In October, I described in my review of Weapons (2025) the many similarities between the horror and comedy genres. Specifically, I made a point to describe factors that explain why so many new voices in horror filmmaking, including Jordan Peele and Zach Cregger, come from sketch-comedy backgrounds. Recently, this oddly specific trend has been brought to light once again with the release of Curry Barker’s Obsession (2026).
After the release of his directorial debut, Barker has been at the forefront of a media storm for several reasons. To start, Barker is only 26 years old, and the vast majority of the crew of Obsession were under 30 years old, making the film’s success a great achievement for young filmmakers. Obsession also has been made Focus Features’ highest grossing movie of all time, making over $315 million on a budget of just around $750,000. The film’s theatrical windows were extended, and its second and third weekends made increasingly larger amounts of money in the box office than its opening weekend.
For an original horror film made by a first-time feature director and starring generally lesser-known actors to be this successful is a feat that not only is extremely impressive, but many have begun to attribute the success of Obsession to an overall shift in audiences’ taste.
I saw Obsession during its opening weekend, and have been repeatedly asked if I had seen the film in the following three or four weeks. I can safely say that Obsession is entirely deserving of the love it has received over the past month. The film follows Bear, a hopeless romantic who finds himself too afraid to confess his feelings to his friend Nikki. In a last resort attempt, Bear breaks a “One Wish Willow,” a product described as a piece of wood from a willow tree that, when broken, grants its user only one wish. Bear soon finds that Nikki is extremely obsessed with him to an unhealthy degree, which ends up harming herself, Bear, and their mutual friends Ian and Sarah.
What I liked about Obsession was its refusal to follow the formula of a classic “be careful what you wish for” story, with the main focus of the film being the real Nikki’s loss of autonomy when the self-proclaimed “Freaky Nikki” takes over her body and dedicates it to Bear. Many have been raving over the horror elements of the film, but to me, the scariest line wasn’t even delivered by Nikki. In a scene during which “Freaky Nikki” is asleep, the real Nikki quietly begs for Bear to take her life. In response, Bear asks “what’s so bad about being with me?” By this point in the film, Bear had generally been depicted as a somewhat level-headed protagonist who didn’t know what he was getting into. Even when making the wish, it was clear he didn’t really believe in the One Wish Willow and likely wasn’t thinking too critically about its consequences. Still, this line solidified that who we thought was the “straight-man” character of the film was actually the antagonist. Bear’s willingness to ignore all of Nikki’s cries for help stemmed from his cowardly desire to cling onto a twisted version of a fantasy love story with her, which morally establishes him as the worst character in the film.
In regards to the morals of the film, Obsession is great at putting its side characters in morally gray areas while leaving their fates very clearly undeserved. Ian, for example, is shown in the opening scene to be Bear’s best friend, who does his best to advise him and help him confess his feelings to Nikki. Later in the film, however, it is revealed that he had been involved in casual sexual encounters with Nikki himself prior to the events of the film, and that he had been hiding this fact from his best friend while watching Nikki suddenly fall deeply in love with him, assuming she was doing so simply to get back at him. Similarly, Sarah, who is generally thought to be Nikki’s best friend, clearly has a crush on Bear, and despite seeing Nikki’s extremely strange and harmful actions in devotion to Bear, still organizes a secret and personal meeting with him during which she begins to flirt with him. In any typical scenario, Ian should have been condemned for the secret he kept from Bear, and Sarah should have been condemned for prioritizing her crush on Bear over the well-being of her best friend. Yet with Nikki’s possession, they both end up meeting fates that clearly did not equate to the harm they caused.
The breakout performances in Obsession have also been widely praised, with Inde Navarrette as Nikki taking the spotlight for her extreme control of her facial expressions as well as her having to constantly shift between Nikki and “Freaky Nikki” throughout the film. Michael Johnston as Bear and Megan Lawless as Sarah also held up extremely well alongside Navarrette and helped keep the tone of the film consistent.
Cooper Tomlinson, who plays Ian, not only gives a very realistic performance, but is also director Curry Barker’s real-life best friend who has worked on his past short films and previously worked alongside him in the YouTube sketch-comedy group “that’s a bad idea.” With Barker and Tomlinson set to co-star in their next film Anything But Ghosts, it is clear that the comedy group has used their internet success to propel their careers to new heights and to truly show off their potential as filmmakers. With Obsession’s success, Barker has clearly established himself alongside Jordan Peele and Zach Cregger as a former sketch-comedy horror auteur.
Obsession appeals universally to several groups. Aside from general horror fans, the film speaks to women who understand the fear of a loss of their autonomy. It also attracts men who find themselves struggling to find partners, yet forces them to confront the darker reality that exists for women who encounter the worst of these men.
