Obsession (2025)
There are films you watch and forget by the following morning, and there are films that crawl under your skin and refuse to leave. Obsession is very much the latter. I went in completely blind, which I'd strongly urge you to do as well, because the experience is considerably more potent when you're not sure where it's heading. All I knew going in was the hype, and for once, the hype is largely justified.
On the surface, this looks like a fairly straightforward horror setup. Nikki is the one doing the terrible things. She's violent, she's unsettling, she leaves a trail of psychological and physical damage in her wake, and the gore is genuinely graphic, so consider yourself warned on that front. It brought to mind the kind of visceral, uncompromising nastiness of When Evil Lurks, where you feel almost assaulted by what you're watching. Easy enough, then, to read Nikki as the villain of the piece and settle back into your seat with your moral compass pointing in the obvious direction.
But director Curry Barker isn't interested in the obvious. The brilliant, uncomfortable twist the film keeps turning is this: Nikki is the victim. Bear, the man who essentially wishes away her autonomy, her selfhood, her right to exist on her own terms, is the true monster. It's a "be careful what you wish for" premise at its most darkly effective. If you've ever seen that Monkey's Paw episode of The Simpsons, you'll have a rough idea of the bleak, inevitable arc this story follows. The difference is that Obsession plays it with complete seriousness, and it works as a deeply uncomfortable piece of social commentary on the impulse to control a partner.
What makes it genuinely land, beyond the concept, is Inde Navarette as Nikki. She is an absolute revelation. It's an extraordinarily difficult role, requiring her to be terrifying and tragic at the same time, to make you afraid of her while simultaneously breaking your heart for her, and she pulls it off completely. I'd be staggered if this isn't the role that launches a serious career. She holds the whole thing together.
I'd be cautious about calling this a straight horror film, though. The scares are there, jump scares included, but what Barker is really building is something closer to a psychological thriller soaked in dread. There's a suffocating, inescapable atmosphere to it that genuinely reminded me of Ringu, the Japanese original, that profound sense of hopeless, impending doom that hangs over every frame like bad weather that never quite breaks. In fact I ended up rewatching Ring that same night just to sit in that particular feeling a little longer. That's the effect Obsession had on me.
And yet, and I want to be honest here rather than just ride the wave of enthusiasm, it doesn't quite reach the level of a genre-defining classic. There are moments where it strains slightly under the weight of its own ambitions, where the execution doesn't fully match the boldness of the idea. It's a film that punches well above its financial weight, no question, and Barker and his team should be enormously proud of what they've achieved on what was clearly a tight budget. But brilliant and flawless are different things, and I think the distinction matters.
Four stars. A cracking, deeply disturbing, wonderfully acted psychological thriller that thoroughly deserves its success. Just go in blind. Trust me on that.
Rating: ★★★★ | Year: 2025 | Watched: 2026-07-06
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Rent: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Buy: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
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