Some films consciously engage with the present. Others function more like lightning rods, pulling in ambient bursts of cultural electricity and channeling them into films that crackle with the energy of their times. With “Obsession,” Curry Barker has made one of the latter. The 26-year-old former YouTuber’s second feature distills the ambient gender-based resentment of 2020s internet culture into a horror film that could be described as an EC Comics-style pulp morality tale, if the director knew what that was.
The film’s protagonist, Bear (Michael Johnston)—short for “Baron”—is a typical “nice guy,” timid and assiduous about not revealing his massive crush on Nikki (Inde Navarrette), his childhood friend and current coworker at a family-owned music store. He knows that telling her how he really feels will probably ruin their relationship and make things weird with their mutual friends, Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) and Sarah (Megan Lawless), as well. Still, the heart wants what the heart wants, and although Ian warns him not to ruin their weekly trivia night by confessing his love, Bear can’t keep it in much longer.
This is all relatively innocent and relatable. It’s what happens after Bear gets his wish that makes “Obsession” such a thorny and unsettling watch. Barker’s film is cruel and unforgiving towards its characters, snaring them in diabolical traps and then observing them as they spiral out under the pressure. In Bear’s case, the malignant nature of his obsession with Nikki begins to reveal itself almost immediately, as the intelligent, sarcastic young woman he knows is replaced by a volatile doppelgänger after Bear—again, innocently—wishes for her to “love him more than anything in the world” on a novelty toy he picks up at a gift shop early on in the film.
The new Nikki is clearly not okay: Her eyes are glazed, her speech is halting, her behavior is manic and disturbing, and she occasionally jolts and starts screaming as if she’s just woken up from a terrible nightmare. And that’s before she starts committing acts of horrific violence against both herself and others. Still, this new Nikki is in love with Bear, and so he selfishly chooses to stay with her even after learning that the original Nikki is suffering in Hell while her double is cuddling with him. Until the very end of the movie, Bear’s decision-making is craven and contemptible, earning his punishment from the unseen, yet inescapable forces that are now in control of his fate.
People who don’t deserve it are tortured as well, part of Barker’s Ari Aster-influenced taste for emotional violence towards both the characters and the audience. The film is full of grotesque imagery—cat lovers beware, there are scenes that will have you rushing home to check on your pet as soon as the movie ends—and shocking, brutal violence. These include a bludgeoning scene that comes out of nowhere, and is so graphic that cuts had to be made to avoid an NC-17 rating in the United States. Emotionally and in terms of gore, “Obsession” is quite messy, splattering blood and bad vibes all over every available surface.
Throughout “Obsession,” Barker shows little interest in setting up and executing traditional haunted-house scares, instead cutting the film to an off-kilter rhythm that’s properly destabilizing all on its own. This is a byproduct of his background as a YouTuber—like “Backrooms” director Kane Parsons, Barker cuts his own movies—and as a sketch comedian. What it lacks in jump scares, it makes up for with punchlines that grow meaner and more cosmic as the story darkens.
“Obsession’s” biggest blind spot is its inability to reckon with the sexual and psychological violence being inflicted on Nikki during her possession: By telling the story from the perspective of someone who sees her more as a prize to be won than a full human being, the film itself risks sidelining her ordeal. Navarrette’s powerhouse performance helps mitigate this by puncturing Nikki’s bipolar outbursts with moments of heartbreaking clarity, reminding us of the human being trapped inside of this misogynistic caricature. There are times when her go-for-broke portrayal plays like the Gen-Z equivalent of Isabelle Adjani’s unhinged star turn in “Possession,” which is about the greatest compliment one can give to a female actor in the genre. However, the lack of a true female perspective in this horror movie about gender relations does limit the film, at least from a thematic point of view.
Barker is still developing as a filmmaker, albeit quickly: His previous film, “Milk & Serial,” was self-released on YouTube, and his next one, “Anything But Ghosts,” is a multimillion-dollar Blumhouse project starring Aaron Paul. He’s also been tasked with a “reimagining” of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” for A24, which isn’t as bizarre as it sounds—after all, the original “Texas Chain Saw” was one of those lightning-in-a-bottle movies, too. The question is whether his subsequent films will capture their moments as effectively as “Obsession” does, or whether this film will end up being a one-wish wonder.
