OBSESSION is a 2025 psychological folk-horror film written and directed by Curry Barker (The Chair). Jason Blum of Blumhouse serves as an executive producer on the film. Barker was inspired to write the film while watching an episode of The Simpsons where Bart gets a monkey paw and causes a bunch of chaos. The film premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on September 5th, 2025 as part of its Midnight Madness block.
After breaking the mysterious “One Wish Willow” to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
The cast includes Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, and Andy Richter.
OBSESSION made its debut in theaters May 15th, courtesy of Focus Features.
I’ve been hearing a ton of hype for writer/director Curry Barker during the promotion for OBSESSION, but to be honest a year ago I had no idea who the guy even was. But as the horror junkie that I am, once he was getting talked about as the new up-and-coming man of horror I was intrigued. Once OBSESSION started to get extremely positive feedback from early screenings, I saw an article apparently confirming that he was chosen to reboot the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise.
My ear was to the ground at this point because I love slashers in general, and TCM is one of the OG slasher franchises. It felt like the hype for OBSESSION happened overnight, and with an unknown director and a cast of people I had never heard of I wasn’t even sure it would get a wide theater release. Now the trailer certainly showed promise with top-end production value, and by the time OBSESSION hit theaters I was ready.
I’m going to do my best to keep the language clean while expressing my thoughts on this movie, but man it was so damn good. OBSESSION is easily my surprise hit film of 2026, and its not even close. This is one of those movies that you just can’t stop thinking about, and you want to see it again right away. I just found myself wanting to tell people about it once I got home from the theater, but unfortunately for me my wife has a no talking about horror movies rule in our house. Bummer, I know.
OBSESSION tells the story of a character named Bear, a private and somewhat socially awkward 20-something who is struggling to navigate a crush that he has on a girl named Nikki, who has been a friend and co-worker of his for some time. After conventional methods let him down yet again Bear decides to try this gimmicky “one wish” novelty that claims if the user makes a wish and breaks the wooden stick, the wish will come true. What happens next is one heck of a wild ride.
Nikki goes from sweet and friendly girl next store to a stage 5 clinger real fast, and things just escalate from there. Initially Bear refuses to believe his wish was actually granted and just figures somehow this thing he always wanted finally came to fruition, but it becomes clear that something is seriously wrong with Nikki, and her love for him will stop at nothing.
Bear knows something is very, very wrong, but to ask for help would mean that not only would he have to explain this insane sequence of events, he would also have to own up to the fact that this was all his fault. So instead he does his best to keep it to himself while insisting there are other reasons why Nikki is all of a sudden attached to his hip, but her behavior becomes so terrifying that eventually he can no longer hide it.
From the start OBSESSION had a unique feel to me, and in some ways it actually reminded me of the horror film It Follows. It just had this strong and unique identity right away with the overall feel of the film, which was like this unescapable feeling of dread. I was immersed right away and out of the gate I really liked the score for the film as it was relied on heavily to set the mood for the more intense scenes. OBSESSION has so many “holy sh*t” moments, but man the final act was absolutely insane.
This movie has it all, legit horror elements, a ton of humor, and just a production value that is top notch throughout. I was also extremely impressed with the entire cast specifically Michael Johnston who plays Bear, and Inde Navarrette who plays Nikki. It is wild to me that these two actors who I have never even heard of delivered powerhouse performances. I read an article where Navarrette said she used Toni Collette’s performance in the horror film Hereditary, one of my favorite horror films in the last 10 years, as inspiration. As great as the story and everything else is in OBSESSION, this movie simply does not work as well as it does without these two acting their asses off. Also shoutout to Cooper Tomlinson who plays Ian, and Megan Lawless who plays Sarah. Both were great here as well.
As far as the story goes the concept in itself is fairly simple, but what I really liked is the order in which everything happened. The pacing was fantastic, and Curry Barker just has a sense of building suspense without doing too much. I felt like I was constantly on hire alert waiting for something crazy to happen, and on the flip side I would get lulled to sleep during one of the sweeter coming-of-age moments in the film only to be blindsided by something absolutely insane that almost knocked me out of my chair. No joke.
What makes OBSESSION so unique when it comes to the story is the fact that it is a real deal horror film, but it is also one of those coming-of-age style horror films where audiences can relate to the characters, which makes the events of the film hit that much harder. I won’t spoil anything of course, but the ending is wild and I can’t wait to see it again.
Just to quickly heap some praise directly on Curry Barker for his directing and his screenplay, this is a career-defining film for him. OBSESSION just has such an identity that makes it clear what Barker’s vision is, and I felt like as a horror fan I was in good hands with him. I mean I could talk about the camera work for hours, how he found a way to make viewers uncomfortable with these very specific set pieces, but just to have a final product as polished as OBSESSION you have to tip your cap to the man pulling the strings. Now clearly he had an amazing crew working with him and doing all of the other things that you need to do to make a successful film, but this dude is a special talent. Also credit to composer Rock Burwell for the amazing original music for the film.
Barker, who is also an actor, met actor Cooper Tomlinson during film school and the two have been working together ever since. The duo has a film in post-production called Anything But Ghosts that they teamed up on for the screenplay. Both are also starring in the film alongside talented actors Aaron Paul and Bryce Dallas Howard. Barker’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot is confirmed as well and is in pre-production. Bottom line, Curry Barker worked his way up my directors to keep an eye on list that is for damn sure.
THE VERDICT
A coming-of-age style horror film with It Follows vibes that is easily one of the best original horror films I have ever seen, OBSESSION is immersive and unsettling in the best way and a breakout film for talented writer/director Curry Barker. This is just one of those movies that catches you by surprise, and reminds you of why you make it a point to see movies in theaters. A writer/director nobody has heard of and a cast of actors better known for an episode here or there of some series showing up and hitting it out of the park, it does not get any better than this folks. I simply cannot recommend OBSESSION enough, and I hope you make it a point to see it in theaters.
TED TAKES RATING - 9.7/10
OBSESSION is now playing only in theaters. Check out the latest trailer below.