By Dan Skip Allen

“Obsession” is an indie horror film that came out last year at the Toronto International Film Festival during its midnight madness section and was later picked up for distribution by Focus Features. The movie will come out wide on May 15th, but I was able to see it at the Florida Film Festival 2026. It’s from writer/director Curry Barker and features a romance at its core, but it also has horror elements that take over. It got a lot of fan adulation from filmgoers who saw it at the festival and critical acclaim as well. That is the magic thing most films are looking for. As I am both a film aficionado and film critic, it doesn’t do me any service as I wasn’t a fan of this movie. I always applaud the effort, though.

Bear (Michael Johnson) is a music store employee who is pining after one of his co-workers Nikki (Inde Navarrette). She doesn’t see him the same way. After he came to the loss of a pet, he decided on a whim to go buy the woman he liked a present. She lost a crystal down the drain, so he wanted to try to replace it for her. Instead, he buys a trinket called a one wish willow, which grants its owner one with when you snap it. He decides to wish that Nikki loves him unconditionally and forever. Once he goes out with his friends, they start to hit it off after he gives her a ride home. This begins a tumultuous relationship that he can’t get enough of until some weird stuff starts to happen.

The cast of this film is relatively new to me except for a supporting character played by Andy Richter, the music store owner. Johnson and Navarette are definitely new to me, but they do a really good job in this film despite my displeasure with the concept of it and the story overall as a whole. The acting is one of the strong suits of the film. Both lead actors do the best they can to make the film as interesting as they can. Their performances kept me engaged in the story even though I didn’t agree with the idea the film is trying to get across. Two other supporting performances from Cooper Tomlinson as Ian and Megan Lawless as Sarah, the two close friends of the lead characters. These two were also good in the movie, but the cast wasn’t the problem I had with this film.

Let’s start with the idea that you can make a wish and that wish happens. In this case, I wish for the woman you like to love you unconditionally. That can and will never happen. In a movie or otherwise. Never mind, it’s ridiculous to begin with. Sure, writers make up all kinds of things that are ridiculous to get viewers to go along with them in films. Sure, some of them make sense, and others like this are preposterous. As a man who has been searching for love my entire life, I find it difficult to believe in the idea of a wishing stick. Even if it gives its person a billion dollars. None of this could or would happen in reality. 

This film ends up being a horror film. It turns the concept into a literal “obsession”, as the film’s title suggests. No man or woman would ever be this obsessed with the other species like this film tries to make one believe. Sure, there are rare occurrences where something similar to this could potentially happen. It’s a rarity as far as I’m concerned. Drugs, alcohol and so forth could get men and women to be this connected to the other species, but I’d say there is more to it than just pure sexual magnitude. Even I who’ve been attracted to a certain woman or two would never even come close to doing or acting the way this movie suggests. I can’t believe it no matter what anybody says. That’s just me, though. And that’s why I don’t buy this film or like it for that matter. It’s not for me.

As far as the horror elements go in this movie, they are jarring, to say the least. Some scenes happen very quickly and come out of nowhere. A scene involving a car and smashing someone’s head into a car’s steering wheel was quite alarming. Other scenes of smashing wine glasses into a human were pretty crazy as well. Some spooky nighttime scenarios where the main character is watching the other main character while they sleep were creepy. Weird walking and camera tricks gave some of the bedroom scenes the effect that they were going for. The horror events worked on the level they were meant to.

“Obsession” is a horror movie with a concept and idea I couldn’t get behind. Some others might believe in this, but I didn’t. The lead actors Johnson and Navarrette, and supporting actors sold this idea well even though I couldn’t get behind the idea as a whole. The horror elements did work very well, and I can see how many would applaud them within the concept of the film. I just can’t get behind a movie where I don’t believe the story or what the writer is trying to say. Sure, this might happen, but not to the level that this writer/director suggests in this movie. Even a hopeless romantic like myself can’t get myself to believe in this idea. Unfortunately for me, all the elements of this movie don’t come together enough for me to recommend it, but maybe others who see it will disagree with me and enjoy it. That’s why cinema is so great. We all have our different likes and dislikes.

2 ½ stars