“Obsession” is a little nasty horror film which will surely remind you of that old saying: “Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it”. This time, the pathetic loser hero of the movie definitely regrets a lot in the end after getting what he is supposed to wish for, and the movie has some dark fun with how he unwisely lets himself slide into more madness and despair.

During the opening scene, we get to know a bit about Bear (Michael Johnston), a shy lad who works as a music store employee. During last several years, Bear has been carrying a torch for his co-worker and friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette), but he still hesitates to open his heart to her just because of 1) his serious lack of confidence and 2) his constant concern over the possibility of being rejected by her.

And then something rather odd happens to Bear during one evening when he is about to join Nikki and two other colleagues of theirs for their routine participation in the game night at a local bar. He drops by a shop for buying something for Nikki, but then he ends up buying a novelty item called “One Wish Willow” instead. Not long after his another attempt to approach closer to Nikki is miserably failed, he snaps “One Wish Willow” without much expectation as simply wishing for Nikki loving him more than anyone else in the world, and then, what do you know, Nikki suddenly and inexplicably pays a lot more attention to him than before.

Bear initially has no problem with at all that because his longtime wish is finally fulfilled, but it does not take much time for him to realize that he made a very, very, very serious mistake. While getting closer and closer to Bear, Nikki also becomes quite obsessed with having him around her all the time, and she also begins to show a series of disturbing behaviors to his confusion and horror. She is now eager to please him to the extreme, and that includes giving him something, shall we say, quite disagreeable as a lunch meal.

Although his situation becomes increasingly nightmarish, Bear only finds himself stuck more with Nikki. While it turns out that there is virtually no way out for him except a certain grim option, he still feels attracted to Nikki despite a lot of troubles caused by her, and we get some dark amusement from how this pathetic lad desperately tries to believe that everything is fine and all right for him and Nikki. Their friends/colleagues naturally become more alarmed and concerned as observing more insanity and disturbance from Nikki, but Bear still refuses to tell them anything at all – even after Nikki shocks everyone around her with another very disturbing behavior at one point in the middle of the story.

As Bear goes down and down with Nikki along the story, director/writer Curry Barker, who also serves as the editor of his film, frequently keeps us on the edge as deftly delivering several effective moments of shock and awe. The movie is filled with the moody sense of doom from the beginning, so we come to have a pretty good idea on where it is heading, but then it strikes us really hard as Nikki’s unpredictable madness goes much further than expected. Eventually, there comes an inevitable point where Bear has no choice but to face the dire consequences of his unwise wish, and there comes more nasty fun from what ultimately happens between him and Nikki around that point.

Everything in the story depends a lot on the two lead performers of the movie, who are quite believable even when the morbid horror drama between their characters becomes very dark and intense. Besides looking as meek and miserable as required, Michael Johnston steadily holds the ground, and we come to care about whatever may happen next even though we often observe his rather unlikable character’s plight from the distance. You may feel a bit sorry for Bear, but we also become more aware of how he had it coming from the beginning, and that is the main reason why we can enjoy the wry sense of humor behind all those vicious scenes in the film.

On the opposite, Inde Navarrette gives what should be regarded as one of the best breakthrough performances of this year. Although we never get to know that much about her character, she instantly holds our attention right from her very first scene in the film, and we can see why Bear remains emotionally attached to Nikki even when things become very gloomy for both of them later in the story. Furthermore, Navarrett deftly handles a number of tricky big scenes where she must swing back and forth between extreme points without any sign of overacting at all, and that makes her character as terrifyingly unpredictable as Kathy Bates’ psychotic heroine in “Misery” (1990).

In case of a few other main cast members around Navarrette and Johnston, they are mostly limited by their functional roles. As Nikki and Bear’s co-workers/friends, Cooper Tomlinson and Megan Lawless dutifully fill their respective spots, and you may notice a brief supporting turn from Andy Richter, who simply comes and then goes while looking totally plain and serious in his aged appearance.

On the whole, “Obsession” is a seemingly modest but undeniably solid genre film, and Barker, who previously made a feature film debut with “Milk & Serial” (2024), demonstrates here that he is another promising filmmaker to watch. Although its production budget is less than one million dollars, the movie does not look shabby or sloppy at all, and, considering its enormous critical/commercial success at present, it will surely lead him to more chances for his considerable talent in the future. As a matter of fact, he is already working on his next film at this point, and I think I can have some expectation on that.