Curry Barker, the director of Obsession, started as a short-form comedian under the username 'That's a Bad Idea' across various social media platforms, along with his comedy partner, Cooper Tomlinson. These two, especially Barker, have yet again reinforced the 'comedy to horror pipeline' after the release of their first feature-length film. This idea was popularised by Jordan Peele's rise to horror stardom after his comedy show alongside Keegan-Michael Key, however its only gained more traction in the last few years.
Some of the most notable examples of this also include Zach Cregger - going from 'Whitest Kids U'Know' to directing movies like Barbarian and Weapons - and Michael and Danny Philippou - starting on YouTube under the name RackaRacka, and later moving onto Talk To Me and Bring Her Back. This is a very notable pipeline, as it seems like these comedians turned modern horror icons tend to create the most original and interesting horror movies of recent times, pushing the boundaries of the genre. It's safe to say, Curry Barker's debut is no different.
Obsession is absolutely terrifying. This is such a loud movie, in all the best ways. In both its physical volume and all that happens making such a profound impact on the audience. This is all mostly attributed to and held up by two major points: this movie's momentum and its performances. The undeniable star of this movie is Inde Navarrette as Nikki Freeman. This actress manages to do such an incredible job of distinguishing the difference between the real Nikki and the version manifested by Bear's wish. She also does an amazing job at showing the audience the exact moment that this switch flips without making it painfully obvious. Of course, you can't forget the enormous role that the cinematography and overall mood of this scene played, but Inde Navarrette's performance here cannot be overstated.
One thing that I thought was done in such a perfect way, and was one of the most interesting parts of this movie, was the ambiguity around what the real Nikki is actually going through throughout the course of this story. Aside from her periodically snapping out of her trance for a few moments, we only really get two small glimpses at where she could be. First, in the form of her screaming over the phone - telling us that she is, indeed, going through some sort of immense pain - and second, her asking Bear to kill her.
This film succeeds in avoiding what I would call one of the cardinal sins that many horror movies fall into, in which they 'show the monster'. It reminds me of an often forgotten (and for good reason) horror from 2023 called The Boogeyman. The plot of this movie is quite weak and unimportant to my point. What is important is that the monster within this movie works in the shadows throughout, allowing the audience to imagine how terrifying it could be, from simply sound and description alone. However, in the third act, they decide to show the manifestation of 'The Boogeyman'. It shows itself to be, essentially, a big stuffed bear chasing this little girl around a maze, of sorts. The filmmakers' revealing this caused any kind of tension or build-up to be completely ripped down within seconds, due to that force of imagination not being needed anymore, thus any amalgamations that the audience may have thought up were now redundant, and they were left with an ultimately disappointing outcome after an hour of tension building.
Going back to Obsession, in their decision of not showing what horrors Nikki is going through, the audience is able to work off imagination alone. You can assume it's some sort of Get Out-esque 'sunken place' with much more suffering, in which Nikki is 'taking a backseat' in her own mind, but the fact that we never actually see it allows our minds to run wild with every different possibility of what this world and this torture could manifest itself as. It makes me think of Talk To Me, specifically the scene in which Mia looks inside Riley's mind and sees the demons possessing and torturing him. While that is a great scene, imagine how much more haunting it could have been if we had only heard the audio and seen Mia's horrified face.
It was really interesting to see so much of the world outside of Bear and Nikki's "relationship" as it allowed us to see this story from a different perspective, that of Bear's friends. Ian and Sarah would often talk about how it seemed as if Nikki was taking advantage of Bear, when in reality, it was almost the exact opposite. It makes me think about how they're almost both in an emotionally abusive relationship with each other. Of course, Nikki's abuse is the most obvious, with her literally being trapped inside her own body. Bear, however, is where it gets slightly more complicated. This is completely with how other characters interact with their relationship. Even though he did somewhat wish for what happened, "Nikki" starts to isolate Bear from everybody around him, going as far as to become violent whenever he tries to be independent in any way. While this relationship is technically Bear's fault, the abuse that he goes through still feels very real, and it doesn't feel completely like comeuppance for hijacking Nikki's body. This is, of course, helped in no small part by Inde Navarrette's stellar performance.
One detail I absolutely loved is how Nikki is often almost completely shrouded in darkness for a lot of the first two acts whenever she is under the trance, accentuating her becoming a shell of her former self and that this isn't really her in any way. They also, in one single scene, used a technique that was used prolifically in Get Out, with a specific, artificial light in Nikki's eyes, showing both the fakeness of any emotion she's showing and the 'glaze' over her dead eyes.
I felt as if the gore in this movie was done in such a perfect way. It's very over-the-top without feeling cartoony or unserious and feels so much more imposing than so many horrors with that exact goal in mind. A good example of this would be something like Terrifier, in which it's so over-the-top that it no longer really means anything - the bloodiness becomes basically nothing, causing your mind to just look past it whenever it's there. Curry Barker managed to balance the gore so well that it was often present while not simply becoming noise, and always felt like such a force to command a scene.
I think some of the most important parts of a movie are often its last 5-10 minutes. These last moments allow the movie to create a lasting impact on the viewer that they will think about as they walk out of the cinema and, hopefully, for the next few days. This can be a question, it can be a twist, or it can simply be an incredibly executed finale. The audience knows from quite early on that there are only really two ways that this movie can end: Bear dies, or Nikki dies. I absolutely loved the idea that it almost ended with them both being under each other's trance, both suffering within their own bodies while being happily in love on the outside, with no real soul anywhere in the relationship. This is only for Bear's suicide attempt to end up working, causing his death and for Nikki to break out of her own trance and face everything that has happened. We never actually saw any consequences of the events of this story, only Nikki facing the horrors displayed in front of her.
No AI was used in writing this article.