Why Is Everyone Obsessed With OBSESSION?

A horror movie made on a budget of less than a million made has now made more that $155 million dollars at the box office. 

This is what happens when filmmakers finally realize that the audience doesn’t want special effects and an A-list star cast. Sometimes they want a relatable story. 

Written and directed by Curry Barker, Obsession has gotten everyone obsessed with the subject matter. Can true love be forced?

Perhaps that is what the underlying question is. We have our protagonist, Bear, yearning for a young woman called Nikki. Instead of asking her out or talking to her, he ends up getting a One Wish Willow which he uses to make the ultimate wish: get Nikki to love him more than anyone else. 

His wish does come true and Nikki does show him affection. But clearly, there is a fine line between affection and obsession. Bear asked for Nikki to love him more than anyone else and she does, obsessively. It’s almost as if she’s under a spell. 

This is the angle that Curry Barker highlights and intensifies in the movie. The real Nikki, the one who has free will, is still in there somewhere. The One Wish Willow has altered only one part of her. Nikki is conflicted. She is spending time with Bear but she doesn’t know why. She is loving him but deep inside she is freaking out because she doesn’t really love Bear. 

And that is where the actual horror lies. It’s not about the wish that turned a seemingly innocent woman obsessed, it’s about what that wish is doing to her, eating away at her true self which can do nothing but watch as a silent spectator. 

Nikki is literally watching a crime happen but she is helpless. She is saying things she doesn’t intend to, behaving in an eccentric manner, but all she can do is watch from somewhere deep inside her. 

It’s no wonder that this movie was backed by Blumhouse and a bidding way ensued for distribution rights ultimately going to Focus Features. 

Curry Barker has long been making shorts on his Youtube channel That’s A Bad Idea alongside his collaborator Cooper Tomlinson who also stars in the movie. 

It was Curry Barker’s first feature length film called Milk & Serial that brought him into the limelight. Milk & Serial was made on a budget of only $800. 

Obsession released on May 15th and is currently running in cinemas.