“Obsession” is a horror romance movie written, directed, and edited by 26-year-old Curry Barker, who before this made YouTube videos and a film called “Milk and Serial,” a movie with a very tight budget, handled with only $800 dollars. “Obsession,” however, had a budget of around $750,000, according to Forbes and Curry Barker, still considering it to be a very budgeted project. Rather than being posted by Barker on Youtube, “Obsession” is produced by Blumhouse, making some of the most popular movies in recent years like “Get Out” and “Whiplash.”
“Obsession” is about Bear Bailey, a guy who has a crush on his longtime friend, Nikki Freeman. Bear becomes hopeless though, and makes a wish with “One Wish Willow” attempting to win Nikki, causing her to completely change, while being able to witness it happening. Bear is played by Michael Johnston, popularly depicted in “Teen Wolf.” He’s a very awkward character who at first seems to be pretty easy to empathize with, overtime develops into a character that can be easy to hate due to how he handles the situation, seemingly ignoring her until her behaviors become destructive.
Johnston does a really good job at making the character behave in a very lovesick and “stiff” way; his interactions at the start of the movie are very hard to watch due to how eccentric and realistic they are. Nikki is played by actor Inde Navarrette, whose most-known role was in “Superman and Lois,” followed by a later role in “13 Reasons Why.” Inde Navarrette plays an antagonistic character who, at the start of the movie, behaves pretty typically and plays into Michael Johnston’s acting perfectly, making the first part of the movie very uncomfortable. As the movie progresses, she plays an antagonist with a very wide range of behaviors, seeming normal one moment, and in the very next being loud and chaotic. Her acting gets creepier over time, and Inde Navarrette makes it work very well by playing into the unpredictability. This role was inspired by actor Mia Goth in the movie “Pearl,” who has a similarly odd range. 
Despite the smaller budget, this movie doesn’t seem low-budget at all, having minimal, but realistic effects. The movie was also colored very well, making the shots look pretty dark and professional. The movie has been extremely successful, earning $79.7 million worldwide, making this one of the most profitable movies in recent years.
I thought the movie’s plot was pretty good. With the core idea being similar to a stereotypical “love potion” idea, I thought the idea was well executed and shifted well into horror. Barker cleverly uses this to show selfishness from a wish like this and to Time Magaine states that due to it being able to be used on anything, “When people ask me, ‘Curry, if you had one wish, what would it be?’ I always say, ‘That the movie does really great at the box office,’ and it kind of gets a laugh. But really, that’s pretty selfish. I could wish for world peace.”
The other background characters also add a lot to the plot, most of them being Bear and Nikki’s friend group. This was really well done, as most of them seem pretty likeable and seemed realistic with how they treated Nikki’s weird behavior; they act pretty entertaining during times where they are all together. Bear’s friend, Ian, has a particular moment near the end of the film that is especially funny. Casa senior Geovany Cruz-Aragon stated, “I want to watch the film really badly. I don’t really like horror movies but I saw some of the clips of “Obsession,” and it looks so good. I don’t really like Bear, though. He seems like he enables the situation.”
I would definitely recommend the movie. I think it is really well done, especially considering its budget.
