Obsession (2026) Review!!

Synopsis – After breaking the mysterious “One Wish Willow” to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.

My Take – As someone who loves cinema in all its forms, I watch a wide range of films, horror included. It has never been my favorite genre, yet it remains part of the package, and after seeing so many, I find that most of the entertaining ones either fail to scare me or, if they do, the feeling fades quickly. Still, there are a few that manage to crawl under my skin and leave me unsettled in ways that linger.

This year, that distinction belongs to a film that begins as a fairly traditional Monkey’s Paw horror before evolving into something far more intriguing. Balancing moments of comedy with heartfelt beats, the film builds its impact through dread, uncanny imagery, and nerve‑tightening awkwardness. Leaving us with something that can be easily deemed as the landmark horror film of the year.

Marking the sophomore feature effort from filmmaker Curry Barker, who is better known as half of the online “That’s a Bad Idea” comedy duo alongside longtime friend and collaborator Cooper Tomlinson (who also stars here), and found recent fame when his $800-budgeted online prankster horror Milk & Serial (2024) made headlines for being far better than it had any right to be.

His new effort sees him bring together the best of his eccentric shorts with a simple, relatable premise that gives the characters and increasingly twisted scenarios room to breathe. The result is terrifying, strange, and oddly wonderful.

Yes, it won’t work for everyone and is far from perfect, but its strengths easily outweigh its shortcomings. Apparently, an earlier cut of the film leaned even harder into gore, yet the version we see now still packs plenty of punch. As director Barker blends awkward humor with deeply unsettling imagery and themes, creating one of the most disturbing cinematic experiences of the year.

The story follows Baron “Bear” Bailey (Michael Johnston), the supremely typical “nice guy” and music store employee who is desperately in love with Nikki (Inde Navarrette), his co-worker and childhood friend. Despite their mutual friend Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) tells him to just ask her out for a drink, Bear believes he needs some kind of huge romantic gesture, mainly as he believes she doesn’t seem all that interested in redefining what they have.

Simply told, he can’t get out of his own way and while looking for a gift for Nikki from a new age type shop, he ends up buying a novelty called One Wish Willow, which purports to grant one wish and one wish only. And when Bear makes his wish, Nikki consequently turns on a dime and suddenly falls head over heels for him — maybe a bit too much.

We’ve seen similar setups before, with wishes and romances gone wrong, but writer‑director Barker ensures we witness the most horrific version of it. The horror here doesn’t come from supernatural tricks alone; it grows out of a social situation spiraling further and further out of control. What truly elevates the film is its screenplay, which can pivot from funny to terrifying in the blink of an eye.

One moment you’re laughing at an excruciatingly awkward exchange, and the next you’re jolted by pure terror. Nikki doesn’t simply become a clingy girlfriend from hell; she becomes the embodiment of Bear’s careless wish. He never thought it would actually work, and when it did, he made it about Nikki changing for him. One of the most unsettling yet darkly amusing scenes shows Bear calling the One Wish Willow help line, asking if his wish can be modified rather than reversed. He quickly learns that all sales are final, and worse, he gets a glimpse into Nikki’s mind. What he finds there is anything but pretty.

Like the Philippou brothers, who leapt from YouTube to create Talk to Me (2022), writer‑director Barker demonstrates a fascination with visceral repulsion. In one particularly nasty sequence, he stages a head‑smashing that is brutal enough, but it’s the aftermath—the sounds, the lingering detail—that makes it unbearable to watch. His shocks are swift, merciless, and efficient.

The most effective horror, however, comes from the edges of the frame: shadows in dim rooms, sudden bursts of violence, and the unnerving way Nikki shifts between monster and victim. Barker’s confidence in both his actors and his audience allows these alternating beats to land with devastating impact. Beyond the horror‑comedy craftsmanship, the film’s central drama feels painfully relatable.

Some viewers will see themselves in Bear, some in Nikki, and some in both. It forces you to reflect on your own choices, on whether you are a good person, and it dredges up memories you might prefer to keep buried. In one of the film’s most disturbing moments, Nikki briefly regains clarity and begs Bear to kill her. For her, even death is preferable to living under complete control, stripped of independence.

Performance-wise, Michael Johnston proves to be a likable lead, skillfully balancing Bear’s innocence with his selfish desire to be loved and validated by Nikki. He makes the character sympathetic even when his choices are questionable. The real force of the film, however, is Inde Navarrette. Her portrayal is unstable, unpredictable, and utterly riveting.

She tears into Barker’s script with fearless intensity, leaving audiences caught between nervous laughter and genuine fear from one scene to the next. It is a role that demands both emotional and physical exhaustion, and Navarrette carries that weight with remarkable conviction, making her performance impossible to shake.

Cooper Tomlinson and Megan Lawless round out the cast with assured support, grounding the chaos with steady turns that complement the central duo. On the whole, ‘Obsession’ is a terrifying wish‑gone‑wrong romance that anchored by Inde Navarrette’s commanding presence curdles into 2026’s most disturbing horror.