Obsession (2025)

A phenomenal and timely supernatural horror film that comments on gender taking cinema by surprise may not be new but the approach Obsession (2025) takes to being that phenom-movie invites the entire genre, if not the film industry, to step up to the plate and elevate their own game. With a budget under $1 million dollars, something unheard of today the director and writer, Curry Barker, brings tension, fear, and nuanced social commentary that is particularly applicable today to the big screen. Barker’s ability to do this however has already been established on YouTube in 2024 with his self-starred and self-created Milk & Serial, available to watch now free on the platform.

Curry Barker didn’t create Obsession alone however and the phenomenal cast and crew that brought the modern horror to life that includes producers James Harris, Haley Nicole Johnson, Christian Mercuri, and Roman Viaris. Additionally cinematographer Taylor Clemons coupled with music by Rock Burwell helps bring the Curry Barker created short, The Chair, to the full feature film. For a deeper dive led by a qualified diver into the domestic horror genre and how it directly and indirectly participated in the feminist movement origination of the 1970s I recommend Scream With Me by Eleanor Johnson. In Johnson’s book she describes how 6 films, including The Stepford Wives (1975) and Alien (1979), sparked conversation both broadly and at the metaphorical dinner table while providing examples of nuanced gender issues playing out that had been previously unshared on the big horror screen.

What is horrifying to one, like domestic issues with a partner might seem silly to another, particularly in a normally male dominated sphere like horror. Barker creates a universe where anyone can make any wish using a One Wish Willow toy and that one wish will come true. The endless directions and spin-offs from this idea have been touched on in interviews Barker has done but who has that One Wish Willow and what they wish for opens up many doors to conversations similarly to the domestic horror of the 1970s that did the same for the feminist movement.

The cultural parallels between the 1970s and today are stark not only in the horror realm but in society as well. Following the Gamer Gate controversy, explosion of online agitator communities, and subsequent 2016 election the already strained relations between and even within genders seemed to reach boiling points cyclically with the news cycle. The author of Men Who Hate Women, Laura Bates, infiltrated some of the extremist groups where the most misguided and harmful cultural perception about gender issues originate and spread. Those same toxic mentalities have been trickling down to create men like the Obsession characters, Michael Johnston who plays Baron “Bear” Bailey and Cooper Tomlinson who plays Bear’s coworker, Ian. The pair are part of a larger peer group which includes two other coworkers, one of which is Inde Navarrette playing Nikki Freeman and the other is Megan Lawless playing Sarah Harper, the daughter of the group’s boss.

From early on it becomes clear that Bear is likely experiencing what is described as the Loneliness Male Epidemic counterposed with Ian who is nonchalant about relationships with women and sees them as relationship counterparts to men rather than individual people. Bear arrives home from practicing him confessing his feelings to Nikki at a diner with Ian to discover his cat, Sandy, has overdosed and died after getting into a pill bottle. The bottle displays a clear, Sharpie-d warning to be careful, finding out it belonged to his grandmother who’s since passed and left him the apartment. Nikki calls him after he’s cleaned up Sandy’s body and he doesn’t tell her but rather worries about getting her a replacement necklace when hers falls down a drain mid-call. He sees an opportunity to confess his love to her after trivia that night and decides to open that conversation to her with a crystal necklace.

Like many domestic horror films what appears kind-hearted or romantic early on is actually selfishly motivated and begins the unraveling that abruptly upends the friend group’s lives. When the group meets up at the bar shortly after Bear purchases the One Wish Willow for $6.99 plus tax, intending to give it to Nikki after not vibing with any necklace options at the shop, he tells Sarah about Sandy and fails to pull the trigger on his confession to Nikki even when they’re separated from the group. Little comments, looks and hints are throughout the friend group’s interactions that detail what is happening just beneath the surface and later revealed. Everyone in the group is keeping something from the others despite the cordial interactions and friend-like banter they are still just coworkers with their own agendas.

The scene right after they leave the bar trivia night is one of the best ways the film shows the friend group dynamic before the much more intense party scene later on in the film. After they exit into the parking lot Nikki goes off to give a homeless man cash she’s taken from Bear, even crouching down to be face-to-face with him and treat him like a person when she gives him the money. While the other three stand away and during their interactions skirt around the unspoken Bear-Nikki confession everyone but Nikki anticipates. Sarah is clearly interested in Bear and believes Nikki just doesn’t see what a “catch” he is while Ian seemingly wants Bear to confess but also clearly doesn’t believe it will go well.

Following an orchestrated situation Bear is tasked with driving Nikki home instead of Ian but chickens out and doesn’t utilize the drive home to confess. He pulls up outside Nikki’s house and decides to try and confess his feelings as she’s exiting but it is awkward, weird, and completely misguided. During this scene Nikki shares some of her own goals and reiterates her plans, that she wants to be writer and is quitting their shared job. She drops hint after hint that he is a friend to her, if not a brother, and even sighs with relief when he lies and says he isn’t confessing feelings. The conversation goes so poorly he pulls what he thinks is a Hail-Mary and calls her Freaky Nikki as she walks up to her house, something that stops her in her tracks. She is upset and confused, Ian having noted earlier it wasn’t a kind nickname from their formative years, despite the audience never finding out why she was being called that.

Bear is embarrassed and panicked, worrying he has ruined his chance forever with Nikki after being too afraid to have the conversation. He remembers the One Wish Willow he intended to give to Nikki as she goes inside and in his deflated state he makes a poorly thought out wish. Bear wishes that Nikki loved him more than anyone in the whole world and breaks the stick. Almost immediately the camera angle shows Nikki staring from her front stoop, backlit so her face and features are obscured, something the film utilizes often to convey information to the audience about Nikki’s state. Before he knows it she’s at his window asking that he come inside, citing his cat’s death as a reason but accidentally saying her own cat died, mirroring him in that moment a little too well.

It is obvious that he knows something is wrong from this very first interaction with her post wish due to her increasingly creepy behavior, like putting her head down on the dash and almost snapping out of her daze a couple times and stating she doesn’t know why she’s doing what she’s doing. Despite the clear signs something is wrong with Nikki he brings her home and they end up in awkwardly in bed together. Nikki makes aggressive and uncharacteristic advances on Bear, even making out momentarily, before she freaks out screaming and jumps across the room from him. These momentary freak outs seem like the real Nikki breaking through, especially on the first night, and being absolutely appalled by her behavior but apologetic. After the first night however things become much darker when it becomes clear Bear plans to go along with this new but off relationship.

Personally the moment he made the wish I suspected he was the bad guy as someone familiar with Fairly Odd Parents and the 50-year twist. Following the first night weirdness Nikki creates a disturbing commemoration for Sandy in Bear’s apartment which includes Sandy’s dug up corpse arranged in a set up that more closely resembles a shrine than a memorial. At work the next day her odd behavior continues, noticeable enough to cause Ian to confront Bear about it, the shot showing them whispering in the back while Nikki watches Bear from the register. Ian and Sarah are completely taken aback by Bear and Nikki’s announcement that they are an official couple, something both didn’t expect as the outcome from Bear’s confession.

A montage of clips between Nikki and Bear show their relationship progress somewhat normally but underneath the picturesque veneer cracks show throughout. Nikki is always a moment or two away from a completely opposite reaction to the situation or blatantly staring at Bear while smiling creepily. It becomes even more clear that Bear sucks when he is annoyed and embarrassed by these instances rather than thankful he got everything he wished for, if not a little more. The “sunny days” of their relationship come to an abrupt halt however when Ian tells Bear as he is at a dinner date with Nikki. Ian reveals that Nikki lied about her behavior the first night resulting from a bad MDMA trip and the grief she feels about her estranged father being terminally ill.

Bear brushes Ian’s worries off, more interested in continuing his fake relationship than reality, but he isn’t able to shake the feeling something is off. He decides to bring it up with Nikki and question what is going on which results in one of the best scenes in the movie as Nikki abruptly stands while smiling and begins shouting at Bear that she thought they were having a nice dinner and stomping her foot like a child having a tantrum. Bear is so freaked out he grabs her hand and assures her it is a nice date and that nothing is wrong which only leads to even more horror later that night.

During the car ride phone call Ian informs Bear that him and Nikki weren’t invited because of how weird the relationship seems to the friend group. People they know are worried that Bear is taking advantage of Nikki’s state to worm his way into a relationship with her and that the couple is too codependent already. Ian notes Nikki’s weirdness as another reason they weren’t invited and that Bear would bring Nikki and vice versa if either were invited which causes Bear to protest. Bear is more concerned about the perception of the relationship rather than how it’s actually going, as things left on a very concerning note just that day. Like Bear has just noticed something is off, which would be highly unlikely post cat sandwich, he  calls the One Wish Willow help line and asks if he can alter the wish. The unamused worker on the other line seems annoyed that Bear is going around the issue rather than being upfront about his role in things and the outcome he desires.

Bear is informed he can’t alter a wish and that the only way to cancel a wish is for Bear to die, which he doesn’t even consider momentarily. Bear does care about and ask however if the love between him and Nikki is real, and the trailer line that makes anyone watching furrow a brow is replied that just because Bear wished it for her doesn’t mean it isn’t real. Bear asks what happened to the real Nikki, another admission that he knows exactly what is happening with confirmation he only cares about how it impacts him. The answerer informs him that Nikki is there and then horrid, blood curdling disembodied screams are heard from the other end of the line seemingly coming from her. Bear avoids this and hangs the call up, freaked out and disturbed but resolved to attend the party and prove normalcy to everyone and himself. Inside the audience is shown the extent to which Nikki is physically suffering in addition to the obvious examples of her mental suffering. The entire day through the night Bear was at work Nikki stood in the same spot, her vomit, sweat, urine, and possibly excrement cover her but she still smiles. The carpet she stands in is smushy with liquid and looks like it has rotted in the short time.

Nikki acts like nothing is happening, acting like Bear’s concerns are related to her not putting in enough effort on her physical appearance as she should. She goes to shower when Bear tells her about the party and while she’s in the bathroom he informs her through the door that she isn’t invited, claiming it is a boy’s night. A demonic voice screams and responds as Bear tries to leave before Nikki forces her to come with him but it is quickly shown that not only did she come but she is wearing uncharacteristic outfit, another rebellion on real Nikki’s part that could double as a cry for help that her friends could see. Unfortunately for Nikki no one at the party is her friend and she escalates her shocking behavior to the point she smashes a bottle into her head, splitting her forehead open. We see Bear take her to the hospital but the staff won’t see her for unknown reasons as she dances manically. It is insanity that Bear’s reaction to both the party and outside the hospital is annoyance and embarrassment characteristic of abusers once a victim of abuse has responded to said abuse.

Rather than thinking of helping Nikki or reading between her lines to find the true meaning he texts with Sarah after the party and she requests he meet her so she can tell him the rest of the information she wanted to earlier at work. This asshole decides to sneak out once he thinks Nikki is asleep to meet Sarah and as he’s leaving the room the sleeping Nikki begins speaking, which is actually the real Nikki. She begs Bear to kill her while “she” aka whatever is possessing Nikki, is asleep, confirming that she can only do things when the possessed-Nikki isn’t in control like when she’s asleep. This makes the cat sandwich and memorial even more apparent cries for help from real-Nikki that Bear not only ignored but covered up or became upset about. He runs away to meet Sarah rather than doing anything about Nikki asking for help and confirming to him outright that she is possessed and that whatever “loves” Bear isn’t a human at all.

While with Sarah she reveals to Bear that Ian and Nikki had been casually hooking up off and on prior to Bear and Nikki getting together and that she, Sarah, had feelings for Bear. He seems genuinely interested in Sarah during this conversation, her requesting that Bear open her last remaining response from art school for her. Before Bear is able to do this however their moment is interrupted suddenly by Nikki running full speed at Sarah’s window, breaking it and smashing Sarah’s head into a brick over and over. Sarah’s face is completely obliterated and she is definitely dead as Bear screams on in horror which causes Nikki to try to comfort him. She tells Bear she’s going to take care of everything and in his shocked state he also goes to try and fix things, shaken into action by Sarah’s brutal murder. Unconcerned about covering up the crime or helping Nikki he goes back to the shop he purchased the One Wish Willow from with the intent to confront the owner.

Covered in Sarah’s blood and clearly shaken up Bear blames the shop owner for selling such a toy but he Uno-reverses that quickly and tells Bear not all wishes turn out bad and gestures to his shop as evidence. I loved that the movie itself makes it clear through people’s responses to Bear that he is doing something wrong even if he is in denial about that. He chose this outcome for Nikki and by extension himself and is now blaming everyone but himself including Nikki. Frustrated and not satisfied with the shop owner’s response he purchases two additional One Wish Willows due to being stopped by supernatural forces from breaking another stick and thus wish, he resolves to have someone else make a wish to counteract his wish, a suggestion from the owner as a solution. Bear urgently leaves and goes to Ian, trying to explain quickly what is happening and exactly what he wants Ian to do. Upset with Bear and unfazed by what Bear tells him about Nikki, including that he knows that Nikki and Ian hooked up, he sarcastically wishes for a billion dollars. To his delight and Bear’s dismay money stacks begin falling from the sky and landing on the ground around Ian and Bear as Bear falls to his knees defeated in his efforts.

After Bear leaves Ian’s place he finds that Nikki has mutilated Sarah’s body in his apartment and arranged a shrine to their relationship in the front entrance area. She has also put on Sarah’s dress from the night before and either tattooed on or drew on Sarah’s own tattoos and fashioned Sarah’s hair to her own head, becoming what she believes Bear wants. Bear asks Nikki to undo the wish with her own wish but she has a gun and when Ian comes in she one-shot-one-kills him upon his entry, leaving only Nikki and Bear while also showing the lengths to which possessed-Nikki will go to. Bear becomes even more frightened by her determination once she ties him up and vomits on him like her body is rejecting possession. He convinces her to let him go to the bathroom and in his peril decides to commit suicide by overdosing on the same oxycodone that killed Sandy earlier in the movie.

This later scene in the bathroom is the first time Bear is about to do the right thing but just when the audience feels he might somewhat redeem himself by freeing Nikki he goes to make himself throw up the pills. Apparently Bear’s ultimate decision is to carry on in the relationship and make do with the situation despite the murders of both Ian and Sarah. In the middle of Bear putting his fingers down his throat he suddenly stops similarly to when Nikki did earlier in the movie as she walked up to her house and stands to go out to the living room. Out there he embraces with Nikki, suddenly mutually interested in the relationship and informing her they will get through things together which makes her really happy.

Before the couple can make the next move however Bear begins to succumb to the pills, foaming at the mouth and laying his head on Nikki’s lap. As Bear dies Nikki screams and cries in sorrow, begging Bear not to leave her, but ultimately he does die which makes Nikki grab the gun and put it in her mouth to end her own life. Just as suddenly as every other wish-shift she snaps back to herself and begins to take in the wretched scene around her. She is understandably distraught and pushes Bear’s body off her lap onto the floor into the same spot Sandy had been in when Bear found her dead earlier. Nikki continues screaming and crying as the film draws to a close, all but her dead from their foursome and only her facing the consequences of the preceding events.

Barker has said in multiple interviews that the original ending was Nikki killing herself in a Romeo and Juliet style outcome but also filmed the current ending which is what ultimately made the cut. I love that she is alive at the end and that that survival alludes to her saving herself by using the One Wish Willow to make Bear love her more than anything and stop himself from intervening in his suicide. She is thus freed by his death which cancels out his wish and despite the dire circumstances she finds herself in she is the Final Girl that survives. Inde Navarrette’s performance as Nikki warrants her Final Girl status, with what can only be described as the best breakout horror performance in a very long time if not ever. The way Navarrette talks about the character even reveals the depth she brought to the role and the insight she provided to her performance.

Nikki is the true victim in the film while Bear is the true villain and it uses gender relations to obscure this which only adds to the commentary, some male audience members leaving with the impression she is the monster. Some walked away with the idea that girls are crazy am-I-right as opposed to seeing how the male characters didn’t pay mind or attribute value to their female peers when it came to both Nikki and Sarah. The male characters are solely worried about relationships with their female peers that they can then leverage for status amongst other men rather than seeing them as real people with their own dreams and passions. From jump we learn that Nikki wants to be a writer and that Sarah is applying to art school to pursue tattooing with histories in the town that are leading them to aspire to be more. On the other hand Ian and Bear literally never talk about further aspirations or dreams, they are one dimensional characters that have transparent desires and behaviors. They don’t see these women as aspiring artists or counterparts but as possible partners to sleep with, date, or even domesticate.

The men in the movie either ignore their aspirations or only care as it serves them, like Nikki being asked to share a novel passage with the partygoers or Sarah’s art school dreams being a joke to them. Sarah is consistently offering herself up for rejection to chase her dreams whereas Bear can’t even withstand a minor rejection from someone who genuinely seemed to care about him as a friend. Bear didn’t care about being friends with either woman, only showing interest in Sarah when he knew she had interest in him, the early scene where she comforts him about Sandy at the bar coming to mind readily that he doesn’t even make note of. Nikki and him don’t align in any obvious ways, her even teasing him about his drink choice at the bar, but he still thinks that is his dream girl even though he’s known her a long time and has pursued friendship with her. Bear’s intentions with Nikki are never pure or love based but only relate back to what he perceives as status symbols he needs to achieve like a relationship with an attractive woman other men desire. Something that stood out over and over is how little Bear knows about Nikki, being told most information about her from Ian or Sarah, displaying that even though he felt entitled to a shot with her he wasn’t even viewing her as a real, individual person while befriending her.

Bear is the quintessential Nice Guy who doesn’t understand why women don’t want him despite only pursuing one type of or literally just one woman. He doesn’t view women as people but rather extensions of men but also believes he is a good guy, two contradictory beliefs. His cognitive dissonance is not uncommon today, many Twitter warriors clearly resonating with him upon leaving the theater, feeling like poor Bear shouldn’t have had to deal with that crazy, obsessed girlfriend. In reality Nikki isn’t and is never obsessed, but Bear is most definitely so obsessed he’d use supernatural forces to corral her into having feelings for him. In addition to this his issue is never that Nikki is under some sort of possession but rather how that possession is impacting the relationship negatively for him and hoping that she just figures it out so they can be together as-is. Freeing her doesn’t even occur to him until two of his friends are dead in his apartment whereas viewers are able to discern that as an obvious option to rectify the situation and his selfish wish.