Directed by Curry Barker (Milk & Serial) — Screenplay by Curry Barker.
One of the more interesting recent developments in the film industry is that certain online personalities — YouTubers and TikTokers — are being afforded the opportunity to become filmmakers. The primary example of this is arguably Danny and Michael Philippou, the Australian twins who went from YouTubers to significant horror filmmakers, and their films Talk To Me and Bring Her Back. But it doesn’t stop there. Last year, YouTube film critic-turned-filmmaker Chris Stuckmann had his feature debut, Shelby Oaks, released by Neon. Earlier this year, Mark ‘Markiplier’ Fischbach self-released an adaptation of an indie video game (Iron Lung), while it was announced that Seán ‘jacksepticeye’ McLoughlin would be a producer on an animated feature film adaptation of the video game Bloodborne. In fact, just a few weeks from now, the horror film Backrooms will be released, which was directed by YouTuber Kane Parsons, whose own project the film is based on. This modern wave of online personalities breaking through in the industry is fascinating, and another example of this new wave is Curry Barker, previously best known for his online sketch comedy duo, that’s a bad idea, with Cooper Tomlinson. After years of making short films and online skits to feature on YouTube and TikTok, he self-released his hour-long found-footage horror film, Milk & Serial, in 2024, the positive response to which likely landed him on the radar of many people in the industry. Just a year later, his second feature, Obsession, premiered to raves at the Toronto International Film Festival, and major industry companies like Blumhouse and Focus Features attached themselves to and acquired it. Now, Obsession is out in theaters all around the world. I just saw it last weekend, and I can say that it is not only Barker’s best and most ambitious project yet, but it’s a fantastic horror film with a jaw-droppingly good performance at its center.
Curry Barker’s Obsession follows Baron ‘Bear’ Bailey (played by Michael Johnston), a twenty-something who works at a music store with his best friends. One of these friends is Nikki Freeman (played by Inde Navarrette), whom Bear harbors strong feelings for. However, Bear doesn’t have the guts to reveal his true feelings to her, perhaps especially because he fears that she doesn’t feel the same way about him. But he may have found a way around that problem. While out shopping for a gift for Nikki, Bear spots a unique item in a mystic shop known as a ‘One Wish Willow,’ which the seller claims can grant a wish whenever you break the branch found inside the packaging. However, instead of giving this as a gift for Nikki, he decides to keep it for himself. In a Hail Mary moment, Bear, who doesn’t necessarily think of this item as more than a novelty toy, decides to go for it. He takes out the branch from the packaging, breaks it, and wishes for his crush, Nikki, to love him ‘more than anyone in the entire world.’ To his amazement, it seems to work. It doesn’t take long for Nikki to throw herself at him suddenly, but the strength of her sudden infatuation with Bear knows no bounds, and soon Nikki starts behaving not only strangely but also obsessively and violently. With his one wish, he may have turned her into something that Bear cannot control. Something that behaves monstrously.
To be clear. Obsession doesn’t have the most novel or original premise in the world, as there have been several horror films released over the years with a similar Monkey’s Paw-inspired wish-fulfillment premise. With a budget of only ~1 million dollars, Barker has made a gripping and exciting ‘be careful what you wish for’ type of film about toxic male entitlement and co-dependency, whose central MacGuffin (the ease with which one can get it, different effects on and usages for different people, etc,) can perhaps even make this story be read as an allegory for drug use or addiction (maybe that’s a stretch on my part, but it’s something I’ve thought a lot about since I first saw it). The effect the spell has on Nikki — stuck inside of her own body unable to control it — also made it feel like Bear was drugging her. It’s really quite disturbing. But, like Roger Ebert once said, what matters isn’t what a film is about; instead, it ultimately comes down to how it is about it. Indeed, Obsession works because it is executed at such a high level, especially given the low budget Curry Barker had to make the film for. For this discussion and analysis of the how of Obsession, I think it is probably smart of me to reveal that I’ve watched Barker and Tomlinson’s online videos for some time now, and have grown to become a fan of their comedic skits. This also means that I’ve taken an interest in Barker’s growth as a rising young filmmaker, and, if you know his prior work, you’ll be able to tell that he’s utilizing a great many tricks from his director’s toolbox, which he experimented with on his short films, especially.
Like in his short film Heavy Eyes, he does a good job of bathing his most unnatural character — in this film’s case, Nikki post-spell — in shadow or darkness to heighten how unsettling or off-beat she is. In that controlled and creepy short film, he also expertly utilized unnatural, jittery, sped-up movements to make the so-called ‘replacement’ appear especially inhuman, and the same goes for the spellbound version of Nikki in Obsession. In Barker’s most fully formed package of a horror short film, titled The Chair, he had his lead actress make these intensely creepy zig-zag-esque expressions (from screaming or crying to cheery in the blink of an eye), and, in Obsession, he has Navarrette do similar things. There are also clear references to other horror films like Ari Aster’s Hereditary, when we see Navarrette move in the background like no human would. And, really, Inde Navarrette is the film’s secret weapon. Barker clearly knew that casting the right actor to play Bear’s manic, spellbound crush was the key to unlocking the film, and Navarrette shows immediately that she is game for the task, throwing herself right at some wild performance swings. She is so good in this film that every time she’s on-screen, you’re terrified that her head will split open, that she will flip to any emotional extreme, or cause havoc, and then, whenever she isn’t on-screen, you find yourself thinking constantly about where she is. It is an unhinged performance in the best way possible that gives you a rollercoaster ride of an experience as she explodes, then calms down, only to explode again sometime later. It is an incredible physical and intensely passionate horror movie performance that also allows her to scream her way into your headspace. She is brilliant, as she turns in a horror performance so good that you’ll want to mention her in the same breath as Toni Collette in Hereditary, Naomi Scott in Smile 2, Mia Goth in Pearl, or Lupita Nyong’o in Us, and maybe it’ll even make you think of Isabelle Adjani in Possession. Michael Johnston is also quite good as the timid, weak, and, ultimately, quite despicable lead character, but it is really Inde Navarrette that stands out here.
It should be said that Curry Barker’s film is a tonally agile film that sometimes dances towards a more comedic effect. There are funny awkward silences, some cringe, discomfort comedy is to be found, and then some characters act in ways that are unnatural in humorous ways. There’s also one moment, when something falls out of the sky that threatens to break the horror world and go straight into the sketch comedy that Barker was previously more known for. And yet it doesn’t skimp on the horror. Some of the violence on display in the film is particularly grisly and over-the-top, and there are moments of pitch-black darkness (like when the real Nikki pierces the veil of her spellbound self to make a plea in her sleep) that really hit hard. It is an unsettling and creepy film, which gets a lot out of the darkness that he bathes his spellbound character in, as well as the startling screams that ring out, and Barker controls the tension quite well here, even though some scenes run a little bit slow. Indeed, if there is any major sin committed in this, it is perhaps that it could be paced more smoothly and be a little bit shorter. I will also add that I, on first viewing, noticed what certainly looked like some spatial inconsistency with regard to the placement of a character from shot to shot in the first scene of the film.
Although it certainly is this as well, Obsession isn’t solely a noticeable evolution of Curry Barker’s style or a film and career development that has him fit neatly into the recent wave of online personalities becoming filmmakers. It’s also just a damn good horror film. Obsession is a gripping and often quite unsettling exploration of toxic male entitlement and co-dependency that showcases some of Barker’s best visual traits as a filmmaker, like his understanding of how to utilize movement, shifts in expression, and, frankly, shadowy darkness to activate the corners of our brain that make us feel rattled, anxious, and creeped out. I was similarly impressed by the horror movie imagery that he comes up with for this film, and by how the film only extremely rarely feels like a super low-budget indie horror film despite the noticably limited number of locations and characters. The film’s tonal agility and the expertly placed dark subject matter are equally impressive for such a young filmmaker. On top of all of this, relative newcomer Inde Navarrette manages to carve her name next to other horror movie icons by turning in a truly extraordinary rollercoaster ride of a horror movie performance. She’s terrific, and so is the film.
8.5 out of 10
– Review written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
