Obsession (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

PopEntertainment
1 hour ago
3 min read

OBSESSION (2025)

Starring Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, Andy Richter, Haley Fitzgerald, Darin Toonder, Anthony Pavone, Justice, Anthony Casabianca, Chloe Breen, Malcolm Kelner, Charles Santa Cruz, Alex Maystrik, Mariana Silva, Kyle Blumenthal, Jorge Luquín, Jose Herrera, Emilio Flores, Manny Liotta, Mai Chi Nguyen and Tim Robinson.

Screenplay by Curry Barker.

Directed by Curry Barker.

Distributed by Focus Features. 109 minutes. Rated R.

"I wish Nikki Freeman loved me more than anyone in the entire world."

It’s the kind of wish most people have whispered – half joking, half desperate – about a crush who doesn’t quite feel the same way. So when Bear (Michael Johnston) mutters it about Nikki (Inde Navarette), the co-worker he’s quietly pining for, it sounds harmless enough. But the moment he adds that “in the entire world” qualifier, you can feel the universe cocking its head, sharpening its claws, and preparing to take him literally.

Obsession wastes no time revealing what kind of movie it is: a supernatural horror story about the catastrophic fine print hidden inside our most selfish desires. Writer-director Curry Barker takes the classic Faustian bargain and filters it through modern loneliness, entitlement, and the seductive fantasy of being loved without limits. The result is a film that starts as a relatable crush story and spirals into something far darker, stranger, and more psychologically jagged.

The catalyst is a mysterious supernatural totem known as a One Wish Willow, a folkloric object that promises to grant a single desire – though never in the way you expect. Barker smartly avoids over-explaining the mythology; the Willow is less a plot device than a moral accelerant. Once Bear makes his wish, the film becomes a slow-motion car crash of escalating devotion, possessiveness, and identity erosion.

Because here’s the real horror: If you magically override someone’s free will, are you still in love with them? Or just with the puppet you’ve created? That question becomes the film’s beating, blackened heart.

Navarette delivers a performance that should put her on casting directors’ speed-dial. Known to many as Lana Lang’s daughter on Superman & Lois, she goes far beyond anything she’s done before. Her Nikki shifts from warm to brittle to feral, sometimes within a single scene, and Barker often shoots her in shadow, letting her expressions flicker like a candle about to sputter out. It’s a tricky role – part victim, part monster, part tragic echo of the woman Bear once adored – and she nails every layer.

Johnston, as Bear, has the less showy job, but he grounds the film. His performance is reactive by design; he’s a man watching his fantasy curdle into a nightmare, and Johnston captures that dawning dread with quiet precision. Cooper Tomlinson and Megan Lawless add welcome texture as Bear’s best friend and the co-worker who actually does like him – an irony the film uses well.

The mostly unknown ensemble works in the film’s favor. Without marquee faces to break the spell, the movie maintains a grimy, lived-in authenticity. Andy Richter, as the music store owner where the story begins, is the closest thing to a “name,” and even he blends seamlessly into the film’s off-kilter tone. (The Chair Company’s Tim Robinson is apparently in the background somewhere, though I’ll be honest – I never spotted him.)

Obsession doesn’t tiptoe around its concept. It pushes the wish-fulfillment nightmare to extremes – sometimes arguably too far – but that excess feels intentional. If you’re going to make a movie about the grotesque consequences of getting exactly what you want, you can’t be shy about showing the fallout.

And this film is anything but shy.

Obsession is one of the year’s most unexpected horror jolts – a film that starts with a simple, painfully human longing and mutates it into something chilling, sad, and strangely empathetic. Horror fans will latch onto its boldness; general audiences may find themselves surprised by how much it lingers.

Don’t be shocked if people become a little obsessed with Obsession.

Jay S. Jacobs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMC8kkwbIQQ