For me Obsession appears to know what it is trying to say but chooses to do something different instead. It takes a rather clever play on the careful-what-you-wish-for/monkey paw trope, an idea that in itself could be horrifyingly creepy and instead turns it into an excuse to lean into standard horror movie creepiness instead. The idea here, that a man chooses for a woman who she should be in love with against her will, would have been enough on its own to make a truly disturbing film. Instead Obsession is obsessed with just having her act creepy, violently, and uses jump scares to scare us. But the worst part is that the film hints at how scary its actual premise is at moments before falling back into being just another horror movie like all the rest.
The film starts out great. It sets up its story perfectly; a "nice-guy" is in love with a beautiful and truly lovely young woman who has apparently "friendzoned" him but can't bring himself to let her know how he feels. Instead he snaps a toy wish granter (which to be fair he thinks is just a joke and won't have any real effect) wishing that she would love him more than anyone in the world. From there the story gets going and for me gets off track.
Imagine the film where she acted like a real person madly in love, perhaps unhealthily obsessed, perhaps acting out against those she sees as threatening to their relationship. He would have to wrestle with her possessiveness and with the reality that he knows this is not what she chose and that her love for him wasn't a choice she made. There is so much potential there. Obsession is at its best when it does this. I found it the most upsetting and disconcerting, the most horrifying, when it was exploring how her forced passion was destroying her. Yet it only takes short glimpses into that world.
Immediately after the film pulls the trigger on its premise it has her acting "weird" like she's possessed by some evil spirit more like a traditional horror movie. She does a lot of things that no one would do in any realistic context. The film even has moments where it leans into the possession idea. But mostly it leaps from unnatural behaviour to violent act like it's an Exorcist movie. There is no reason she would feed him a cat nor walk around like a crab hiding in the dark. What I wanted was for Bear to wrestle with the fact that he has essentially assaulted her and the worsening of this as he continues on. Again when it does that it works wonders but so often Obsession will often get there and then pull the rug out from underneath that by turning back into a traditional horror movie sort of way. It's like the film has a very limited understanding of relationships and consent, the very things that this morality tale really need to work.
It's too bad too because Johnston and Navarrette are both amazing. They lift the film during its good parts and rise above the more standard sections. Barker himself shows a lot of great promise. I love how he often obscures our view of Nikki, reminding us that we aren't seeing her, but his version of her. Sadly his impulse to suddenly jerk the film into possession mode saps the power of what would otherwise be a remarkably astute and profound film with a lot to say about the gendered nature of relationships and how power works so often in those relationships.
As the film ends it finally taps into some of the energy I wanted from this and leaves its very bleak ending in a place that made sense to me. But by then I was already over this version of this story despite how much of a phenomenon this film has become. What I do appreciate about the film is how it has sparked conversations that are important.
Obsession
Starring: Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Andy Richter
Writer/Director: Curry Barker
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