Obsession (2026) – Obsessed

Released: 12th March
Seen: 19th May

Go see Obsession. Go. Now. Stop reading this review, go to your vehicle, drive to your local cinema, purchase a ticket for the movie Obsession and then come back. I could pussyfoot around and deliver an opening paragraph about how “Friends to lovers plots are a dime a dozen” and then transition into how unique this version is or talk about the rise in YouTubers making horror movies that’re better than anything else coming out from the major studios or just come up with some elaborate explanation of the concept of obsession, all were options I went with for this opening paragraph that’s designed to be something above the read more line but instead I’m going with GO AND SEE THIS FUCKING MOVIE RIGHT FUCKING NOW!… Thank you, now we can continue.

Obsession is about Bear (Michael Johnston), your average guy who has nothing special about him. He works in a music shop, goes to trivia nights with his friends Ian (Cooper Tomlinson), Sarah (Megan Lawless) and Nikki (Inde Navarrette) and looks after his pet cat… he’s also harbouring a crush on Nikki but can’t bring himself to tell her that he likes her. One particular day, specifically the day that his cat dies, Bear goes into a shop to buy something known as a One Wish Willow. You make a wish, break the willow, your wish comes true. Bear, being a fucking moron, uses his wish to make Nikki love him more than anyone in the world. The good news, she loves him…the bad news, she’s truly and utterly obsessed with him in a way that will not end well for anyone.

In case my opening paragraph didn’t make it obvious, Obsession is my favourite film of the year so far and I don’t think anything else is going to come close, so it’s a race to second place for the rest of 2026. Obsession is the kind of horror that slowly works its way underneath your skin, just taking its time to slowly make its way inside before bursting out in a finale of glorious, disturbing violence and terror that will have you curling up in your seat. This is one of those films that will be considered a classic in a few years. There’s no way that it can’t, the last horror film that felt this impactful was Get Out and I will be actually shocked if Obsession doesn’t have the same impact on the genre that Get Out had.

Every little element of Obsession is about as perfect as you could imagine, every little idea designed to elevate the horror. Everything from the aspect ratio making it feel like the walls are closing in to the lighting choices (every backlit shot of Nikki is a study in how to make a potentially romantic scene into something truly horrifying) to the absolutely perfect composition of every shot all work together to create some of the most intense scenes in any modern horror. It’s impossible to overstate how good this whole film looks; it’s so good at carefully showing you exactly what you need to see right up until it makes a horrifyingly dramatic reveal that will have you squirming. 

The entire story delves into some truly dark places, ideas of consent are thrown about and toyed with in ways that elevate the true horror of the piece. Moments where Nikki is clearly not OK with something but says she is because that’s what Bear wants to hear are just soul-destroying, especially because it doesn’t work and only leads to things getting worse. There’s the idea of a co-dependent relationship (or at least the appearance of one) that’s played to the absolute extreme, of just how far someone will go to show you their love and how much is too much. The biggest thing that this film deals with is the idea of bodily autonomy, showing Nikki getting her ability to make her own choices taken away from her in such a pointed fashion is absolutely terrifying, an unsubtle metaphor if ever there was one. It’s where the biggest scares come from; the way that Nikki will be seemingly forced to do things that she has no real desire to do is a constant source of skin-peeling tension that only gets worse and worse the longer the film goes on.

It’s not just playing in the grey areas of this stuff, it’s dancing and making you question your own morality with every passing moment. At what point in the film are you willing to call Bear the villain of the film? After all, we can all imagine a version of this story that would be done in a romcom and be just cute and funny, but Obsession plays it dead seriously. It takes on things like the male loneliness ‘epidemic’ and points out that maybe the problem is guys who think that women would just be obsessed with them, almost pointedly taking the horror of real life men thinking they’re owed love and shining the biggest mirror on it. All this happens while we experience the real horror of Nikki’s entire personality being forcibly changed on the whims of one man who made a wish without even knowing or caring what she actually felt. 

Speaking of Nikki, let’s just prepare a spot on the wall of “Horror Actresses who got denied an Oscar” for Inde Navarrette because she delivers the performance of the year. There is no one else who is doing it like Inde does it, her performance is one of extremes played in a way that’s just captivating. She doesn’t just cry, she wails in anguish. She doesn’t laugh, she cackles with pure delight. She doesn’t scream, she experiences soul-rendering fear that forces out a sound of pure terror. Everything is done at an 11 and she switches between them on a dime and it’s truly brilliant. There are so many moments where you just have to sit back and realise you’re watching an iconic performance, maybe one of the greatest in Horror history. Hell, Inde gives such a captivating performance that she can be entirely backlit and appear in silhouette for an entire scene and you still can feel every single emotion just from how the limited light reflects off her eyes. Sure, everyone else does a lovely job (props to Michael Johnston for managing to somehow stay in the same room as Inde without being physically blown off the screen) but Inde Navarrette is just utterly incredible and I will be angry when we don’t see her name on that Oscars list next year.

What holds Obsession together, what clearly makes it all so stunningly great, is the expert direction and script by Curry Barker who frankly should just be handed a blank check to do whatever the fuck he wants. Hand him that Texas Chainsaw I.P., I’m all in on Curry Barker and I want to see more. His script is immaculate, every line of dialogue feels uncomfortably real to the point that you know someone who talks exactly like everyone in this group of friends. It’s easily one of the most well-shot films out there, breaking rules of cinema that people just accept (insert shots are a big one) in order to elevate the tension. The shot composition is absolutely perfect, you will catch yourself looking in the background of shots just waiting for something to happen and then, just as you’ve let your guard down, some fucked up shit will happen. It’s incredible, we’re witnessing the birth of a potential horror legend. I hate to put that much pressure on someone, the horror genre is known for really asking a lot of its directors, but Curry Barker feels like he has that special something to be a genuine legend in this genre.

Obsession is a film you can’t help but become obsessed by; it’s simply the best that this genre has produced in a while and certainly the best that it’s produced in the last year. It’s intense, horrifying, gross and twisted all while being one of the most intelligent films you’ll ever find. I opened this review by telling you to go see this film, let me repeat this as clearly as I can. GO AND SEE OBSESSION RIGHT NOW! If you loved me, you would see it… you would go now, GO NOW AND SEE IT! GO NOW!