One of the oldest horror plots out there is a Monkey's Paw story; how a wish granted goes terribly wrong. It's the central conceit of Obsession, the feature film debut of 26-year old director and comedian Curry Barker, who got his start doing Internet sketch comedy with Cooper Tomlinson in a duo called "that's a bad idea." I bring up his age, and his background, because I think it informs a lot of Obsession, and the things that work in the movie, as well as the things that don't.
Bear (Michael Johnson) has long been in love with his friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette), but is too afraid to confess his feelings. When purchasing a gift for Nikki at a new age crystal shop, he also buys what appears to be a novelty gift called a One Wish Willow, a stick that, when broken in half, is supposed to grant the user one wish. After another night of chickening out over confessing his love to Nikki, Bear breaks the One Wish Willow, wishing for Nikki to "love him above anything else in the world."
He gets that wish, and the horror movie plot falls into place. Nikki does "love" Bear, but it's an obsessive and violent love that Bear, though freaked out by much of her behavior, goes along with - for way too long. From the beginning of their "relationship," Nikki has weird episodes, but they are tempered by cliched love story moments, like watching movies together on the couch, sharing breakfast, laughing over strangers at a diner...and sex. And that's where the film gets...icky.
Nikki has no free will, and this is proven definitively when one night. While Nikki is sleeping, the voice of the real Nikki comes out, begging Bear to put her out of her misery. The real Nikki is a prisoner, and that means all of their sexual encounters have been, essentially, rape, a fact the film just ignores completely.
The script tries to walk the line between portraying Bear as a villain and a victim, but by giving the real Nikki no agency, and no real establishment beyond "manic pixie dream girl" before her imprisonment, we aren't really able to feel sorry for her, because the things she does are so, so horrifying. Bear's victimhood is established from the very beginning: he's a sad sack, lovelorn loser and Nikki is a curse on his life.
And all of this is huge bummer because there is so much in this movie that is good. There is effective dark humor that runs throughout. Barker has a gift for tension, and keeping things just out of frame, or in partial darkness, leading to truly creepy moments. But the biggest highlight is Inde Navarrette's performance as Nikki. She holds nothing back, fully inhabiting this possessed character, balancing between funny and furious, in a performance that includes some jaw-dropping physicality.
I mentioned director Curry Barker's age earlier because I do believe, or at least hope, that someone with a little more life experience would be able to expand beyond the "bitches do be crazy!" cliches in the story, and move the audience's sympathy away from Bear. And maybe someone with a little more filmmaking experience would skip the animal death that opens the film, knowing that's going to turn off a large swath of the audience right off the bat. And perhaps someone with more developed tastes would veer away from the moment of nudity near the end that is so distasteful and unnecessary it took me completely out of the movie.
Obsession is good. I just wish it were better.
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