So unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve heard about Obsession, often in the same breath as Backrooms, both of them being the low- budget horror films from hot new directors which has Hollywood clutching at its metaphorical pearls.
It may be that audiences really are tired of worn out comic-book big franchise IPs, or maybe these are just really good stories that audiences have been craving, but if the wild success of the films means that more money ends up in the hands of filmmakers and the biggest options at the cinema don’t have to have someone in them wearing a cape, it’s a win-win all round.
The 26-year-old writer-director of Obsession Curry Barker comes from the world of YouTube shorts, where he runs a channel called That’s a bad idea along with his co-creator Cooper Tomlinson. Tomlinson plays Ian in Obsession – Bear’s best friend and on-hand foil. Millions of views and years of getting into the nitty gritty of editing, and receiving immediate feedback from audiences about what they like and which videos do well, means that these new creators are transitioning to feature films with much more savvy than most people leaving film school.
This combined with the fact that young people are loving going to cinema, and rediscovering that it’s quite fun discussing stories with your mates, means that a new generation of filmmakers might just save cinema, but maybe not in the way the legacy studios want them to.
Premiered at TIFF 2025
In Theatres and Now streaming on Apple TV – Foxtel Store – Prime Video – YouTube – Google TV – Fetch – Sky NZ
Director: Curry Barker
Screenplay: Curry Barker
Cinematographer: Taylor Clemons
Editor: Curry Barker
Music: Rock Burwell
Producers: James Harris, Haley Nicole Johnson, Christian Mercuri, Roman Viaris
Executive Producers: Jason Blum, Leonora Darby, Mark Lane, David Haring, Ruzanna Kegeyan
Starring Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, Andy Richter, Haley Fitzgerald, Darin Toonder, Anthony Pavone, Justice, Anthony Casabianca
Bear (Michael Johnston) and Nikki (Inde Navarrette) are friends who turn into lovers, but not by the usual route of figuring out if that’s something they want. Bear is so awkward and in love with Nikki that he can’t bring himself to tell her how he feels, and rather than potentially humiliate himself, he makes a wish on a novelty object, a One Wish Willow, that turns out to be the real deal. Magic and supernatural plotlines get the horror wheel turning, and like the best kind of horror films, the scenes can be quite funny, however uncomfortably, while incredibly gory and eye-coveringly scary.
Bear’s recently passed grandmother’s absence is felt as a light thread in the story- it her house that Bear has inherited where most of the action takes place, and her leftover painkillers that he keeps in the bathroom cabinet and occasionally dips into. It seems to represent the lack of guidance, and the lesson that any good grandmother will tell you- be careful what you wish for!
The film also speaks to how young people are navigating relationships in the modern day, the face of boys that don’t know what to do and have a fantasy of controlling women, which is hardly anything new, but is turbo-charged by social media. Bear is ultimately a nice boy- next- door, but there are moments when you see a little bit of incel logic creeping through. Classic storytelling is what gives the film its velocity, from the fairytale myths of be careful what you wish for, to a dark twist on a Romeo and Juliet kind of co-dependency. Maybe there’s a universe where these star-crossed lovers might have made it, and Obsession asks enough questions about what is healthy in a relationship to fascinate audiences, especially younger ones, who are still working out where their boundaries lie. They talk about Obsession all the time.
It makes sense then that the films box office performance has been so good, Obsession being the first film since ET in 1982 to have higher returns on its second and third weekends in cinemas, compared to the opening.
The film was made for $US750,000 ($A1m) and so far has taken $US442,677,000 worldwide. It’s the kind of ROI that dreams are made of, or in this case nightmares, and has already placed Curry Barker in the ranks of filmmakers who can be bet on. His next feature Anything But Ghosts, in which he acts alongside Tomlinson, has a stellar cast including Aaron Paul and Bryce Dallas and is already in post- production, and Barker has revealed the film will share the same universe as Obsession. He is also going to write and direct a new update of the 1974 classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
Now hitting streaming platforms, it is likely that Obsession will continue to make it into communal film folklore and wow audiences wherever they find it. It currently has a 94% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, along with a 94% audience approval rating on the same site, a 77 Metascore on Metacritic, and an A- on Cinemascore. It’s made the careers of everyone in it, and it’s part of the reason why young people are getting out and down to the movies. Even if horror isn’t your thing, there’s a lot to love, maybe even obsess over.
