Moviewatchin' Psychopath!

Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Obsession review

OBSESSION:

ONE BAD WISH GONE HORRIFYINGLY WRONG!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

FOCUS FEATURES

Michael Johnston in Obsession

A man makes a wish to have the girl he has a crush on fall in love with him, only for it to backfire in the most nightmarish way possible in Obsession, the new horror film from Blumhouse and director Curry Barker (Milk & Serial). I was definitely interested when I saw the teaser trailer for this (I don’t recall if I ever watched the full trailer of it), as it showed very little about the film other than it involving a guy with some shitty novelty wish toy from the 80s who made a wish and is now regretting it, that was all I knew going into it.

I gotta say that minimal knowledge of the film did not prepare me for the absolute chaos I would witness while watching Obsession, Holy Fucking Shit! Obsession is crazy, and this is coming off of the completely unsettling Hokum, which I saw recently, though this probably isn’t anywhere near as nightmare-fueled as that film.

The film follows Bear (Michael Johnston-Teen Wolf, Slash, Endangered Species), a music store employee who has a serious crush on his co-worker and childhood friend, Nikki Freeman (Inde Navarrette-Wander Darkly, 13 Reasons Why, Superman & Lois). One day, while shopping at a mystic shop for Nikki, Bear finds a novelty toy known as a One Wish Willow that claims to grant a wish when broken, which he uses to make her fall in love with him.

At first, everything seems fine, albeit a little off that Nikki instantly falls for him, but Bear begins to suffer the nightmarish consequences of his wish with no way to reverse it…at least nonfatally.

The film also stars Andy Richter (Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Madagascar franchise, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby) as Bear and Nikki’s boss, Carter Harper.

Overall, Obsession is a dark, twisted take on, I guess, a romance that’s bursting with terror, sick humor, and a (slight) sense of relatability for anyone who’s ever had a huge crush on someone. The movie is basically like a horror version of a rom-com with a similar premise and plays around with the tropes, which I thought was very clever considering how formulaic that genre can get.

How often does a romantic-comedy depict someone being intensely affectionate towards another person because of something magical happening to them, or doing something completely insane for the sake of love, and it’s seen as charming? Pretty often, though, in actuality, that crazy rom-com behavior would be seen as creepy if done in real life, and this film illustrates that in the most extreme ways possible.

In an actual rom-com, Michael Johnston’s Bear would probably be this awkward but kind-hearted kid trying to get the girl of his dreams. That’s not what this movie does, as they don’t exactly portray him as particularly likable, but they make him sympathetic and endearing enough for the film to work, though there are plenty of times in it where he’s too stupid to pick up on things that are wrong.

Inde Navarrette is freaking incredible as Nikki and genuinely frightening when the wish’s effects take hold, while also having a degree of humor on top of that. She’ll scream, say, and do something crazy, and all of a sudden she’ll say something casual and normal, which is probably the best running joke in the movie because it always happens when you’d least expect it.

Also, something the film does with her that I thought was extremely clever was keeping her in the shadows during a lot of scenes and leaving just enough light for you to make out her face, and you’re never certain if they’re going to do something with her face or it’s just her normal face that’s just in the shadows. I was waiting for her to turn into some kind of demonic entity and do a jumpscare, but it never happened, and it was an effective suspense builder.

The scares range from quiet silence followed by booming sounds to gross-out scenes and gory kills, with one in particular involving somebody’s head, a brick, and a steering wheel. It’s not a straight-up gore-fest from beginning to end, but it gets pretty fucking grisly at times.

This is a solid movie with good tension and dark humor, but there’s one huge issue I have with it: the sound design. As someone who enjoys the loud, booming audio of an IMAX theater, this movie was way too fucking loud, and it wasn’t even in IMAX. Navarrette is screaming her lungs out (And damn, she’s got powerful lungs according to this film), but it got annoying and repetitive to the point where it did affect my rating of it a little.

I feel this movie is going to have varying reactions amongst moviegoers, and truth be told, they’re all valid. For me, aside from…the sound designers trying to put Christopher Nolan to shame for some odd reason, I really liked Obsession as a bizarre, completely unpredictable horror take on a rom-com premise, if you know what you’re getting into, you've got quite a date with this film.