Obsession centres around Bear (Michael Johnston), who works with Nikki (the stunning and 5′ petite Inde Navarrette, above), Sarah (Megan Lawless) and Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) in a music shop, the former of which, he’s known since school and has always had a crush on her, yet just never found the moment to tell her, without bottling it.
To add insult to injury, his lack of pussy is about to increase, as he gets home and finds his cat has died… but while out and looking to buy a fancy necklace for Nikki after she loses hers, he becomes more intrigued in a ‘One Wish Willow’, an item billed as a piece of Willow tree, whereby the purchaser makes a wish, breaks the item in two, and it will be granted.
Sounds like a piece of nonsense, except that after he bottles asking her out after dropping her off, then he wishes that she loved him like no-one else and breaks it, she’s no longer heading back into her house, and turning back towards his car…
Job- and future-wise, while his ideal job is to be a food critic, and Sarah’s applying to Art School, Nikki’s also looking to quit and become a writer, meaning he won’t see her so often, hence another reason for wanting to strike while the iron is reasonably hot.
Hence, suddenly, she wants to know all about Bear, be with him day and night, sleeping over, hates it when he has to work, and so she stays home at his place. She becomes clingy – putting her head on his shoulder, but occasionally freaks out, snapping in and out of that situation.
I thought the 108-minute running time might be rather too long for this subject, but it does fit just right, as Nikki’s madness grows bigger and more outlandish. There’s so much to discover about what she’s capable, so I’ll only give one example of what she does – behind a spoiler header, so you can avoid it if you prefer – and it comes very early on:
Overall, I really enjoyed Obsession. It has superb performances from all concerned, with more gore than I was expecting compared to the average horror movie these days, and some inventive moments that I wasn’t expecting, since it doesn’t rely on bog-standard jump scares, and has its own, clever style of freaky, especially with Ms Navarrette quickly juxtaposing between affection and off-her-head.
And this film only cost a mere $1m to make! For a horror-style movie, compare that to Maggie Gyllenhaal’s awful The Bride!, which cost $90m to make, would’ve needed $250m to break even, yet only took $24m, worldwide!
For Obsession, the choice of aspect ratio, at 1.50:1, is odd, but gives the film a cramped feel – which is how Bear would be experiencing darling Nikki’s infaturation.
And since the trailer was shown again just before this ‘Scream Unseen’, I spotted a couple of things that had been changed, such as the party scene having a lot less laughing from Nikki, even if it went 10 times more bizarre than I was expecting.
The trailer also has an alternate take for when Bear tries to call the company that makes One Wish Willow, since it goes on longer in the film, with different camera angles, so it’s not just a straight re-editing. They’ve clearly filmed a more brief version for the trailer, which is understandable.
Additionally, I feel the title should have been One Wish Willow, and I thought it was from the original trailer. “Obsession” is so generic, and just makes me think of Calvin Klein, anyway. Meanwhile, One Wish Willow would have better search engine optimisation (SEO) in Google, for being something original.
As an aside, early on, all four friends go drinking in “Barker’s Pub”, the writer/director being Curry Barker. I haven’t seen anything of his before now – which is largely a series of short films, plus 2024’s Milk And Serial, so I must check that out soon.
Obsession is in cinemas from tomorrow, and isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 109 minutes
Release date: May 29th 2026
Studio: Universal Pictures
Aspect ratio: 1.50:1
Rating: 9/10
Director: Curry Barker
Producers: James Harris, Christian Mercuri, Roman Viaris
Screenplay: Curry Barker
Music: Rock Burwell
Cast:
Bear: Michael Johnston
Nikki: Inde Navarrette
Ian: Cooper Tomlinson
Sarah: Megan Lawless
Carter: Andy Richter
Viola: Haley Fitzgerald
Harry: Darin Toonder
Reggie: Anthony Pavone
Justice: Duane Stork
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.