Obsession (2026)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
Inde Navarrette delivers a transformative, emotionally committed performance we will talk about for years to come.
Smarter than you think, Curry Barker’s psychological horror film invites discussion rather than spoonfed simplistic answers and solutions.
Shot for merely $750,000, Obsession has become the movie of the moment - a pop culture experience that audiences are returning to again and again.
NO
For all the film does well, more attention could have been paid to the supporting characters as Obsession leaves them as one-dimensional characters who deserve more.
Trigger warning for those sensitive to animals passing away.
TikTok and Instagram has spoiled the film, so try your best to go in as blind as you can. And also, shame on anyone who films movies in the theater. Put. Your. Phones. Away.
OUR REVIEW
At the time I finally watched Curry Barker’s Obsession, the movie had become a pop culture phenomenon. TikTok and Instagram users were brazenly filming scenes in the theater on their phones and posting them online (which seemed to be happening in my theatrical experience), and the film generated new, daily discussions debating the good, the bad, the nuanced, and the allegorical theories behind a film that has launched both healthy and downright toxic conversations, spiraling off into a thousand different directions.
Let me say here - overall this is a good thing. I mean, filming in theaters is terrible and people should stop it immediately and theaters should enforce their rules. But the discourse, the debate, the conversations Barker’s film generates are inherently a really good thing.
Obsession is a horror film - but the psychological suspense type. It doesn’t rely on jump scares or gore or a serial killer to keep us on edge. Though there are moments that will jolt you. Instead, Barker’s screenplay takes relatable people and places them in situations just outrageous enough to be fictionalized, but closely connected to basic experiences we can all generally connect with.
The basic premise is this: A 20-something man named Bear (Matthew Johnston) has a huge crush on his friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette). His best friend Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) is trying to coach him on the best way to share those feelings, while their mutual friend Sarah (Megan Lawless) works with everyone at her father’s music shop.
Frustrated that he can’t generate the words to tell Nikki how he feels, he goes to a curiosity shop and purchases a novelty called a “One Wish Willow.” After dropping Nikki off at home, and fumbling his chance to again tell her how he feels, he wishes that Nikki will love him more than anything in the world and snaps the willow in two.
And instantly - Nikki is enamored with Bear.
And now … this is where everything gets interesting.
Obsession can look like that Fatal Attraction-style movie where a crazy woman goes nuts for a guy, with insane over-the-top antics making her a villain, that forces us to feel sorry for the man who just wanted a full-time girlfriend. Barker is not interested in that simplicity. He layers Obsession with all of those unsettling moments, but spikes in examples where Nikki is at war with herself. Without spoiling much, Navarrette portrays a woman tormented and out of control, with moments where the spell she is under wears off. As a result, we become transfixed in trying to determine what Nikki will do next and are knocked off-guard when a voice changes, a demeanor pivots, or she recoils from a situation in palpable terror and anguish, frightened at her circumstances in ways both physical and emotional.
At 26 years old, Barker is a wickedly intuitive filmmaker. He finds a way to restrain himself from the easy gore and sight gags other directors would turn to and instead trusts his actors to represent the different viewpoints of the audience. Barker knows some will find Bear deplorable and others will see Nikki as a lunatic. He also recognizes Bear and Nikki will look empathetic to some and settles into that murky uncomfortableness. I was able to form an opinion pretty quickly, but the conversations I heard in the lobby as I walked out of the theater had people deep in discussion over the collective experience we all had just shared.
The film worms its way into you - none of this is easy and it doesn’t play nice, running viewers through an emotional wringer. Elements of it haunt you and stay with you. Obsession can make people angry or break them down emotionally. As we chuckle at abhorrent behavior and the whiplash unpredictability on screen, we start to contemplate what Bear has actually done, what Nikki is enduring, and the manipulation and wanton disregard for someone’s feelings which emerge because someone wants something for themselves. When we start to realize just how bleak and upsetting the film actually is, we also begin to rationalize that all hope is pretty much lost for all involved.
That’s a bold way to pin an audience down. What makes it palatable and compelling is the star-making, career-defining performance given by Inde Navarrette. In a word, she is simply incredible. We cannot help but be mesmerized by Navarrette’s ability to change voices, emotions, alter her physicality, and be both a terrorizing presence and an empathetic figure all at once. This is a performance that generates awards consideration and discussion - every bit as good, complex, and memorable as recent Oscar winners. Though I worry that she may become typecast in scream queen roles for the foreseeable future, Navarrette has created a legendary, potentially iconic, horror movie character we will remember for years to come.
Seeing it nearly two weeks after it opened to audiences, Obsession has sadly had all of its secrets and surprises leaked online. And yet, people I saw the film with were still fidgeting in their seats, gasping out loud, and completely locked in to Barker’s creation.
Shot for a mere $750,000, Obsession is scrappy and resilient - finding terror and fear in shadows and stabs of light, as cinematographer Taylor Clemons is content to film Nikki standing in the dark, as an almost ghostly presence, or have her eyes glow just enough so we can see an uncanny valley-like effect in the way she talks with Bear in his bedroom in the middle of the night. One scene has Bear and Ian talking at work and a faceless, blurred out Nikki stares at the both of them, from a distance, the entire time for several uninterrupted minutes. As an audience, we constantly sit on the precipice of disruption. And to keep an audience that uneasy and willingly upset for 108 minutes is truly an impressive accomplishment.
I do wish Barker added more depth around Bear and Nikki. Tomlinson is reduced to the annoying “bro best friend” role and Sarah deserves more depth to her character than “graduated high school girl wanting to go to college.” And no one escapes from this unscathed, a detail that will anger some viewers and likewise impress others.
Less a cautionary tale and far smarter and more curious than some may wish to acknowledge, Obsession is becoming a cultural moment, as much as it is “just another horror film” gaining popularity. The film is as sad and tragic for its characters as it is also representative of how disparate and divided we can be—how increasingly, in our relationships, we have little regard for how poorly we treat one another. Barker taps into a frightening instability we have in understanding and processing rejection, disappointment, and emotional vulnerability in healthy, productive ways.
And perhaps that becomes the most damning discovery of all within Obsession: seeing a visual representation of the lasting damage one can leave upon others when the only pursuit they are interested in is selfish, self-affirming, and self-rewarding.
CAST & CREW
Starring: Inde Navarrette, Michael Johnston, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, Andy Richter, Haley Fitzgerald, Darin Toonder, Chloe Breen, Curry Barker
Director: Curry Barker
Written by: Curry Barker
Release Date: May 15, 2026
Focus Features