Obsession - Review: I Love You So So So So So So So So So So So So So So So So So Much

Be careful what you wish for is one of the oldest adages in the English language, and one of the ripest for being twisted into horrendous circumstances. It's been seen time and time again and continues to prove ample ground for fresh faced filmmakers to take it to their vision of its most logical conclusion. Curry Barker (“Milk & Serial”) is doing just that, breaking into the film industry from a YouTube background with his interpretation of one single wish gone horribly horribly wrong in “Obsession.” 

Baron, played by Michael Johnston (“X-Men 97,” “Slash”), is your average twenty-something guy. He works at a local music store, has a weekly trivia night with his friends Ian, played by Cooper Tomlinson (“Milk & Serial”), and Sarah, played by Megan Lawless (“The Hate U Give,” “Table 19”), and pining after his co-worker and longtime friend Nikki, played by Inde Navarrette (“Superman & Lois,” “13 Reasons Why”). After many failed attempts to ask Nikki out, Baron eventually decides to use a “One Wish Willow,” a novelty gag said to grant the users wish, to wish that she loved him more than anyone else on Earth. And unfortunately, it works. 

Barker’s understanding of the fundamentals of horror is evident from the very start of the film, as he consistently plays with dread and open spaces to allow the audience to fill in the gaps. However, while the film is certainly scary and tense, what’s more impressive is the morality he and his cast play with throughout the film. There are questions of consent, co-dependency, toxic relationships, and controlling behavior throughout the film, and it always makes clear and concise standpoints on what Baron and the wish have done to Nikki. It never feels drawn out or overblown; rather, it's just as unsettling as one would expect a “worst-case scenario” horror film like this to be. Barker mixes his messages with a healthy amount of dark comedy and tension to prevent things from ever getting preachy or stamping out the dread. 

Given the premise, it's essential to have an actress able to take on a role as complicated and all-encompassing as Nikki. If her performance doesn’t work, then the film itself falls apart. Navarrette isn’t just the best part of the film, she delivers a performance truly head and shoulders above anything else that’s come out this year. There’s a distinction between Nikki’s various moments throughout the film that make watching the character’s fate not only uneasy, but also almost a mystery. You watch and try to figure out what is real and what is the wish, and Navarrette facial expressions and physicality build up the unknown of this story. She’s terrifying and heartbreakingly lovable, and without a doubt delivers the sort of performance that creates movie stars. If Focus and Blumhouse are smart, they should start putting together an awards campaign for her performance as we speak. 

The rest of the cast is fantastic as well. Johnston gets to play a sort of unintentional antagonistic force upon Nikki, one that grapples with the moral questions of what he’s done throughout the film. It’s one of those roles that feels so natural that you are constantly being pulled between wanting him to get his comeuppance and wondering if he deserves any of this. Tomlinson gets some really great comedic best friend material that still lets him delve into some dramatic work for the character, and Lawless is instantly charming and a wonderful spot of brightness in the film’s consistent tension. 

For a budget of just $750,000, Barker’s command of the environment and lighting is essential to making the dread work. Cinematographer Taylor Clemons (“Forbidden Fruit (2023),” “One More Game”) keeps things open, allowing more an unsettling amount of room to look around the screen. There’s a lack of quick cuts and jarring camera movements as well which, combined with the openness, allows the audience to search the screen. Is Nikki visible? Is she even there? Is she hiding? It lets the film’s tension rise even higher without doing much at all. The lighting is also fantastically effective, bathing everything in a warm glow that’s both comforting and disconcerting. The entire film’s production takes great efforts to dress up the everyday environments with an aesthetic that can be both comforting and terrifying at the drop of a hat. 

There are many individual elements that make the film particularly exceptional (Navarrette’s performance, the script’s morality challenging elements, the camerawork and lighting), but it constantly impresses with how easily it draws you in. For a film so dreadful and upsetting, it keeps hold of you the entire time, bringing you along to its conclusion. Barker sprinkles little things into the horror that enhance the mystery of the central wish conceit, allowing you to spiral into horrors of wondering and curiosity. Even better is that Barker, who also edits the film, keeps the pacing tight, moving things along without speeding them up for a “blink and its over” kind of horror tale. Even the musical score by Rock Burwell is an overbearing work of dreadfulness. But Barker manages to rope his cast and world into delivering something so engrossing that it becomes impossible to look away, like a car crash in motion.

“Obsession” feels like a very special film. Virtually every element feels executed at the highest level but also feels like a shaggy dog movie with ramshackle charms. Inde Navarrette carries the entire film, but Barker’s perfect script and moral quandaries, as well as the top-notch production merits, would make an already excellent time regardless. Really the entire film invites you in, invites you to care for Baron, to fall for Nikki, and to watch how he completely destroys everything around him. You’ll fall in love; horrible, destructive, dreadful love. 5/5