Review by Tim Estiloz
The old cautionary trope of “Be careful what you wish for” has been played out countless times before in TV and film dramas; ever since the original concept entered the collective cultural consciousness via the 1902 classic short story “The Monkey’s Paw”. However, this well worn narrative gains an innovative and uniquely frightening new twist in the hands of new young director / screenwriter Curry Barker via his first feature length film, “Obsession”.
Barker skillfully flips the commonly familiar melancholy of “unrequited love” into a polar opposite relationship scenario of unfettered devotion and affection bordering on the psychotic. “Obsession” proves in spades that winning that special love of your life may get you far, far more than you bargained for.
TIM ESTILOZ INTERVIEWS THE CAST AND DIRECTOR OF OBSESSION
In “Obsession”, dweeby introvert Bear ( Michael Johnston ), a musical instruments store employee, is secretly crushing big time on his attractive, self assured co-worker Nikki ( an exceptional Inde Navarette ). Unfortunately, when it come to Nikki, Bear is seemingly locked into that lonely horrid netherworld hated by all hopelessly romantic young guys known as “The Friend Zone”.
Nikki likes Bear a lot. She laughs with him. She confides in him. She tells him he’s the one guy she can actually trust. She even asks him to drive her home after a night out with their friends at the bar. Truth be told, Nikki might actually be open to a deeper relationship with Bear. However, Bear would never know the answer to that possibility because he’s too shy and introverted to express his true feelings to her; much to the frustration of their mutual friends, Ian ( Cooper Tomlinson ) and Sarah ( Megan Lawless ) who is harboring her own unexpressed crush on Bear.
When Nikki loses a favorite necklace, Bear goes to a local novelty store to buy her a replacement. Instead, he’s attracted to a cheap looking “Spencer’s Gifts” variety novelty toy called a “One Wish Willow”; a toy that claims when you break it in half, it will grant you one wish.
Bear buys it for Nikki, planning to give it to her when he drives her home; but chickens out after she seems apprehensive to receiving a gift that could indicate their friendship is “getting too serious”. As she goes into her house, Bear in mild frustration, breaks the toy and half-heartedly wishes for Nikki to love him “more than anything in the world”.
Moments later, Nikki is back at his car, timidly tapping on the passenger window and invites an astonished, but all too willing, Bear to come inside for some amorous interaction. Over the ensuing weeks, Nikki and Bear are enjoying the bliss of saccharine sweet young love, which director Barker humorously depicts in a quick montage of their moments together; cooking, cuddling up watching late night TV, nuzzling each other while at work. Their sweet newfound romance is a diabetic’s worst nightmare.
Meantime, their friends Ian and Sarah are dumbfounded and suspicious of Nikki’s sudden romantic attraction to Bear. Ian is even more concerned after Bear reveals the apparently mystical cause of their new love match. However, Bear isn’t at all concerned. He’s thrilled with his new girlfriend’s enthusiastic attention that’s a literal wish come true.
But eventually, things start getting strange with Nikki. Bear wakes in the middle of the night to find Nikki out of bed and watching him sleep from across the room in a darkened corner. She says he looks cute sleeping at night.
She begins urging him to stay home with her rather than go to work. Her pleas for his attention get more and more impassioned and desperate. One morning, Bear wakes up to find Nikki has duct taped the entire front door shut from the inside. As Bear looks at her late night handiwork with a jolt of anxiety fueled concern; Nikki barely references it with a wide grin of smiling adoration for Bear on her face.
Barker gradually ups the ante of Nikki’s bizarre and increasingly suffocating behavior with an exquisitely nerve-rattling slow burn of anxiety; often shattered by unexpected jump scares, quick edits and visual shocks that keep the audience on a razor’s edge of nervous anticipation. Near the climax of “Obsession” is an unexpected moment of such jaw-dropping shock and gore; audiences will need a few moments to compose themselves. But, this is a horror film after all, and it’s also a moment that’s superbly delivered by director Barker, leaving you nervously giggling at the audaciousness of the shocking surprise.
Michael Johnston as Bear is very good in his role as a lovesick dweeb that initially in the film, audiences will feel some sympathy for. Yet, over the course of the story, Johnston manages to get that empathy to shift when it becomes apparent to him ( and us ) that Bear is perhaps exploiting Nikki to fulfill his own literal wishes and desires; with no concern for hers.
However, the MVP of this film is its lead co-star, Inde Navarrette as Nikki. Her performance is a tour de force performance of shifting moods and emotions that build to a shattering crescendo by the film’s unsettling climax. Navarette makes Nikki’s erratic and ultimately violently insane behavior almost tragic and pitiable; in that we the audience see someone who is not truly in control of her own life. Nikki’s love for Bear isn’t something that’s real or organic; but rather, it’s something she’s being forced into feeling and arguably suffering out of her own control.
Navarette’s powerful performance is one of docile emotional softness at times towards Bear; dramatically shifting to ear-shattering shrillness in the blink of an eye, demanding he return her devotion and attention in kind. Amid the chaos, there’s hints in Navarette’s performance, that the real Nikki is actually imprisoned inside her in muted protest; as Nikki’s outer self lavishes arguably involuntary love and devotion to Bear. At one point, the former Nikki buried inside the outer “hearts and flowers” doppelgänger weakly begs for Bear to kill her; rather than continue enduring her uncontrollable humiliation.
It’s almost heartbreaking to see Nikki’s stunned reaction at the film’s end when she sees the bloody carnage that surrounds her once Bear’s misbegotten wishful spell is broken.
It’s truly an amazingly nuanced performance within a superbly crafted film. “Obsession” elevates itself beyond being just a typical throwaway horror romp, in both its superb freshman directorial craftsmanship and the performances by its two lead actors.