This post is going to contain a lot of spoilers but I feel it’s my duty to do so.
There’s been a lot of talk about Obsession but I seriously doubt this movie had made a reported $443 million in just nine weeks. It didn’t have much hype or promotion and no main stars and directed by a YouTube personality.
If it makes a 10th or even a 20th of that, I might have believed it. I also wonder if it was such a money-maker, why did they rush it to streaming on Peacock in that time. Then, I noticed that Blumhouse bought the rights and Jason Blum is a good marketing expert. My guess he spent three years since Smile kicking himself for not scooping that one and immediately went after Obsession at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival where its rights was purchased for at least $14 million.
I wonder if it’s a case of Hollywood Accounting and the powers that be want to keep it from making too much money they are required to give a substantial cut to the actors and the filmmakers.
For a movie to be so successful at a time where people are pawning family heirlooms to pay for basic groceries, I seriously doubt this movie was seen at least 35 million times by paid patrons. I’m basing that on the average price of a ticket at $12 a piece. That excludes movie passes and special screenings. I know some places tickets are more and other places, it’s less.
I shutter to think the journalists out there have gotten so disgusted with the oversaturation of action blockbusters, superhero movies and sequels/reboots, they’re willing to see anything that isn’t like that as original. It’s not an independent either. It might have been produced independently but it’s distributed by a global media conglomerate. There really hasn’t been an independently distributed movie in decades.
And let me just say, there’s nothing original about Obsession. It’s yet another version of “The Monkey’s Paw” in the Careful What You Wish For genre. Needless to say that Curry Barker, the writer/director says he got the idea from watching the second Simpsons Halloween episode. If that doesn’t immediately make you roll your eyes, then you’re probably the target audience. Maybe for people who were told the flicks of Jason Friedberh and Aaron Seltzer were peak comedy and believe all the Saw movies and spinoffs are great achievements in horror, their tastes aren’t so well.
I like simple horror movies myself and a tale told many times before can still pack a punch. This reminded me of a Tales from the Crypt episode. But it was also done on The Twilight Zone, Friday the 13th series and The X-Files where an episode written by Vince Gilligan has a genie granted Fox Mulder’s wish for peace on Earth as making him the only person on Earth. Even the Leprechaun movies had the titular character adding a dark twist to wishes.
But I think my issue is that Barker thinks he’s on original ground. It reminds me a decade ago when Eli Roth pushed that cannibal movie The Green Inferno on us acting like he was the only one who still remembers those movies.
There is a type of Quentin Tarantino smarm to Barker. But at least QT keep his ego in check enough that he doesn’t always sound like the guy who was listening to a band before they became a massive hit. Barker is an admitted D-student dunce who seemed to only become famous because of YouTube. Needless to say the characters in Obsession are generic and you’ve seen them in so many other movies and shows. Cooper Tomlinson who plays Ian has been reportedly just playing the same character as in the videos which is the same type of character from the last 15-20 years that seems to follow the wisecracking quips of Jason Bateman, Ryan Reynolds and Paul Rudd.
The plot has some Gen Z stalker Baron Bailey (Michael Johnston) or Bear as he’s called obsessing over some co-worker Nikki Freeman (Inde Navarette) who only likes him as a friend. But from what we little see of their relationship, she seems to tolerate him but I never did like her. Actually none of the characters are that likeable or sympathetic. And that’s a huge problem with a movie like this.
Bear uses a novelty gag One Wish Willow to make a wish that Nikki loves him more than anyone. This happens after Bear loses his cat, Sandy, and depressed Nikki keeps pushing him to come to a trivia night at the bar.
I’m not defending Bear but it’s obvious Nikki doesn’t like him that way and it’s later revealed she is having a relationship with Bear’s friend, Ian (Cooper Tomlinson). There’s a hint that another co-worker, Sarah (Megan Lawless) might like Bear but that’s never really examined.
Barker also edited the movie which is a huge problem with it. The pacing is off. At 109 minutes with credits, it stretches a concept too thin. There’s no build-up and no suspense. Once Bear makes the wish, Nikki is smitten for him. After she goes off the rails 0 to 100 only to repeat this tactic over and over.
She watches him sleep and when he tries to move any, she screams “STAY!” Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence did great comic skits about white people in horror movies and you feel this in these scenes. Nikki makes a shrine with the dead cat and Bear is like “Oh, that’s peculiar” and then she puts duct tape all over the door so he’ll be inconvenienced for an extra 10 seconds while he goes to work. It’s like that cellophane S that Superman throws in Superman II. It’s a minor inconvenience that makes no sense.
Also, this movie commits the trope of having all main characters work at a basic run of the mill music equipment store where the proprietor is played by Andy Richter, who is Sarah’s father. Yet we never do see this place busy despite Nikki saying it is.
Since the budget was so cheap, they probably couldn’t afford the extras. Nikki tells Bear she’s leaving the store in two weeks which I think is an excuse so she can get away from him. Also no one seems to ask or wonder about Nikki as she stays at Bear’s apartment going nuttier. I kind of feel sorry for Navarette because her character is just one stereotype after another.
But what really boggles my mind is why is Bear so cautious and apprehensive about Nikki after the wish. You’d think he’d be over the moon to have the woman of his dreams smiling at him and worshipping the ground he walks on but he’s immediately freaked out about it.
I will give credit that there are a few scenes where we don’t really know if Nikki likes Bear and if Bear is reading her right. Yet I never really felt Nikki was a complex character as she should be. And maybe because that she’s not a real character. She’s never seen before the wish in a neutral setting. She’s only seen talking with Bear, Sarah and Ian.
Yet I know what people will say that’s the point – she’s just an object of Bear’s obsession. But that’s what makes her lack any sympathy. Barker makes her a misogynistic set piece. Companion did this same thing and did it better.
However, I was still holding out for a twist. I was thinking it was possible this was a plan by Nikki and Ian for Bear to lose interest the way the kids in The Lodge messed with their stepmother. There are scenes earlier that make it appear Nikki might be faking.
Or maybe there was some secret that Nikki was hiding because she didn’t want Bear getting too close. Ian and Sarah think Bear is taking advantage of Nikki because she’s having mental problems. Yet her behavior at the obligatory social meeting that turns awkward is just overlooked. It’s mainly because Barker invokes the Idiot Plot Device which means the events stay in motion because everyone is an idiot.
I was expecting a twist where Bear becomes smothered too much by Nikki’s erratic behavior and kills her or locks her in a basement. And it’s become obvious to the three other speaking roles he’s the bad guy which he is. Hell, anything would’ve been interesting but Bear does nothing as Nikki gets worse and worse.
I know horror is supposed to make you uncomfortable but I just felt bad for Navarette. I just hope she gets a nice cut of that money or if this is going to be a repeat of what happened to the actors in The Blair Witch Project. That was another movie that couldn’t live up to its hype and was passed over by The Sixth Sense, a good example of using cliched tropes to pull the twists on the audience.
I think a lot of people turned out because Barker appeals to the young YouTube audience so they’re not willing to say he doesn’t have any clothes. He doesn’t any techniques or aesthetics either except dark lighting and slow pans which is what is always used in horror movies. Also the musical score by Rick Burwell is so forgettable it adds nothing to the movie.
People are already talking about Oscar nominations and calling it an “instant classic.” First no classic can’t be instant. It could be called a sleeper hit. But it will take at least 25 years and I don’t think it’ll hold up the way The Exorcist, Jaws, The Silence of the Lambs, and the original Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Poltergeist have. It doesn’t have that cultural zeitgeist other movies have and the Internet is probably its biggest problem. TikTok trends and social media memes come and go week to week. And considering how the likes and dislikes of this movie are separated by generations, it’s very likely it will be remembered on the same level as Hereditary which incidentally is how it’s being compared.
And at least Hereditary had a nice gutpunch death that came out of nowhere it kept your interest. The gruesome death here is actually so comical is similar to the head doorbanging scene in Hereditary.
But Barker one ups that by having Ian wish for $1 billion just to see movie fall from the ceiling. At this point, if you’ve made, you really don’t care what happens next.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 