Obsession (2026) (Movie Review)

Thanks for checking out this movie review video. This is for the 2026 release Obsession. Yes, I finally got to watching this film. Uh if you've been watching my channel for any amount of time, you kind of know that with the newer horror films, I'm not the person who's running out to the theater to see them and quick post a review. I do that with the Shudder films cuz I actually get screeners for those, so I do have those actually before they end up being available, but with the new films like it's just I got I wait for them to come to a streaming service I already have or I'll kind of rent them for a discounted price through Fandango at home, stuff like that. But finally got around to Obsession and I heard a ton of good things, people just raving about Obsession. I've also seen some people were just like, "Oh, it's like way over hyped and it's it's not that great." I personally really liked this film, but I could see where if people go in thinking it's going to be like the best film they've ever seen cuz they listen to all the hype, that could really end up letting them down because that's just a problem in general with listening to hype. Going into a film not knowing anything about it or having no expectations or low expectations is going to make for a better like overall feeling of how that film went for you personally. So it's usually good to not well, try not to listen to that stuff too much. But anyway, Obsession, written and directed by Curry Barker who also did Milk and Cereal. He also did a ton of short films prior to doing Milk and Cereal, which I think Milk and Cereal was out last year and that was like the serial killer found footage film, which I did review. I did a no spoiler review on my channel if you want to check that out. And I surprisingly liked it cuz I typically don't like found footage, so when Obsession was coming out and I was like, "Oh, it's Curry Barker." I was like, "I'm very interested to see what this is like." And a improved a big improvement on Milk and Cereal. I mean, one of the big things being you can tell there's like a real budget to this where Milk and Cereal there really wasn't. But this is currently streaming on the Peacock streaming service. So if you have that or if you just want to get it for a month and then drop it, you can watch it there. I think it's worth it for for sure. All right. So again, with my synopsis, I don't want to give too much away with this, but it's about a guy who is very interested in a woman. He's had this crush on this woman and she's been a friend, but he kind of wants to cross that Rubicon and just kind of be like, you know, I want to lay it all out on the line. I want to tell you how I feel and maybe there's a chance that we can just be together. He ends up getting some advice from his good buddy um and something tough in his life happens. I'm not going to tell you what it is, but it was also tough for me to see it in the film honestly being the person that I am. And he kind of ends up uh wanting to put it out there. Things don't necessarily go the way he wants. He finds this thing called a one wish willow, which is basically this little willow stick that you can make a wish and then you like break it and it um is supposed to grant that wish. And it works. And so it becomes this whole thing of what's going to happen after that because what he wishes for is obviously what you would think at this point, which is he wants her to love him. Basically. But this is a horror film. So it ends up going very wrong and you can kind of guess in what ways it ends up going wrong, but you're not going to be able to guess what events happen in this film because they do a very good job or at least Curry Barker does a very good job of keeping surprises coming with certain things that end up happening between characters and certain things characters do that are very unpredictable um and that's a great thing. That's a very great thing with this. It is a very is a very familiar topic that people have have seen in film before, but I think it's done in a very unique way with the subtext that's there. And I I'll actually just go ahead and talk about some of my thoughts on the subtext at the very end of the review, but I'll let you know beforehand so you can kind of drop out if you don't want to know about any of the subtext cuz it is it is spoilery for sure. So, I will wait until the very end and give you a warning for that one. So, anyway, that's the synopsis. Uh the setup for this film is emotional. And then it moves to being funny and light, but then it jumps back to something awful. So, it just feels like it you're not really going to be able to like understand what you're going to be feeling from any given moment and where this is headed, honestly. So, I think it's great that there's that those quick changes in the beginning of the film cuz it makes you go in feeling like Okay, so this film really could be anything at any time and I should set the expectation that, you know, my feelings are going to be like all over the charts. And they are. They are. Like it go it literally throughout the film goes from like being creepy to disgusting to weird to eerie to frightening to funny to light to emotional. Like it hits so many different realms and it does it really well. Uh one of the great things that stands out to me in this film is Curry Barker's a good director, but Curry Barker is an even better writer. The writing for this is great in my opinion. And one of the strongest aspects of it is the dialogue. The dialogue is so convincing. It's so well written. It's so interesting. And it creates these great relationships. Also, some really awkward moments between the characters in very effective ways with the the the specific dialogue that is selected to maximize those feelings. So, Curry is a great great writer in my opinion. Very excited to see what comes next. Uh the score I really liked in this. Very well composed. Also the additional music that they end up using in it, great. I would honestly listen to the score and the other music in this film just on my own. Just like at my desk at work, plugging away at my job, and just like listening to this music. It's really good. It's not It does kind of The score screams at you from time to time, which usually bothers me, but for the tone of this film, it didn't bother me, which is interesting. It just worked. It definitely worked. Uh they do a good job of making you sympathize with the main character. Very good at giving a lot of depth to the characters, setting them up, making you feel endeared to them very early on. And that's a little bit of a double-edged sword in certain ways, and I'll kind of talk about that at the end with the subtextual stuff that I'm going to talk about cuz I'm I'm basically just going to take talk a decent amount of like spoilery stuff at the very end. But again, I will warn you before I do, so you can turn this off. The dialogue is well written and is used very effectively at times to create palpably awkward situations. Uh I There literally were moments where like I was feeling uncomfortable and I was feeling like kind of stressed and anxious and nervous in certain situations. So that's just a a hallmark of you you feeling that way says this filmmaker has done a great job. But also, the performers, the the actors have done a really great job, uh which leads me to my next thing is that the performance in particular by Indie uh Navarrete is great. And it's a challenging role. She has a extremely challenging role in this film, and she nails it. She puts so much interesting stuff into this role, and I don't want to be too presumptuous, but I feel like if horror films were actually taken seriously like they should, that she would be considered for an Oscar, honestly, with that performance. It's extremely impressive. Extremely impressive. Now, I don't want to just talk about her performance. I just want to say that the whole cast actually did quite a nice job. It's just that with how challenging her perform her character is to do and what she brought to it, she really stands out. But I don't want anyone else to get lost in in that. Is everyone else did a really nice job. Uh about 20 minutes into the film, there is a shift that feels that kind of brilliant from a thematic kind of perspective. And again, I'll kind of talk about that at the very end. Uh there are a lot of good creepy moments and like for some people would be legitimately scary moments. I love that. There there's a lot of good atmosphere to this film and I think the score helps a lot with that, but also like I said, like the writing and the performances, they do a lot. There is this great oscillation between messed up and darkly funny. Like there will be these moments where it's like really messed up and things are really gross and like you shouldn't be feeling this way, but you're also like seeing a dark comedy in it as well. So it works in two ways at the same time, which is very tough to accomplish, I feel like. So I really appreciate it for that. Uh there's a jarring moment that doesn't fully work for me in this because the practical effects that they used don't look right. And that took me out of the moment, unfortunately, cuz it's a great scene. And like I said, it's very jarring, especially when it starts up cuz you don't necessarily see it coming. And then I'm noticing as it's going on. So maybe they should have shot it a little quicker or kind of cropped it a little bit more, but as it's going on, you're you're noticing that the practical effects don't look right, and it has to do with anatomy. Like the anatomy from a side view of a character does not look right at all. Like their body looks way too thin, and you're just like, "This is a dummy, like clearly a dummy, unfortunately." So, it's unfortunate because it cheapens that moment in my opinion, and this was the only real issue I had with the film. I think they needed to try and figure something else out, and I think it should have been how they shot it is what they needed to do. Maybe shoot it from a different angle, honestly, and it would have worked better, but just my thoughts. Um the pacing is really good. A lot of the times with films like this, the pacing is not as problematic, and it's an hour and 49 minutes with the credits. So, that's pretty impressive that the pacing is just like go, go, go, go, go. So, that's another great thing about the writing of Curry Barker is that pacing is hard. Pacing is very hard to get right. Um especially when you're having a decent amount of dialogue and you're trying to have these certain types of interactions between characters. Did a great job keeping things moving and very interesting. Uh and a pretty nice payoff, a a quite nice payoff at the end of the film. So, I'm going to go ahead and talk about the rating. I'll do the rating, and then I'll talk about the spoilery stuff after that. Uh on Letterboxd, it's currently sitting at a 4.1, which is very high on Letterboxd. I'm going to do it a little better. I actually would put this at a 4.5 out of five. This is four and a half stars for me, which I rarely give out, but this is a very good film for many reasons. Everything that I just talked about, it is a very good film. I can find barely any flaws in this film, honestly, which makes me extremely excited about where Curry Barker is going to go. But, I also know that that's a lot of pressure, too. So, hopefully, he's not really feeling it like that and is just more excited and just kind of relaxes and does his thing, and I'm sure he'll do great. So, uh now is where I would say if you don't want to hear the spoilery stuff, go ahead and drop off, and then I'm going to talk about that for a little bit. Okay, everyone should be gone who didn't want to hear it. So, from a thematic standpoint, I love the fact that this film flips roles of a And I'm going to talk about it still like kind of non-spoilery, but but still kind of spoil whatever. Anyway, so, it it flips roles of like where men are in toxic relationships and where women are in toxic relationships, starting with that wish that ends up happening. And I think it was a brilliant shift because everything that the main character was doing and exhibiting up to that point, you see when that shift happens from the other character, from the the female Nikki, the character of Becca. And I just thought that was kind of brilliant as a way to kind of make men watch this film and kind of be like, "This is what happens when you have an obsession and how women can feel." Because you're already identifying with this male character and want and like rooting for this male character cuz everything that's happened you you know what you feeling for them. At but then you're feeling this discomfort and it's being reflected back to you exactly what you already saw, but you felt okay about with him. And it's just like it it it's just coming at you in a very different way, and I think it's pretty brilliant that they did that that Curry Barker did that shift. The other thing that I think was very brilliant about this with the subtextual stuff is how everything in the end kind of circles back around to stuff from the beginning to basically tell you this film is called Obsession, and a lot of people are going to think it's about the obsession of the character Nikki after the One Wish Willow wish is done. But it's really about the obsession of the main character, the guy, Bear, um because it's his obsession that sets sets everything into motion. It's his obsession that keeps things going and makes things worse. It's his obsession that ends things horribly the way it does at the very end of the film for a lot of people. And it's his obsession. Like the the title is about his obsession. Most people are going to see Well, not most people, but a lot of people are going to see this film and be like, "Oh, it's about her obsession because of the wish." It's not. It's about his obsession, and that's brilliant. It's a dual-purpose title, and I think it's just brilliant. So, the subtextual stuff, the thematic stuff in this film is unique in the way that it's done. I think it's very important to kind of have this stuff out there to talk about, like toxicity in relationships, and show you that someone doesn't need to be like outwardly like mean or violent or abusive in order to actually be abusive and create a toxic relationship. And I think that it's again, it's something that you've kind of seen in films before, but you haven't seen it like this, and it hasn't been driven home in this important way, honestly. So, I think this is a phenomenal film. Uh That's all I have to say about the film. Obviously, I loved it. I gave it four and a half out of five. It's great. Curry Barker will never see this review, I'm sure, but um great job. Just I'm rooting for you, man. I liked your stuff when you were just doing like short comedy like reels. I loved that stuff, but this, you know, this is saying like Jordan Peele career to me, honestly. So, love it. Anyway, thank you everyone for taking your time to watch this. Please do me the the quick favor of if you liked it, you know, thumbs up on the video, hit notification bell button, subscribe to the channel, all that stuff. You can get memberships with the channel if you want, three different tiers with different perks. Link in the description, check that out. But thank you so much for taking your time to watch this, especially if you've gotten this far. Greatly appreciate that. And until next time, keep it brutal.