Obsession - Movie Review

The Movie: Obsession

The Director: Curry Barker

The Cast: Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, Andy Richter

The Story: After breaking the mysterious "One Wish Willow" to win his crush's heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.

The Rating: 8 / 10

The Review:

Sometimes getting the thing we most want in life ends up being the worst possible thing we could end up with and especially when we use some weird, unknown magical method to obtain it. That's the basic idea of Curry Barker's breakthrough feature film and holy crap, what an absolute knockout punch of a psychotic horror thriller it turned out to be. I love the fact that IMDB also has the movie categorized under Romance and Dark Romance which, I guess they sort of apply, but that's quite the stretch given where this movie goes.

First things first. Inde Navarrette is wildly brilliant in this movie as the over the top, obsessed girlfriend and, if organizations like the Academy and Hollywood Foreign Press are willing to go there, she could be up for some big-time awards at the end of the year. I say that because this type of crazed genre performance is often overlooked as not worthy of so-called prestigious honors like Oscars and Golden Globes. At least give her a nomination, her unhinged, erratic, and freakishly wild performance absolutely deserves it.

I would also say that Michael Johnston is pretty great as well although he may end up being a little overlooked because of how much his co-star will, or at least should, get so much attention. The story had me right away when his character is faced with a severe loss in his life (no spoilers), but, if you know me, you'll understand why such a passing would hit so close to home.

The way Johnston portrays how his character perseveres through that trauma, as well as all the insanity that follows, is quite impressive and goes a long way towards keeping the story believable. I love how he's able to embody the reactions of "What the F is happening?!" and "No, that's not okay!!" right along with the audience as we were all having them. That's really the key to why this movie is so good. Barker and cast do such a fantastic job of drawing the audience in and bringing everyone along for the ride.

When I saw the movie, it was on a Saturday evening, the theater, other than a couple random seats, was completely sold out, and the energy from beginning to end was really fantastic. This is why we go out to see movies. There is no home theater in the world that can recreate such a wonderful, shared experience like what I and everyone else in that auditorium felt that night. The scares, the thrills, the laughs, and all the "holy shit!!" moments were all that much better while surrounded by a fully engaged crowd.

Speaking of holy shit moments, there is one in particular that had the whole audience in shock for a few seconds (you'll know it when it hits) and yet, Barker doesn't let up. The craziness just continues and ramps up even more and more all the way to the end. Overall, this is really brilliant filmmaking, especially within the horror genre, and I would have to say this is one of my favorite movies of the year so far. Please go see this movie while it's in the theaters.

As a side note, Obsession was recently voted by the Seattle Film Critics Society, which I'm a member of, as the best film of the 2026 Seattle International Film Festival so you know it must be good.