameo role from Conan writer Andy Richter.
The film follows lonely, grieving, and awkward Bear (Johnston), who, after the loss of his grandmother and his cat, is trying to tell his childhood crush, Nikki (Navarrette), about his romantic feelings for her. After failing to do so when given the chance, Bear makes a wish on a One Wish Willow trinket he bought at a mystic shop, for Nikki to love him more than anything in the whole world.
Bear’s wish seems to take hold quickly, as Nikki is immediately romantically interested in him, but she seems internally conflicted and erratic, as this new, obsessed version of Nikki starts to take over and give Bear the attention he so desperately wanted.
On its story’s surface level, Obsession’s plot isn’t exactly original. The “be careful what you wish for” tale has been done to death in Hollywood, and especially in the horror genre. However, it’s the nonchalant acceptance that Obsession plays into its potentially higher (lower?) power magic that separates it from the pack regarding its storytelling. There’s an aspect of extremely unserious reactions to what would be undeniably serious events.
Of course, this brings a subtle layer of dark comedy to the movie, but its grotesque, shocking, and brutal moments keep the wheels right in the balance, without making a joke of its themes or wasting its incredible performances.
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In that aspect, Obsession is likely to be the horror movie of the year. Johnston and Navarrette are locked into their roles as Bear and Nikki. While Bear goes from this shaky, socially uncomfortable, timid character to a more confident, confrontational guy, Nikki’s transformation is much less traditional.
Navarrette is essentially playing three characters in one. She’s playing the plucky, giddy, fun-loving Nikki; she’s playing the cringy, dangerous, obsessive “Wish Nikki,” and she’s playing a glitchy version of the two, where the former is trying to break free of the latter. It’s really a feat to watch, as it becomes truly unpredictable which of her characters will make the next move, or what it will be.
Navarrette’s performance is what takes Obsession from a good movie to a great movie, plain and simple. It’s no surprise that she’s cited Toni Collette’s performance in Hereditary and Mia Goth’s turn in Pearl as her inspiration to prep for Nikki. Her acting ability in Obsession is right up there with both.
The film’s pacing sets up a bit of a slow burn, but once things get going, which doesn’t take too long, it simply gets increasingly unhinged. At first, it’s less gory and more just straight-up weird. The film brilliantly crescendos its unsettling brutality until it comes to a head, and by that point, its shocking moments burn into your brain. From a scene and story transition perspective, Obsession is suspenseful horror moviemaking at its finest.
Outside all Obsession’s creepy scare factors is this heartbreaking story floating in the background, but continuously popping up in a way that made films like Weapons, Midsommar, and Talk to Me so damned good. You feel for Bear in the beginning, but those feelings are quashed as more layers are peeled from Nikki, who is locked away behind this manipulated, maladaptive force, powerless to make choices of her own.
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In a simple, yet heart-wrenching scene in which the true Nikki takes advantage of just a few short seconds of control, she begs for death. Bear asks her, “What’s so bad about being with me?” to which Nikki responds, “I’ve never been with you, Bear.” It’s a moment that sends chills down Bear’s spine, and down the viewers’, as well.
The messages of consent, control, and the misconstrued and, frankly, bullsh*t “male loneliness epidemic” are perfectly layered on top of such a simple premise, adding yet another great representation of socio-political story weaving to modern horror.
Obsession, along with Hokum and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, is undoubtedly one of the year’s greatest horror films thus far. On its performances alone, Obsession can be considered a fantastic film, but taking such an overdone idea and layering it with nuance and important themes turns it into one of the few trauma horror masterpieces of the decade, that you’ll be thinking about long after the credits roll.
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