A Crush Goes Wrong in Curry Barker’s Terrifying Horror Hit ‘Obsession’

Movies about relationships are resonating with today’s young audiences — but they aren’t rom-coms. Judging by the success of April’s The Drama, about a revelation that threatens to derail a wedding, Gen Z is more interested in everything that can go horrifically wrong with romance.

Enter Obsession, from writer-director-editor Curry Barker (Milk & Serial), which earned about $17 million last weekend on a reported budget of less than $1 million. Social media is buzzing with takes on the horror film’s nightmarish scenario — and arguments about who its real monster is.

The deal

Twentysomething Bear (Michael Johnston) is in love with his longtime friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette). Now that she’s about to quit the music store where they both work, it could be his last chance to tell her. But Bear’s rehearsal of his declaration with a mutual friend (Cooper Tomlinson) doesn’t go well, and then his cat dies. When he drives Nikki home that night, he isn’t feeling brave. Instead of responding honestly to her blunt question — “Do you like me?” — Bear hems and haws. Then, alone and miserable, he pulls out the novelty gift he didn’t dare give Nikki — a “One Wish Willow” — and wishes on it that she loved him “more than anyone in the entire world.”

And just like that, Nikki is begging to go home with Bear. She wants to be his girlfriend and spend every waking minute with him. Bear’s wish has been granted, and he thinks he’s living the dream — at first.

Will you like it?

The horror genre has a strong moralizing strain, and it often sends the message “Be careful what you wish for.” From the classic 1902 story “The Monkey’s Paw” to the forgettable 2017 horror flick Wish Upon, the archetype hasn’t changed: Wish-granting talismans exist to prove human folly. Once the universe learns our heart’s desires, it uses them to hurt us.

So there’s nothing new about Obsession’s premise. We can guess from the trailer that Nikki’s single-minded obsession with Bear will turn her into a stalker, teaching him the lesson that moderate, mutual affection is better for all concerned. What sets Obsession apart from its predecessors is Barker’s merciless commitment to keeping us inside the pressure cooker of a bad romance. The film’s execution combines claustrophobic terror and dark humor in ways that have us squirming. And it doesn’t gloss over the fact that its protagonist asked for this when he rendered his love interest incapable of consent.

Sure, Bear never imagined the One Wish Willow would work. His subsequent efforts to control the magic — researching on a Reddit-like forum, calling a customer service line — are so pathetic they’re funny. But that’s the cruel irony of wish talismans. Whatever he thought he was doing, he’s turned Nikki from a person into a puppet.

There’s nothing abstract about the transformation, either. Navarrette’s bold performance goes way beyond the familiar stereotypes of women unhinged by love. This new Nikki isn’t just obsessed with Bear, she’s volatile and unpredictable, with a sexy coo that becomes a whine, snarl or scream within instants. Prone to malice and random violence, she often seems more robotic or animalistic than human.

Navarrette’s expressiveness and Barker’s direction work together to trigger our sense of the uncanny: This Nikki isn’t just scary, she’s wrong. We often see her in silhouette, a shadowy presence whose eyes catch the light when they shouldn’t. Her body moves in ways bodies shouldn’t, too. A scene in which Bear wakes to find her skulking in his dark bedroom is up there with the freakiest moments in Japanese horror cinema.

It’s hard not to have some initial empathy for Bear, because Johnston brings the character to tremulous life. We feel the quivering sensitivity that keeps him silent about his feelings and makes him ill-equipped to deal with a partner who’s out of control. But hidden in Bear’s deer-in-the-headlights passivity is a stubborn vein of selfishness. Long after he should realize his wish is a death sentence, he still wants to make the “relationship” work. And the movie doesn’t let him off the hook for that.

Obsession makes it very clear that the product of Bear’s wish is not the real Nikki, a self-possessed aspiring author who lectured him on the distinction between a “romance” and a “love story.” The difference is a happily-ever-after, and no one in this movie gets one. Obsession is relentlessly dark, yet Barker’s twisted comic sensibility keeps the horror on a painfully relatable level. There’s a tragic absurdity in the story of a young man so afraid of rejection that he’d rather turn a woman into a monster than tell her how he feels.

If you like this, try…

Together (2025; Disney+, Hulu, Kanopy, rentable): Michael Shanks’ body-horror comedy depicts another relationship nightmare: A longtime couple (Dave Franco and Alison Brie) find themselves getting too close in the literal sense.

Companion (2025; HBO Max, YouTube Primetime, rentable): Some viewers have pointed out that whatever occupies Nikki’s body shares certain sycophantic habits with chatbots. This update on The Stepford Wives explores the perspective of a love-bot who tries to break free of her programming.

Hereditary (2018; Fandango at Home, Kanopy, PLEX, Pluto TV, Tubi, YouTube): Navarrette has said she took inspiration from Toni Collette’s intense performance as a woman trying to escape her family legacy in Ari Aster’s modern horror classic.