Obsession (2025)
There is a specific kind of dread that the best horror thrillers manage to conjure, not the kind built from a sudden bang on the soundtrack or a face appearing in a mirror, but a slow, creeping certainty that something has gone very wrong and nobody is going to be able to stop it. Obsession (2025), the debut feature from director Curry Barker, arrives trailing exactly that sort of reputation. The premise is deceptively simple: a young man breaks a folkloric wishing artefact, the so-called "One Wish Willow", in order to win the heart of someone who barely knows he exists. What follows is a horror thriller that uses the bones of a very old story, the monkey's paw, the cursed wish, the love turned suffocating, to say something pointed about desire, possession, and the violence lurking inside romantic obsession. It is the kind of premise that could easily have become a gimmick, but Barker, working across a co-production between Tea Shop Productions, Under the Shell, Capstone Pictures, and Blumhouse Productions, keeps it grounded in genuine psychological unease. The Blumhouse involvement is worth noting: the company has a well-established track record of backing genre pictures that operate on modest budgets but carry real ambition, and Obsession fits that template comfortably.
Barker is a relative newcomer to features, and there is something fitting about a first-time director choosing material this tonally precarious. The film runs to 109 minutes and is a joint American and British production, which gives it a slightly transatlantic feel in its production values: polished but grounded, never quite glossy enough to feel like a studio picture, which serves the material well. The horror genre has always been a useful space for low-budget filmmakers with something to say, as anyone who has spent time with Clive Barker's early work (no relation, as far as anyone can tell) knows well. If the body-horror discomfort of Shivers or the psychological pressure of Hellraiser interests you, then the territory Obsession is working in will feel familiar, even if Barker's approach is distinctly his own. The film's tagline, "Be careful who you wish for", is a small, neat inversion of the familiar phrase, and it tells you a great deal about the story's preoccupations in five words.
The cast is a pleasing mix of the known and the new. Michael Johnston, who carries the central role of Bear, brings a particular kind of studied ordinariness to the part, the sort of performance that makes a character feel like someone you might actually know, which is exactly what a film like this needs. Inde Navarrette takes on the role of Nikki, and her work here has drawn considerable attention from audiences and critics alike. Cooper Tomlinson and Megan Lawless provide solid support, while Andy Richter, probably best known to audiences on both sides of the Atlantic for his long association with Conan O'Brien's various television ventures, appears in a role that suggests Barker was not afraid to play with tonal contrast. A cast like this, working within the genre conventions that Blumhouse has helped define for a generation of horror audiences, sets up a film that knows what it is and commits to it.
I finally got the chance to watch Obsession (2025), the absolute sensation that everyone has been talking about since its release.
Directed by Curry Barker, the film is being hailed as a monumental triumph for low-budget indie productions, having turned a tiny budget into hundreds of millions at the box office and counting. I made the decision to go in completely blind, which I highly recommend, because the experience is all the more potent when you don't know exactly where it's heading. At its core, it’s essentially a cinematic "be careful what you wish for" tale; if you’ve ever seen that classic Monkey’s Paw episode of The Simpsons, you’ll have a rough idea of the dark, inevitable trajectory this story takes.
The narrative centres on a deeply troubling premise that serves as a highly effective social commentary on the dangers of wanting to control a partner. Michael Johnston plays Bear, a man who effectively wishes to strip away the autonomy of his love interest, Nikki. On a base level, it’s easy to believe that Nikki is the antagonist, as she’s the one acting out the violence, creepy horror, and psychological trauma on everyone around her. But when you dive deeper, the brilliant twist of the knife is the realisation that she is, in fact, the victim, and Bear is the true monster. Anchoring this complex dynamic is newcomer Inde Navarette, who plays Nikki absolutely masterfully; she is a total revelation and is undoubtedly going to have an incredible career ahead of her.
As a piece of horror, the film is deeply unsettling, and I must warn you that the gore is very graphic indeed (it reminded me of When Evil Lurks). However, I’d probably consider this much more of a psychological thriller than a straight-up horror movie. It builds this suffocating, inescapable atmosphere that genuinely reminded me of the Japanese version of The Ring. There is this profound sense of hopeless, impending doom that hangs over every single frame, which was actually so effective that I ended up rewatching Ring the very same night just to scratch that specific cinematic itch. Barker does a brilliant job of keeping you on edge, relying on dread rather than cheap jump scares (although it has plenty).
Overall, I completely understand the massive hype surrounding Obsession, and it is undeniably a cracking, highly effective piece of indie cinema that punches well above its financial weight class. It’s a deeply disturbing, wonderfully acted, and visually striking psychological thriller that will absolutely get under your skin and stay with you long after the credits roll.
However, while it is a fantastic watch and a massive achievement for Barker and his team, it just falls slightly short of being a flawless, genre-defining masterpiece in my eyes. Obsession is a brilliant, terrifying ride that thoroughly deserves its massive success, even if it’s far from a classic for me.
Obsession lands, then, as a confident and genuinely unsettling piece of work that earns its reputation without quite managing to transcend the genre it is operating in. That is not a small thing: horror films that actually get under your skin are rarer than the sheer volume of releases would suggest, and for a debut feature working within tight financial constraints, Curry Barker has made something that clearly resonates. The social commentary running through the story gives it a layer of meaning beyond the scares, and Inde Navarrette's performance looks, on this evidence, like the beginning of something rather significant. If you enjoy horror that leans on atmosphere and psychology over spectacle, or if you have appreciated some of the other genre work covered here, including Macca's look at the body-horror classicism of Sisters, then Obsession is well worth 109 minutes of your time. Just maybe leave the lights on. And perhaps think twice before making any wishes.
Rating: ★★★★ | Year: 2025 | Watched: 2026-07-06
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Obsession (2025) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Rent: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Buy: Apple TV Store · Sky Store
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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