Obsession

“WHY DON’T YOU LOVE MEEEEEEEEE?”

It’s always nice when you go to a movie you don’t know much about and find that you’ve just walked into a new sleeper hit.

It’s also just nice to see a new filmmaker knock it out of the park with their first movie. That appears to be the case with Obsession, written and directed by Curry Barker. Made on a budget of around $750,000, the film has already grossed over forty-four million dollars worldwide.

Understandable, because this is a strong, wicked horror film.

Obsession follows a lonely guy named Bear. He’s had a major crush on his childhood friend, Nikki, for years. It’s easy to see why, too. Nikki is sweet, funny, beautiful, artistic and a free spirit. Bear wants to confess his feelings for her, despite knowing it could affect their friendship, not just with each other but with their other friends, Ian and Sarah. But like a lot of other guys, Bear is too afraid to open up. But early in the film, Bear shops at a local mystic shop to buy a gift for Nikki. He purchases the mysterious One Wish Willow, a little novelty piece of wood from a willow tree that, when snapped in half, supposedly grants the buyer one wish; “amaze your friends” reads a slogan on the box. Too afraid to take a chance and tell Nikki how he feels, Bear uses the willow himself out of frustration. He wishes that Nikki would love him "more than anyone in the fucking world.”

And we see that it works pretty much right away. Nikki becomes obsessed with Bear. She clings to him with exaggerated affection, stares at him at all times, and soon becomes his loving girlfriend. Bear, of course, tries to rationalize and excuse what’s happening for the sake of his dream girl, but her increasingly bizarre behavior is eventually too hard to ignore. And when he’s unable to ignore it, Nikki goes from weird and off-putting to violently erratic or just inhumanly terrifying.

Like with Weapons last year, many are already holding this up as a modern masterpiece of horror. And maybe for some it truly is. I’m not quite there. Like Weapons or Longlegs, I found it more unsettling than scary. Don't get me wrong, there are legit horror scenes here that land hard and stuck with me afterward. But while I was disturbed and uncomfortable throughout, I was never that scared. I could see where it was going most of the time. And like a lot of these modern hits in the horror genre, I think the plot starts to wear thin toward the end.

That said, the ending is still cleverly written and wonderfully executed. So is the rest of the film, to be honest. This is a point I like to reiterate: I don’t need a story to be some fancy thing I’ve never encountered before, I just need it to move me in some way. Obsession is not an original story — you can easily look at it as another crazy possessed girl movie, like any number of Exorcist knockoffs — but it does handle its story in a fresh and engrossing way. Maybe there are shades of Talk to Me, Barbarian, Get Out, Hereditary, Fatal Attraction, The Stepford Wives and so on, but it still has the weight and feel of something new.

Curry Barker was primarily known for the YouTube comedy sketch channel ‘that’s a bad idea.’ With Obsession, he’s already being compared to other comedians turned auteur horror directors, like Jordan Peele or Zach Cregger. It’s earned, because this is a very impressive debut, whether it comes from a YouTuber or anyone else.

For a movie that’s only a little over an hour and a half in length, it is remarkably layered. The deliberately vague supernatural elements of the One Wishing Willow and its effect on “Nikki” runs a dark undercurrent beneath the surface level horror. Closer to the surface are themes of dishonesty, betrayal, abusive relationships, toxic masculinity and rape culture. Bear’s wish makes Nikki love him (and nothing else), but it robs her of her agency, her sense of self. She moves in with him, she gives up her job and passions for him, she changes her personality and clothes to keep his attention, and she begins to hate their other friends for taking his attention away from her.

There is a fair bit of black comedy in the movie that sometimes takes the edge off of the darker, more upsetting elements just a bit. And in critical moments, that comedic aspect only serves to enhance the darkness in a way only true horror stories and thrillers can do. Bear is harshly worn down and maddened by his circumstances, but he’s so obviously guilty and pathetic at a certaint point that it’s hard not to find it a little funny when the wish keeps compounding his misfortune. The same is true of Nikki, her deterioration into an unstable monster with demented mood swings is sometimes as hilarious as it is deeply upsetting. Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette play out that delicate dance about as well as can be done; their performances alone are a good enough reason to see this movie. Navarrette, in particular, is receiving a ton of praise for how she played Nikki. Some are even calling it Oscar-worthy, and I wouldn’t rule that out either. She really is that good.

Wishes and Willows:

* Early on in the film, we see some fake stand-in websites for Google and Reddit: Probe and Threadit.”

* Andy Richter plays the main characters’ boss. Don’t know how I missed that when I was watching the movie.

* Barker was apparently inspired to write the script by a segment from an early installment of The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror; the one where Homer obtains a wish-granting monkey’s paw. There are more examples of past movies and shows that have toyed with this concept in some form or another, though. There’s that Buffy episode in which Xander ends up putting a love spell on all the girls in his school, and an even more specific case in the Supernatural episode ‘Wishful Thinking.’

* A popular meme in recent years is the one where women feel safer choosing to be alone with a wild bear than a man. Feels like a pretty tongue-in-cheek move to name this film's sketchy male protagonist "Bear," in light of what he does.

* Here’s an amusing ad for the One Wish Willow that was made as part of the film’s viral marketing.

Quotes:

Nikki Freeman: “Do you like me, Bear? Because if you do, now’s the time to tell me.”

Baron “Bear” Bailey: “I wish Nikki Freeman loved me more than anyone in the fucking world.”
Snap.

Nikki: “Bear, I love you so, so, so, so, so, so much.”

Bear: “Please, no more weird shit.”

Customer service rep: “You’d like to cancel your wish?”
Bear: “No. No, no, no, it’s okay to keep… I-I just want to know if I can, like, alter it a little.”
Customer service rep: “I’m sorry, we don’t really do that.”

Bear: “Is it even real?”
Customer service rep: “Yeah, it’s real.”
Bear: “No, I know that the… Is her love real?”
Customer service rep: “… Just because you chose this for her doesn’t make it less real.”

Nikki: "No one on this Earth will ever comprehend what it feels like to love someone as much as I love you. AND EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM WILL DIE NEVER FEELING THE STRENGTH OF CONNECTION I HAVE FELT FOR MY BEAR!"
Ian: “… Nikki? Are you okay?”
Nikki: “I’m just kidding guys. I’m just kidding. Heheheheh! Come on, it’s a joke! I’m just joking… Okay, fine. I’m not joking. Deal with it.”

Bear: (about the One Wish Willow) “What the fuck is wrong with you? How can you sell something like this?”
Mystic Shop Clerk: “There are warnings all over the box!”

Very good movie. Almost too good. Four and a half out of five One Wish Willows.