Obsession (2026) Movie Review: Two breakout performances salvage Curry Barker’s sketchy horror comedy

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Horror as a genre is tricky. If you do have an idea that can not just rattle the inner workings of someone’s mind, but also tingle their moral compass, the eventual outcome should mostly be a winner. YouTube sketch artist-turned-filmmaker Curry Barker’s first studio film, “Obsession,” hinges on an idea that does exactly that. It offers the viewer and the protagonist a choice that feels morally problematic; a fantasy that feels too good to be true, and then runs with the idea by dialing it up to eleven.

The result is a wildly entertaining black comedy that doubles as a psychological horror about male entitlement and the wish to control women they can’t pin down. However, it stops right there – trying to get you into its narrative convenience, shock and awe you – but never truly digs deep into its supposedly complex themes of body autonomy and what happens when you try to control something.

The story follows Bear (Michael Johnston), a young man who could very well be the token representation of the good guy. When we first meet him, he is describing his infatuation with his colleague Nikki (Inde Navarrette) to his best friend and co-worker Ian (Cooper Tomlinson). His genuine, heartfelt confession feels like he is the kind of man who would readily be vulnerable in front of people – he is an introvert and socially awkward – so it wouldn’t be as easy for him to confess his love to Nikki even if the opening might make you believe otherwise.

The narrative conceit kicks in when Bear gets one of those novelty gifts, a “One Wish Willow” artifice from a local shop, and wishes for Nikki to “love him more than anything in the world.” The wish, of course, turns his fantasy into a somewhat unbelievable reality with Nikki latching onto him like a puppy. She doesn’t just start loving him, but also inhibiting the same space as him, whilst acting as if she is not breathing the same air as him; and if she doesn’t, she might whimper and die.

“Obsession,” on paper, is one of those single-line ideas that should barely work. However, director Curry Barker, who has a keen sense of how to turn the obvious and generic into something wild and fascinating – look for his sketch work on YouTube on “that’s a bad idea” – turns it into something quite unsettling. Much like Michael Shanks’s horror film “Together,” Barker uses the co-dependency spectrum of the story for some really uncomfortable barrage of sequences that are as twisted as they are stomach-curling.

However, instead of making the film about how Bear, a textbook good guy, latching onto the turn of events, snatches Nikki’s bodily autonomy because his desire and fantasy have just become true, Barker instead makes it feel like it is about a woman who is now obsessed with a man, doing strange, over-the-top things for emotional validation. I mean, I am sure that isn’t what the filmmaker is trying to convey because this is a tight-knit script that ensures that he is not in two minds, but since he does not increase the anti by establishing and inventing newer, wider scenarios, you are constantly left with that conclusion.

What works here is the black comedy. In the same league as his YouTube sketches, the comedy is dead on. The uncomfortable takeaways about modern dating, where young people feel like they should either own a person or have nothing at all, are carefully seeped in. The diner scene in particular is so uniquely funny and terrifying at the same time that you are bound to wish more of them and less of what is offered to you in compensation.

The performances by Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette are excellent. Johnston plays a slightly disturbed young man, troubled by the loss of his cat, but also subtly trying to pursue Nikki with great conviction. His vulnerable, as well as fearful personas work exactly in square with Inde’s turn as a convincing and headstrong young woman, who is suddenly thrust into an identity that occasionally wakes up into the nightmare of not recognizing who she is. Her performance in “Obsession” is a clear breakout – one that deserves some award recognition.

That said, I think the film stops way short of terror-inducing horror because it feels like one over-stretched sketch, instead of a carefully calibrated feature that surprises you beyond the jump scares, blood-splatter, and Navarrette being an absolute scream-queen.