Movie Review: ‘Obsession’ Is One Of The Best Horror Movies Of The Year

Tweet
Review by Adam Courtliff

If I had a pound for every time I’d heard “this is the scariest movie of the year” or “this is the best horror film of the decade” over the last ten years, I’d be a rich man. From Longlegs to Undertone and everything in between, they’re the sort of empty phrases marketing teams wheel out every other month while social media eagerly laps them up. But for once, with Curry Barker’s feature length debut Obsession, those claims might actually be justified. This is the rare horror film that deserves every bit of the hysteria surrounding it, and it’s about to completely dominate cinemas this weekend for very good reason.

At its core, Obsession is a dark and deeply unsettling story about a young romantic hopelessly infatuated with his longtime crush. It’s something almost everyone can relate to at some point in their lives, especially the agony of unreturned feelings and the humiliation of hearing the phrase “friend zone” thrown around like a death sentence. Barker taps into that hopeless longing perfectly, the kind of emotional misery only love can inflict.

In a desperate attempt to escape that cycle, Bear (Michael Johnston) uses a One Wish Willow from a dodgy psychic shop to wish that his crush Nikki (Inde Navarrette) would love him more than anything else in the world. Unfortunately for Bear, the wish works. What follows is a rapid descent into something deeply sinister as Nikki’s affection mutates into an all consuming fixation that spirals into disturbing and increasingly horrific consequences for everyone involved.

Obsession may not be your typical horror film overloaded with cheap jump scares every five minutes, but by grounding itself in painfully recognisable emotions and pairing them with Barker’s razor sharp script, it becomes one of the most twisted psychological horror films in recent memory. The film creates a suffocating sense of claustrophobia as Nikki’s obsession intensifies, to the point where some scenes become genuinely difficult to sit through. Watching Bear slowly realise the nightmare he has created is horrifying in itself, and Barker wrings every ounce of discomfort out of the concept.

The very best filmmakers can pinpoint the project that changed their careers forever, the one that launched them into a completely different stratosphere, and for Curry Barker Obsession is exactly that. After sharpening his craft on YouTube with a string of well made horror shorts before the viral success of Milk & Serial, Barker has now delivered something daring, nasty, and completely uncompromising. It’s the sort of directorial debut most horror filmmakers dream about, and frankly, many seasoned veterans of the genre would quite literally die for.

Barker is not the only talent emerging from Obsession either, because Inde Navarrette delivers not only the best horror performance of the year so far, but arguably the best lead performance full stop. The speed at which she shifts from sweet and charming to deeply unnerving is astonishing. One minute she feels warm and vulnerable, the next she’s absolutely terrifying. It’s a performance that completely consumes the screen, and if horror performances continue to finally receive the recognition they deserve, don’t be surprised if Navarrette’s name starts appearing in serious awards conversations.

Michael Johnston may not have the headline grabbing role, but he’s excellent as Bear. Despite the character making some deeply questionable decisions and veering dangerously close to unlikeable, Johnston still manages to make him feel painfully human. He captures the panic of someone trapped inside a nightmare entirely of his own creation incredibly well, and alongside his chemistry with Navarrette, the pair deliver some of the film’s very best moments.

Narratively, I was worried Obsession might lose momentum after its initial setup. After all, there are only so many ways you can stretch the “obsessive lover” concept before it risks becoming repetitive. Thankfully Barker is far too smart for that. The film constantly throws unexpected turns at the audience, refusing to let things settle into predictability, and the finale more than delivers on the brilliant setup. In fact, it culminates in one of the most memorable horror endings I’ve seen in years.

Obsession is almost certainly going to be remembered not only as one of the best horror films of 2026, but as one of the defining horror films of the entire 2020s. It takes an idea as universal as love and twists it into something genuinely disturbing. Couples who have been together for decades will probably leave the cinema eyeing each other a little differently afterwards. It’s a film that demands to be experienced on the biggest screen possible, and unlike so many horrors drowning in overhype, this one actually earns it.