Obsession

Obsession is a surprisingly good psychological horror thriller filled with moments that have what its audience can expect. It has its quieter, character development scenes as well as its over-the-top scenes that have that bonkers factor that won’t disappoint.

The movie stars Michael Johnston as Bear, a young man who develops feelings for his childhood friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette). He buys a supernatural toy called the One Wish Willow that gives its user their wish when broken. Bear wishes for Nikki to fall in love with him.

At first, they’re both confused about their feelings for each other until their conversation reaches the inevitable. They spend the night together but once they do, Bear gets exposed to Nikki’s potentially crazy side and it makes him wonder what he got himself into.

The rest of the movie is a series of sequences where Bear is unsure whether to trust Nikki’s unpredictable behavior as in one scene where she packs him a lunch for his job and the end result is, let’s say, purrfect.

Obsession was written and directed by Curry Barker and he makes it not just another horror thriller filled with blood and gore but he breaks the movie down into scenes where its characters are defined and articulate and we get a sense of dread and even empathy before anything goes wonderfully ballistic.

Johnston and Navarrette are very effective in their roles. He tries desperately to be understanding of whatever dilemma is causing her to go insane but after a while, he realizes the obsession in the title is very much one-sided. Or should I say, two-sided depending on her mood.

This is a well-acted, well-crafted thriller with so many elements that are nicely placed and do a good job of making even its most predictable moments that much more chaotically hilarious.

Obsession delivers the goods despite some shortcomings with its calculated structure, but it will leave you talking about it afterwards.

Grade: B+

(Rated R for strong bloody violence, grisly images, sexual content, pervasive language, and brief graphic nudity.)