Never Make That Wish

I have wanted to see Obsession for months now. I live in a small town with a theater that only has three screens, and while we tend to get a lot of movies here, over time, occasionally something skips us, and when it does, I just have to wait for home video. At the time it came out the theater near me had Michael and The Devil Wears Prada 2 taking up all three theaters. Eventually, three weeks after it came out, Backrooms finally made it to me, but Obsession never arrived. It’s a weird choice since Obsession ended up making almost $100 Mil more than Backrooms. Just one of those theater choices I couldn’t explain.

Still, after a long wait the film came out on home video and it was clear that it would be an instant buy for the collection. I do buy a lot, and most things end up in the collection eventually, but there are discs I get just out of a sense of obligation, and there are films that I absolutely have to have and even without every single person that got to see the film raving about it, I knew that Obsession was going to be one of those films I had to buy. So I got my preorder for the film in as soon as I could, and then waited for delivery (and waited a little bit more so my podcasting partner, Ghoul Mike, was available to watch it with me).

So I’ve seen it now, and I can attest, Obsession is everything I was promised. It is a dark and disturbing horror film, one that goes places you don’t want it to go, all in service of a story that absolutely will stick with you long after the credits have rolled. This is the kind of horror movie that comes along once every few years, establishing a new baseline for audiences. And, most of all, it highlights the fact that good horror can always sell itself in theaters even when audiences have grown tired of whatever slop Hollywood cranks out. Obsession was fantastic in the best worst kinds of ways.

The film focuses on Bear (Michael Johnston, and no, we don’t get a clear explanation for why his character is named “Bear”). He’s a twitchy, nervous guy that clearly can’t get his life together, spending his days working in a music store with his best friends: Ian (Cooper Tomlinson), Sarah (Megan Lawless), and Nikki (Inde Navarrette). Bear is also deeply, madly in love with Nikki, but he has absolutely no hope, always getting tongue tied around her despite them all being friends for years and years. He wants to confess his love, but he never finds a way to do so.

And then, one evening, he stumbles upon a little New Age witchy shop and finds a gag gift, the One Wish Willow. As the packaging says, open it up, make a wish, and break the stick inside, and your wish will come true. After driving Nikki home and, once again, being unable to confess his love to her, Bear wishes upon the willow that Nikki loved him more than anyone in the whole world. Nikkie immediately turns around on the spot, comes to his car, and basically forces him to take her home with him. From there they have a whirlwind romance while all their friends wonder just what the hell is going on. It’s pretty clear there’s something wrong with Nikki, and as time goes on even Bear starts to notice it. But he’s in too deep, and as Nikki goes crazier and crazier, there might not be any way to set things right…

Obsession is a film about consent, or really the lack thereof. Bear makes a wish about a girl that, up to that point, hadn’t expressed any interest in him past friendship, and in the process functionally rewrites her entire existence. She goes from the fun-loving girl who likes hanging out with her friends in the evening after work to suddenly this girl obsessed (title drop) over one guy, ignoring everything else in her life so she can be with him all day and night. He destroys her, functionally, although it takes some time for him to realize it.

Now, if I wanted to be really picky, the phrasing on the wish maybe doesn’t quite lend itself to her dropping everything and anyone. He says he’d like her to love him more than anyone else, although I’d argue “anything” over “anyone” would cause a bigger rewrite of her personality. Regardless, though, I think the intent is just asking for a wish to make her love him, whatever the language involved, functionally acted like a monkey’s paw scenario. Be careful what you wish for, and all that, because forcing her to love him is the inciting act that causes everything that follows.

And what follows is a disturbing series of events as Nikki goes from happy person to girl madly in love with Bear, to, over time, a creepy distortion of herself who will literally drop everything to wait for him to come back to her. She’s jealous, needy, controlling, possessive, functionally the worst aspects of a relationship gone wrong, but because Bear forced this on her and (as we learn) he only gets one wish, there’s no way for him to undo what he did. He has to live with this because this is a mess he made.

While Nikki can come across as the “monster” in the film, especially as she’s taken over more and more by the wish, Obsession never loses sight of the fact that Nikki is the victim here. Bear did this to her and what follows is a very Twilight Zone style tale as Bear gets exactly what he asked for but not what he actually wanted. And, meanwhile, Nikki seemingly disappears into this other person she’s become, with only brief glimpses of the real person trying to fight her way back out.

The film is called Obsession, and the flat reading of the title would say, “hey, Nikki is obsessed. She’s the bad guy.” But it’s Bear’s obsession with her that causes all the horror to come. And there’s a lot of horror. This film doesn’t hold back, building its creeps and scares over time until, in the last act, things go way off the rails and the evil version of Nikki (which may be a version of Nikki possessed by the wish, or an entity controlling Nikki, pretending to be her) starts committing more heinous and gory acts. But all along you have to remember: Bear did this. He’s not the victim, Nikki is.

Weirdly, though, Obsession is a darkly comic movie. Yes, it’s horrible, and disturbing, but it also has this weird edge to it. As Nikkie slowly slips further and further down the line of obsession (that Bear wished for), her behavior, while creepy and unsettling, is also darkly funny at times. I admit I love horror films, and I like a good creepy scare, so sometimes I laugh at the awfulness on screen because I enjoy it. This is the kind of film that made me laugh from shock more than a few times, but considering writer / director Curry Barker comes from the comedy world (with his YouTube channel that’s a bad idea), I think that was the intent. Horror and comedy work really well together, and I have to think Barker tuned this film to work on all fronts. It keeps the audience guessing as Nikki ramps up well into horror monster territory.

And yet the film never loses sight of its characters. Bear is a monster in his own way, and the film makes him feel every step of his punishment, wishing for something he didn’t deserve that also completely violated Nikki’s autonomy. Nikki, meanwhile, has her moments where she gets to poke through, and we’re reminded there’s a real person there, screaming, trying to break free. The movie makes us feel all this, and so much more, and the horror and terror builds because of all that bear is done.

But I think, really, the film wouldn’t work if it wasn’t for lead actress Inde Navarrette bringing it all together. Her performance as Nikki has so many layers to it, with the actress showing the origins, fun-loving side, as well as every strange, disturbing, and creepy aspect that gets layered over top. Navarrette plays so many versions, so many emotions for the character, twisting her face and body to showcase how unhinged her possessed character becomes. It’s an absolute tour-de-force, a star making turn that, hopefully, will lead to her getting many more roles to showcase her talent in the future.

Obsession is a dark and disturbing film that knows exactly what it’s doing. Expertly executed by Barker, this is a stunningly well made horror film that shocks right to the core. I absolutely understand why this film, made for only $750,000, went on to make $488.1 Mil. This is the exact kind of horror that will suck everyone in, relevant and prescient to the current world, while also shocking and gory for all audiences. I have nothing but praise for this film and I know it’s going to stick with me for a long time to come. It’s that kind of horror movie.