Obsession

Bluesky

Bear has feelings for Nikki. Does Nikki feel the same way? Maybe not, and then more so. That's the dark seed of Obsession, and from it something special flowers.

A wish gone awry is an old story. We can definitely go back as far as Ovid in the Metamorphoses, at or around two millennia ago, in the tale of Midas. I'm particularly fond of the version Richard Dawson and prog-act Henki tell in their own opus Ivy. It's a different Greek poet, of sorts, that writer/director Curry Barker cites as his first introduction to that idea. Homer, but the one from The Simpsons, in the slightly more recent Treehouse of Horror II. That adaptation of the WW Jacobs story The Monkey's Paw was many's first exposure to the idea of a wish granted to the letter, but not the spirit, of a request. I'd suggest that you think of all the versions of that story you know, whether the source be a genie, a prophecy, or otherwise, but the outcome of that would undercut the intention of this review in a tragic, if not ironic, manner.

Working with frequent collaborator Cooper Tomlinson, Curry Barker's film starts with a group of friends who work in the same music store. Tomlinson is Ian, and a incredible opening sequence has Bear (Michael Johnston) pouring out his heart. The object of his affections is Inde Navarrete. She brings Nikki to life, in a performance that is magnetic in its intensity. Megan Lawless is their fourth friend, Sarah, part of a group that work together, pub quiz together, navigate early adulthood as a set.

What breaks the uneasy state of affairs is a wish. Intended as a gift, a One Wish Willow is a small novelty in an expertly crafted box. We see an online search that asks if anyone else remembers them, part of a 'Mandela Effect' forum. It's got the right spelling of Stan and Jan's eponymous bears, among countless lovely touches of production design. There's more than that, much more, but to give anything else away is to ruin the film's surprises. Not just shocks, startles, the odd jump scare but an unfolding that finds novelty in inevitability.

The make-up effects are brilliant, earning every part of the age rating with convincing gore that doesn't feel splashy despite the spray of droplets. Navarrete's a revelation, as with Johnstone she's had a recurring role in a TV show based on a genre film. She in Superman & Lois, he in Teen Wolf. In a cast that includes a familiar face in the form of Late Night sidekick Andy Richter, she's one of many here who deserve to become household names thmselves.

Obsession is a well-crafted and efficient horror thriller. It's not a début feature for Barker (no relation to Clive), but it's a big step away from his YouTube channel. As with Markiplier's Iron Lung, and Kane Parson's forthcoming Backrooms talent incubated online is making the jump to theatres. We've seen this before, music videos and adverts and before them individual film-school intakes have launched generations of talent whose influence is still felt across multiplexes.

Just as those talents learned the roles and rules of the cinematographic craft in order to subvert and break them, Obsession sets out the boundaries of its circumstance and wish and builds upon them. This isn't necessarily a new story, but it's an incredible version of it. There are noises about Obsession becoming the first of an anthology series. Other franchises are struggling with balancing old and new but on a fraction of the budget Obsession is not just a real indicator of talent but an absolute treat. I look forward to seeing more from Barker, but in the interim I strongly recommend that this film become a focus for your interest. See as much of it as you can.

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