From Jordan Peele’s blockbusters to Zach Cregger’s gradual conquest of Hollywood, via the intense Aussie chillers of the Philippou brothers and the incoming Backrooms adaptation being directed by a 20-year-old YouTuber, the comedy/internet skit personality to horror feature director pipeline has found a rich vein of late. Into this field now jumps Curry Barker (aged just 26), previously best known for his online sketch comedy but, with his second film Obsession, swiftly climbing the ranks of Hollywood horror – early buzz on this film landed him the risky-yet-thrilling gig of remaking The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It’s a coronation that Obsession really earns, a thoroughly nasty, dread-inducing tale of male entitlement taken to wicked extremes.
Barker’s first great idea is to have our protagonist – listless 20-something Bear (Michael Johnston) – also be one of the year’s most needlingly hateful cinematic villains. Desperately in love with former schoolmate and current colleague Nikki (Inde Navarette), Bear is too afraid to admit his feelings. In his frustration, he buys a strange trinket from a witchy hobby store that promises to grant one wish when broken in half – Bear wishes for Nikki to ‘love [him] more than anyone else in the world’ and, in the inevitable monkey’s paw twist, gets a horrifying, all-consuming version of what he’s asked for.
Suddenly, Nikki is madly, creepily, violently devoted to Bear and as she descends deeper into madness, his cowardice amps up to truly wretched levels. While the initial wish is merely pathetic, it’s Bear’s consistent failure to reckon with what he’s actually done *to* Nikki that allows things to reach their eventual gruesome, disastrous ends. For all intents and purposes, his ‘love’ has killed Nikki – the obsessed version of her has her body, voice, and memories but is distinctly *not* the woman herself, whose true self is implied to be trapped in some sort of screaming purgatory.
Johnston plays all this aggravatingly well – it’s impossible to not hate Bear – while Navarette is a revelation. Obsessed Nikki’s screams and smiles and bizarre movements are all terrifying. Given the central premise, it’s Nikki who has to provide literally all of Obsession’s scares, a profound challenge for any actor to take on, but Navarette more than rises to the challenge. She’s also darkly funny when it’s called for – Barker doesn’t leave his comedy roots behind entirely – providing, alongside Barker’s online sketch partner Cooper Tomlinson as Bear’s increasingly angry best friend, some laughs that actually deepen the horror.
Barker commits absolutely to his feel-bad tone, offering no catharsis for characters or audience, a very fitting thesis statement for a film that, despite its supernatural incidences, covers one of the modern world’s most omnipresent horrors. It would have been nice if his visuals were as bold as his writing – there’s an overabundance of washed-out and grey lighting – but that does also seem like something a more substantial budget would fix. Given Obsession’s strengths and general rapturous reception, I have no doubt that Barker will be offered such budgets time and again going forward.
Jack Blackwell – Film Reviews 