Review: Obsession

Image courtesy of Blumhouse Productions.

I'm probably going to be in the minority here, but I found Curry Barker's acclaimed horror movie "Obsession" to be a film that I occasionally admired, but by which I was mostly underwhelmed. The past few years has seen the release of a number of well-received horror movies of some depth - "Weapons," "Sinners," "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple," and "Hokum" - that have given new life to the genre. Barker's film has been mentioned alongside that crowd, but I found it to be the weakest link by far.

The setup is fairly simple - it's a new take on "The Monkey's Paw" in which a character comes to learn that what they wished for is certainly not what they wanted. In this case, it's so-called nice guy Bear (Michael Johnston), who has pined for Nikki (Inde Navarette), a member of his circle of friends, for some time but hasn't told her his feelings.

Bear's best friend, the abrasive Ian (Cooper Tomlinson), begs him not to confess his love to Nikki during the group's trivia night and possibly upset its balance, while Sarah (Megan Lawless), the group's other member, has an obvious crush on Bear.

After failing for the umpteenth time to tell Nikki how he feels, he buys a trinket at a shop that could best be described as selling mystical stuff that allows its purchaser to make a wish and requires them to break it in half to seal the deal. Of course, Bear wishes that Nikki would be infatuated with him - and his wish comes true, but in a deranged sort of way.

Suddenly, Nikki moves in and doesn't want to let Bear out of her sight. He recognizes that she is likely with him only due to the wish he made - and not for genuine reasons - and he overlooks this, that is, until her behavior turns increasingly disturbing (her movements suggest something otherworldly at times) and violent.

Navarette deserves credit for her completely committed - and often unhinged - performance as the girl under the spell. One of the film's biggest problems is that by making Bear, a misogynist masquerading as a nice guy, the protagonist and relegating Nikki to outlandish behavior, it robs her of agency. There's a brief moment at the film's end when we could have gotten a glimpse of Nikki's perspective, but we don't.

Worse, the film's nastiest death is perpetrated against another female character, who also happens to be the best person in the movie. A less likable male character is later dispatched so quickly that it barely registers. The film also falls into a repetitive pattern in which Bear leaves the house, comes home, and is treated to increasingly frightening scenarios involving Nikki.

Also, I often believe that the less said the better in the case of horror movies and their mythologies, but "Obsession" is a film that flirts with providing answers, but doesn't do so in a satisfactory manner. At one point, Bear calls a phone number listed on the back of the wish object's packaging and he speaks to someone who sounds like a bored office worker, but who seemingly has insight into how the object works. But we gain no insights. Then, another character makes a wish later in the film that is granted immediately in an unexplainably silly manner.

There are elements of "Obsession" that I admired - namely, Navarette's performance and the picture's memorably gloomy cinematography. The low lighting in nearly every scene helps to convey a sense of doom that never lifts. And the fact that the film's director is only in his 20s suggests that he could have a better movie in him next time around. I didn't dislike "Obsession," but I'm a little surprised by the mostly glowing reviews for a movie that I found to be, at best, only moderately effective.