Review: ‘Obsession’ is a vicious and hilarious takedown of Nice Guy Syndrome
2026 / Dir. Curry Barker
Rating: 4/5
Watch if you like: A blend of Weapons and Talk to Me, your new girlfriend packing your lunch for work and that’s really sweet of her but it turns out she cooked your dead cat, but hey, what are you going to do, at least you have a girlfriend, right?
A riff on the classic “monkey’s paw” storyline trope, Curry Barker’s Obsession is a vicious and often hilarious takedown of friend-zoning and “nice guy syndrome.”
When we first meet Bear (Michael Johnston, Teen Wolf), he comes across as introverted, socially awkward, and lonely. He lives by himself in his grandma’s old home and doesn’t really have anything going on besides working at a musical instrument store and going to trivia with his co-workers, including Nikki (an outstanding Inde Navarrette, Superman & Lois). He had a cat, but it got into the medicine cabinet and just died. Bear’s other female co-worker, Sarah (Megan Lawless), clearly likes him, but he can’t get his eyes off Nikki, despite giving up every opportunity to tell her his feelings. What’s an emotionally insecure man-child to do? Use a supernatural antique toy from a hokey new age store, of course.
After Bear makes a wish for his forever crush, Nikki, to love him more than anything else in the world, she changes her personality instantly and falls head over heels for him. He soon comes to regret it when she starts making altars to his dead cat, duct-taping the door shut so he can’t escape, and spending nights watching him sleep while walking like the girl from The Ring and screaming.
It’s here that Navarrette really carries the film. While I wish we were given a bit more from her perspective—though it’s the film’s point that Bear can only see her as a trophy to be won—she’s able to get Nikki’s personality across in an early trivia scene, where her immediate transformation into a “pick me girl” that just wants to be around Bear all the time is immediately striking. As the wish-possessed Nikki grows further unhinged, Navarrette can instantly become absolutely terrifying and rage-filled. You genuinely never know what she’s going to do next, which is what makes this such a thrill ride.
What’s also quite effective is the ongoing development of Bear, whom Barker isn’t afraid to make quite despicable. Bear learns pretty early on that Nikki had told other co-workers that she only saw him as a friend, making everyone think he could be taking advantage of her. Though he has no real obvious escape as Nikki continues to get worse, he continually doubles down and tries to ignore her clearly wrong behavior. Obsession wholeheartedly condemns toxic male crushes and the idea that any woman owes a man anything by making Bear deservedly go through hell. If it wasn’t for the extreme violence, I’d recommend every young man go see this movie.
Following up on his viral hit Milk & Serial, Barker joins the ranks of the Phillipou Brothers as a YouTuber who previously dabbled in both comedy and horror shorts and has emerged as a fully formed writer/director. Clearly indebted to Zach Cregger, Barker skillfully balances comedy and full-on terror that builds and builds, escalating to a car scene that made me genuinely jump out of my seat in shock. The story is a one-trick pony, but an effective one for a relatively low-budget film. If this is what Curry can do with $1 million, I can’t wait to see what he does when he inevitably becomes a bigger name.
If you’re like me and love horror movies, you need to see Obsession, which likely will be one of the scariest movies of the year. It’s an amusement park ride of a movie that delivers laughs and brutal scares in equal measure, skewers a toxic part of contemporary masculine culture, and showcases Curry Barker and Inde Navaratte as two incredibly talented young artists.