RIOTUS

When I got to the end of Obsession, I felt like I was slapped across the face really hard. It was a thrilling and anxiety-inducing experience. Curry Barker’s horror film about male wish fulfillment feels like a simple examination into the pitfalls of the incel manosphere subculture. The film opens with Michael Johnston’s Baron spiling his guts out to a waitress in the diner about his feelings and this honesty is instantly trashed by his best friend Ian, played by Cooper Tomlinson gaslighting all of the correct motivations he had in wanting to tell his unrequited crush Nikki Freeman (Inde Navarrette), the cool girl he and Ian works with at the music store their circle of friends all work together at. From here, Baron listens and takes counsel from Ian, setting the tone for what this film is about from the jump.

This film is about what a man wants, especially a young man, from a woman he’s attracted to, and what happens when he’s able to force her to do it. See later on Baron or Bear, as he’s mostly called by Nikki, Ian, and Sarah (Megan Lawless), ends up getting Nikki as a present for her birthday as they meet up later. Earlier, he finds his cat dead from getting into his prescription painkillers in this state of grief and loneliness. When asked directly by Nikki if he likes her, he punks out and says no. he then takes this magical toy stick called the One Wish Willow that he makes the wish on that she “Loves him more than anything in the world,” and it works instantly and is very toxic.

Nikki becomes a different person. She becomes what he thought he wanted – utterly obsessed with him. Here, Inde Navarrette’s performance takes over the film. I watched her in the Superman & Lois series on CW and thought, especially in the early seasons, she was one of the best things from that show. Here she really gets to shine with her acting ability, as you see this girl become a living monkey’s paw curse, as instantly her obsession and need to always be around Bear is destructive. Yet it’s the little glimpses of the real Nikki that leak out when the new Nikki is weak. Some of the most heartbreaking parts of the film are when they happen, and some of the most jarring are when we see Nikki hurt herself when Bear doesn’t do what she wants, which is just to be around him.

The film does a great job at showing you blatantly that Bear ain’t shit. You want him to be afraid of Nikki as she becomes more and more unhinged. Staying with her as she threatens self-harm if he leaves does something that makes him aggressive, but he also basks in that attention and physical interaction with Nikki. I like how Barker positioned Baron as his protagonist as an unreliable narrator to even himself. He constantly feels he’s doing the right thing after making this horrible wish. Yet in many ways, Nikki isn’t a person to him and is disposable. He’s not different from Ian, who also switches between seemingly trash and the morally superior voice of reason to Baron. Yet both are the same and equally as dishonest.

The character that had me feeling the most empathy is Sarah, who is the only character you get to see being honest with their thoughts and intentions. While Nikki is essentially trapped, neither of the young men has any honest intentions with either of their women “friends,” and Lawless’ performance almost feels like a character that would be a final girl in another type of horror movie. Her scenes with Johnston have an actual cuteness to them and feel like they are from a different type of story entirely, which hammers everything else home even more. Andy Richter plays her father, Carter, who’s all these young people’s boss, and while it feels like stunt casting at first sight, it works as the old familiar actors did in 80s movies. Like when you saw the grampa in Lost Boys, not too much, but a nice familiarity goes a long way.

There’s a lot going on in Obsession, and I try not to dive much into the spoilery parts, but it stuck with me and left me thinking about things constantly since I saw it. It’s a very entertaining horror movie that pushes and pulls you in all the right ways. The movie doesn’t work subtly, but it does let its themes work just a bit under the surface so that you have something to talk about and think about way after you leave the theater. The ending is a bit harsh and jarring, but it caps off a great cinema experience. A film most definitely worth seeing.