Obsession (2025)
Obsession | Curry Barker Has The Sauce
Written by Noah Dietz: 5/17/2026
To be frank, Curry Barker’s step onto the big screen with Obsession blew me away. I’m not yet familiar with his first film, Milk & Serial, but I’ve seen a lot of his sketch comedy work on YouTube before and thought he was solid. The second YouTube creator this year to get his film a wide distribution, Barker clearly has something to say and he’s not going to beat around the bush in telling you.
Nothing will prepare you for how quickly you’ll feel contempt for Michael Johnston’s character, Bear. From the moment he hits the screen and you realize he’s trying to refine his attempt to woo his platonic good friend, Nikki (Inde Navarrette), it’s hard to feel anything but frustration toward the man. It’s a relatable enough position at first. Bear is a man with what seems to be an unrequited crush, and he’s too afraid to actually make a move and say what he wants. There’s always a reason to delay, always a new excuse to back down. You start to feel bad for him, especially since one of his friends has legitimate feelings for him, but he’s too obsessed with someone who doesn’t reciprocate his crush to care. The dynamic between Bear and Nikki is only seen for a moment before things go off the rails, but it’s abundantly clear to anyone on the outside that this isn’t a path that he should go down. He’s a girl’s biggest nightmare, the close friend who has “something important” to tell her. And this all happens before he makes the wish that “Nikki loved [him] more than anybody in the world.”
Before we even see the ChatGPT-adjacent interface with the question “how to get a girl to fall in love with you" in the sidebar, we’ve already known the type of man Bear is. There’s sympathy to be had for him before he makes the wish, but it’s clear that this is a man who’s floundering long before he decides to ignore his friend’s autonomy and pursue his own desires. A choice he continues to pursue regardless of the cost to those around him. His sniveling, conniving performance sets the tone for the entire film, making it all but impossible not to root against him as we see him again and again act in pure, heinous self-interest.
While we’re talking about performances, I can’t say enough about Navarrette’s portrayal of Nikki. Switching in an instant between her bewitched self back to Nikki, only to go back again moments later is astounding to see. You can’t possibly stop feeling bad for her as you watch her try in vain to claw her way out of the pit that Bear so thoughtlessly kicked her down. There are scenes in this when Navarrette manages to fill you with such deep despair, even with just a glance. Her momentary snaps back to reality are heartbreaking every time as well, hammering home again and again that this is a partnership she did not consent to. I feel like people tend to throw around the idea of horror needing more award recognition a lot, but at no point in the last decade have I felt as strongly as I do now that a performance deserves recognition. Inde Navarrette deserves a nomination for her work here, at the very least. In my opinion, this is the strongest performance horror has gotten since Toni Collette’s in Hereditary.
Accountability is a strong theme in the story. At multiple points we see Bear’s friends try to caution him away from what he’s doing. It’s in ways as small as his friend Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) trying to tell him it “looks like you’re taking advantage of her being in a bad situation. None of my business, but it looks bad.” It’s also in the slightly misguided advice of his friend Sarah (Megan Lawless) trying to just warn him about how things might be a lot more complicated than he thinks. Bear obviously knows there’s more to it than his friends are aware of, but time and time again he makes the choice to overlook the pain he’s causing in favor of his own self satisfaction. All we see him do is attempt to dodge what he’s done, unwilling at any point to even consider becoming uncomfortable and owning up to it until things are too far gone. The deal was struck, and the time has come for 21st Century Incel Faust to learn that what he chose to wish for will have lasting consequences.
It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this strongly about characters in a film.
On top of great performances, this is a film that just looks good. The lighting choices made in this — especially in choosing when to highlight and when to obscure — are fantastic for what is only the second large-scale outing for the team. The effects work is a highlight as well, with a particularly brutal scene near the end that almost made me jump out of my seat. There’s a lot of gold here, and outside of the obvious moments there’s a lot in the details that really hammers it home.
I’d like to commend Barker for what is an incredibly solid horror film. Not only am I now frustrated that I didn’t make time for his previous feature, but I’m also incredibly excited to see what the future holds. I’ll be looking forward to getting new films from him for years to come, and I wish his career a steady climb upward if this is the quality we can expect from him.
Film: Obsession
Director: Curry Barker
Writer: Curry Barker
Release Year: 2025
Rating: 4/5
Obsession is an incredibly unsettling experience that isn’t afraid to settle into the dark reality of the film and make you watch. Curry Barker is a name to look out for.