With “Obsession,” writer-director Curry Barker establishes himself firmly as the latest filmmaker to make the jump from a comedy background into shocking, powerful horror. While there is nothing groundbreaking in its subject matter, this is a film that will keep you tense and on edge throughout, thanks to Barker’s sly ingenuity and an instant horror-hall-of-fame performance from Inde Navarrette.
Bear (Michael Johnston) is a music store employee who has a desperate crush on his co-worker Nikki (Navarrette) but is too shy, too scared to ever express how he feels and is undermined in different ways by his other co-workers, Ian and Sarah (Cooper Tomlinson and Megan Lawless).
After hearing Nikki lost her crystal necklace, Bear goes into an occult shop where he finds a One Wish Willow, a cheap-looking toy that supposedly grants its user one wish once they break the stick in half. That night, frustrated with his own inability to be honest about his feelings, Bear snaps the stick and wishes that Nikki would love him more than any person in the world. The wish, as you might expect, comes true, and Bear finds himself dealing with the horrific consequences of forcing somebody into love against their will.
As Nikki, Navarrette is simply revelatory. Once Bear makes his wish, Nikki’s persona fractures, careening from one emotion to another as her consciousness battles with an unspeakable urge to love Bear. As the wish takes over her personality fully, Nikki dashes from sweet and loving to insecure, sad, furious, murderous. The performance does more than anything else to leave the viewer uneasy, unsettled even in crowded rooms, in otherwise “safe” spaces as we wait with suspenseful anticipation for what Nikki will do or say next.
Gaining attention from his sketch comedy duo with Cooper Tomlinson, That’s a Bad Idea, Curry Barker continues a horror-comedy lineage that goes through the recent films of Zach Cregger and Jordan Peele all the way back to “The Evil Dead” and “An American Werewolf in London.” Each scene in this film is a coin flip as to whether it will deliver pulse-pounding dread and tension, awkward, laugh-aloud cringe comedy or sometimes both in the same sequence. While Barker shows himself to be sometimes too reliant on loud noises to elicit jumps, his craft for horror and comedy is undeniably effective throughout.
“Obsession” is a strange and challenging balancing act, handling real issues about traumatic relationships while landing scare after scare, laugh after laugh. A tone such as this is tremendously difficult to pull off, but when it works, as it does here, the result is an absolutely manic, exhilarating roller coaster of an experience.
A version of this review was posted at Curt On The Movies.
“Obsession” Rated R for strong bloody violence, grisly images, sexual content, pervasive language, and brief graphic nudity. Running Time: 1 hour and 48 minutes. Director and writer Curry Barker. Starring Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, Andy Richter. Genres: Horror, thriller.
About The Author
