The hype is sky high for Obsession. Curry Barker’s first big feature show’s the YouTube sketch comedy guy is actually much bigger than that. As is Inde Navarrette, going from friend of Superman & Lois to the big new scream queen. Again and again, if you want to prove you’ve got the stuff, the horror route is your best in. Worst case scenario? You get to murder someone along the way…in movie form. IN MOVIE FORM, I can’t stress that enough.
Bear (Michael Johnston) is in classic twentysomething hell. Pining hard for Nikki (Inde Navarrette), Bear doesn’t have the courage to ask her if she has feelings for him, instead quietly lamenting on the side to other friends Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) and Sarah (Megan Lawless) and buying weird One Wish Willow trinkets from strange stores. After blowing his big chance to say how he feels, Bear breaks the willow, and says his wish: “I want Nikki to love me more than anyone else.” Upon which he turns his head left, where Nikki has stopped dead in her tracks, and turns back around to Bear’s car…
Obsession succeeds pretty much across the board. On the surface, the horror thrills are truly unnerving. I had never seen Inde Navarrette before, but after this performance, I won’t be able to unsee her for a while. Curry Barker does a great job highlighting the ever shapeshifting nature of Nikki, trying whatever she can to show her love to Bear, making her more and more inhuman as Obsession deepens. There’s a scene about 30 minutes in that truly got under my skin: frightening yes, but with deeper sinister intentions as the scene goes along. The stuff she does later pushes hard against societal taboos; some things are even more scary than just murder. Inde Navarrette’s jarring emotional shifts give the movie this perpetual discomfort, as the naive, complicit Bear realizes the horror he’s awoken, failing to realize the age old addage: “be careful what you wish for.”
And that underpinning is what makes Obsession such a potent film. Yes Nikki’s actions are horrific. But because they come from a place of supposed “love”? That’s a deep well that can’t be easily rescued from. Nikki’s Rorschach behavior is a heightened version of manipulation all toxic relationships possess: her obsession makes her change tones immediately when she realizes Bear isn’t happy with her, going from mousy, to angry, to upset, to horny, waiting for a positive response from him to stay in that emotional state. But Curry Barker also reminds us, this isn’t Nikki’s fault. At any point, Bear can stop this. But like an equally toxic partner, he’s too selfish to actually love Nikki back. He just sounds like he does to live the fantasy life he wants in his head. Even the ending Bear can’t do the right thing, looking for anything and everything to blame other than himself. Obsession in this case shows both sides of a bad relationship. Sadly, love is nowhere to be found here.
It’s always great to welcome new filmmakers and stars in our midst. I can’t wait to see what Curry Barker and Inde Navarrette do next. I think the smart thing is we get a true horror passing of the guard. Curry and Osgood Perkins direct a movie together, starring Maika Monroe and Inde Navarrette. Double battle to the death, only one director and actor comes back alive to be the cool kids on the horror block.