An audience favorite at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Curry Barker’s Obsession is a twisted and entertaining film. An intensely disturbing experience, Barker’s sophomore feature is bound to be one of 2026’s most talked about movies.

Obsession focuses on Bear (Michael Johnston) and his three friends/co-workers. Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) is his best friend, but the type of guy who seems like he cannot always be trusted. Sarah (Megan Lawless) is a sweet soul and the most level-headed of the group.

And then there is Nikki (Inde Navarrette), with whom Bear has fallen in love. Too nervous and socially awkward to reveal his heart to the woman he wishes to receive it, Bear stumbles upon a game called “One Wish Willow.” This is a novelty toy where a person makes a wish and then breaks a piece of willow in half. Soon after, their wish is supposed to be granted. Desperate to win Nikki’s affections, Bear plays the game by its rules. Perhaps now, he will win the woman of his dreams.

As Obsession is a horror picture, the repercussions that follow Bear’s seemingly innocent wish begin to reveal something more disturbing.

Once the wish is made, Nikki’s feelings towards Bear shift from the friend zone to something stronger. At first, it’s harmless, but a little unnerving. While the morality of “forcing” someone to love you back is askew, Bear is okay with Nikki finally reciprocating his love. Is it real or did One Wish Willow do its job? Either way, Bear can feel something genuine between them and that makes him happy. Right?

Nikki becomes possessive at increasingly dangerous levels. Not-so-little hints of something more sinister eventually give way to fits of psychotic rage, until Bear’s life (and the lives of anyone in his orbit) becomes a waking nightmare.

Obsession exists comfortably as a horror film, but begins as a modern situational relationship piece. Both styles work. As the film’s screenwriter, Barker has a good ear for dialogue and the actors match his incisive writing. When Bear, Ian, Sara, and Nikki are together, their scenes have a “BIG CHILL” vibe, in the sense that the audience feels these people have known each other for years. Barker and his cast give the film’s first quarter a natural rhythm, which sets viewers at ease before unleashing some seriously unsettling scenes of terror.

Inde Navarrette sinks her teeth into Nikki’s shift from sweet friend to a woman so dangerous and unstable, she makes Glenn Close’s Alex from Fatal Attraction seem tame. The film never fully states if Nikki is possessed by something or forced to go insane by the One Wish Willow game. Either way, her transformation into a darker and more violent presence is creepy and well-handled by the filmmaker.

Barker goes the way of Alfred Hitchcock, as he plays with his audience; eventually pushing them farther and farther from their comfort zones. By unraveling the horrors from scene to scene, Barker creates something quite chilling. There are many shocks and surprises within this entertaining picture. I shall not ruin any of them. The creepy moments build to a finale that combines cautionary tale with in-your-face terrors that are cinematically effective. One won’t soon forget what they have experienced. 

As macabre and twisted as early Sam Raimi and as jarring as the most potent shock-horror, Curry Barker’s Obsession is one of the more effective genre films in some time.


Obsession

Written & Directed by Curry Barker

Starring Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless
R, 108 Minutes, Focus Features, Blumhouse Productions, Capstone Pictures