Obsession
At night, a man in a car looks at a small box. In the background, a woman stands in front of the door of a house. At the center of the poster are the film's title, credits, and tagline reading, "Be careful who you wish for...".
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Curry Barker
Written by Curry Barker
Produced by
  • James Harris
  • Haley Nicole Johnson
  • Christian Mercuri
  • Roman Viaris
Starring
  • Michael Johnston
  • Inde Navarrette
  • Cooper Tomlinson
  • Megan Lawless
  • Andy Richter
Cinematography Taylor Clemons
Edited by Curry Barker
Music by Rock Burwell
Production
companies
  • Capstone Studios
  • Tea Shop Productions
  • Under the Shell
Distributed by
  • Focus Features (United States)
  • Universal Pictures (International)[a]
Release dates
  • September 5, 2025 (2025-09-05) (TIFF)
  • May 15, 2026 (2026-05-15) (United States)
Running time
109 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $750,000[2]
Box office $333.3 million[3][4]

Obsession is a 2025 American supernatural horror film written, directed, and edited by Curry Barker. The film follows Bear (Michael Johnston), a music store employee who buys a supernatural toy that grants his wish for his friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette) to fall in love with him, resulting in horrific consequences. Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, and Andy Richter appear in supporting roles, and Barker has a voice role.

Barker, a YouTube sketch comedian, uploaded his short horror film The Chair to his channel in 2023, which led to an offer from producer James Harris to adapt it into a feature film. Barker took the opportunity to pitch Obsession, a different film idea partly inspired by The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror II". The film was shot in Los Angeles in October 2024 for $750,000. It is Barker's second feature-length film, after Milk & Serial (2024), and his first to be released in theaters.

Obsession premiered on September 5, 2025, at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), where Focus Features acquired the distribution rights for $14–$15 million, the highest price commanded by a genre film in TIFF history, and Jason Blum came on board as an executive producer under Blumhouse Productions. Obsession was theatrically released in the United States on May 15, 2026. A critical and commercial success, it grossed $333.3 million worldwide, becoming Focus Features' highest-grossing film of all time and the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2026.

Plot

Baron "Bear" Bailey has romantic feelings for his friend Nikki Freeman, both of whom work at a music store with their friends, Ian and Sarah. He returns home to find that his cat, Sandy, has died after accidentally consuming oxycodone. Bear shops for a gift for Nikki at a crystal shop and buys her a "One Wish Willow", a novelty toy that claims to grant one wish per person when broken. Later that night after a group hangout, Nikki directly asks Bear if he likes her, which he nervously denies. Frustrated with himself, Bear breaks the One Wish Willow, wishing for Nikki to love him more than anyone in the world. Immediately after, Nikki reappears and asks to sleep at Bear's house, confiding that her estranged father is dying of cancer. In bed, she kisses him but then abruptly screams and pulls back.

The next morning, Nikki creates a memorial with Sandy's remains, disturbing Bear. She explains her erratic behavior as the result of taking MDMA, which Bear accepts, and the two begin dating. Suspicious, Ian calls Bear and informs him that Nikki told Sarah she saw Bear as her "little brother" shortly before they began dating, and that she lied about her father's cancer. That night, Bear wakes up to see Nikki watching him sleep, and she cries, accusing him of not loving her. The next day, Bear discovers that she made him a sandwich using Sandy's remains. Bear calls the One Wish Willow's customer support to alter his wish. The voice on the other end says the wish will only expire when he dies, then puts on a hysterically screaming Nikki on the line, which he hangs up on in a panic.

Nikki accompanies Bear to a party at Ian's house that night, despite the latter's protests. During a Jenga drinking game, Nikki recites a violent, incestuous retelling of "Hansel and Gretel". Bear draws a block daring him to kiss the person to his left, which is Sarah. Nikki ousts Sarah from her seat and kisses Bear instead. Suddenly, Nikki starts screaming and stabs her face with a broken bottle. Later, Sarah texts Bear to meet her at the park. As Bear attempts to leave, a lucid Nikki speaks, claiming that her obsessive persona is asleep, and begs Bear to kill her. Bear refuses, offended that she would rather die than be with him. Sarah reveals to Bear that Ian and Nikki had been casually hooking up for the past two years, and expresses concern that Nikki is using him to get back at Ian. After Sarah hints at her own attraction to Bear; Nikki suddenly bursts through the window and murders her by repeatedly slamming her head into a brick. She instructs a traumatized Bear to return home while she disposes of the body.

Bear buys the remaining One Wish Willows from the crystal shop and tries to reverse his wish, but is unable to break one. He explains the situation to Ian and begs him to undo his wish. Ian, in disbelief, wishes for a billion dollars instead, causing cash to rain from the ceiling. Bear returns home with the last One Wish Willow to get Nikki to reverse his wish. He discovers Sarah's mutilated corpse and finds Nikki wearing Sarah's dress and scalp; she then threatens Bear and herself at gunpoint. Ian arrives and is immediately shot dead by Nikki. Bear locks himself in the bathroom, and intends to shoot himself in the head. Unable to go through with it, he instead consumes the last of the oxycodone, but quickly changes his mind and tries to induce vomiting just as Nikki breaks the last One Wish Willow. Under the wish's influence, Bear emerges from the bathroom and kisses Nikki before dying from the overdose. Heartbroken, Nikki prepares to shoot herself, but Bear's death causes the real Nikki to regain control just before she does. Horrified by the carnage surrounding her, Nikki wails hysterically.

Cast

Left to right: Director Curry Barker with actors Inde Navarrette and Michael Johnston at a Q&A for the film in 2026.
  • Michael Johnston as Baron "Bear" Bailey, a music store employee
  • Inde Navarrette as Nikki Freeman, Bear's co-worker, friend, and crush
  • Cooper Tomlinson as Ian, Bear and Nikki's friend
  • Megan Lawless as Sarah Harper, Bear and Nikki's friend and Carter's daughter
  • Andy Richter as Carter Harper, the music store boss and Sarah's father
  • Haley Fitzgerald as Viola, the crystal shop employee who sells Bear the One Wish Willow
  • Darin Toonder as Harry, another crystal shop employee
  • Curry Barker as the voice of the One Wish Willow customer service representative

Production

Development

Curry Barker, one half of the sketch comedy duo that's a bad idea with Cooper Tomlinson, uploaded his short horror film The Chair to his YouTube channel in 2023.[5] After film producer James Harris of Tea Shop Productions reached out to Barker to adapt it into a feature-length film, Barker pitched Obsession instead.[6] Barker initially wrote Obsession as a film about an obsessive relationship. While preparing to watch an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia in which he appeared, he caught a rerun of a 1991 episode of The Simpsons where Homer interacts with a monkey's paw, which inspired him to incorporate the wish element.[7][8][9] The concept led to his signing with United Talent Agency and receiving an offer to direct the film with a $1 million budget.[5] Around this time, he declined a $2 million offer to rewrite the script to make Bear a hero.[10] Barker took eight months to complete the screenplay while working with the film's production companies, which, in addition to Tea Shop Productions, included Capstone Studios and Under the Shell.[11][12] Barker developed the design of the One Wish Willow with his mother, a graphic art designer.[6]

Casting

Casting was underway by August 2024.[11] Barker wrote the Nikki character as both a threat and a victim, as the story shows her gradually losing control of herself after Bear's wish.[13] According to Barker, the role required an actress capable of portraying a normal young woman and a frightening supernatural presence.[14] Amid a long casting process, Inde Navarrette was cast as Nikki after Barker felt she "nailed" a balance between crazy and scary and brought a natural and relaxed personality to the role that helped make Nikki believable before the horror elements emerged.[6][14] After a chemistry read with Navarrette, Michael Johnston was cast as Bear.[6]

Obsession marked Navarrette's second film after Wander Darkly (2020) and television roles on 13 Reasons Why (2020) and Superman & Lois (2021–2024).[15] Much of Nikki's physical behavior was developed through collaboration between Barker and Navarrette. Nikki's screams, facial expressions, and vocal changes were performed without CGI or artificial intelligence;[16] scenes of Nikki lurking in the dark incorporated practical makeup effects, partly influenced by an uncanny valley makeup trend popularized by TikTok in 2023.[17] Before filming began, Barker had the cast watch Hereditary (2018) and had Navarrette watch Midsommar (2019) and Pearl (2022).[18] Navarrette credited Betty Gabriel in Get Out (2017), Toni Collette in Hereditary, and Mia Goth in Pearl as inspirations for her performance as Nikki.[19][20][21]

Filming

Principal photography began in late October 2024.[11] It was filmed in 26 days, including reshoots after an initial 20-day shoot, in the Los Angeles area, covering five to six script pages daily.[16][22][23] Barker worked with cinematographer Taylor Clemons to shoot the film "center-composed" with "extra head space" to create shots that felt "uncomfortable".[7] Scenes set in Bear's home, a house in Burbank remodeled by production designer Vivian Gray, were shot first in a week and a half.[7][24] Other locations included the Cassells Music store in San Fernando, which shut down a year after they wrapped, the Green Man crystal shop and Roguelike Tavern in Burbank, and Little Toni's pizzeria in North Hollywood.[23][25] Some scenes involving conversations in cars were shot on a soundstage using LED screen technology.[26]

Obsession underwent reshoots for a new opening scene and, according to Barker, to "do a better job of showing why [Bear] doesn't want to fix it right away", adding the scene where Bear confronts Nikki for cutting his hair to emphasize "that he wants to make it work".[8] The production had to forgo reshoots of the party scene after the house where they filmed it burned down in the 2025 Los Angeles fires.[27] For the ending, they filmed one take of Bear trying to make himself throw up after ingesting the pills at Johnston's suggestion that it would fit Bear's cowardly nature.[16][28] Barker initially wrote and filmed an ending inspired by Romeo and Juliet where Nikki kills herself after breaking free from Bear's wish. On the advice of his playwright father, who contributed the "Hansel and Gretel" monologue, and others, Barker shot one take of a different ending where Nikki survives, which he chose for the theatrical cut.[16][29][30] According to Barker, the film's budget was at most $750,000.[2]

Post-production

By March 2025, Obsession was in post-production with Barker as editor.[6][31] Barker recorded his dialogue as the One Wish Willow customer service representative on his phone while editing the film from his bedroom, changing lines to fit the edit.[30] After the film's festival premiere in September, the scene depicting a character getting their head smashed was cut down by "six or seven smashes" to avoid an NC-17 rating from the MPA.[32] Jason Blum joined the film as an executive producer under his Blumhouse Productions banner after the premiere;[33] his involvement was revealed in December 2025 when the first teaser was released.[34] Rock Burwell composed the score in his debut as a feature film composer.[35] The 18-track album was released on May 15, 2026, the same date as the film's release.[36]

Release

Obsession premiered during the Midnight Madness block at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on September 5, 2025.[7] Two days later, Focus Features entered talks to acquire distribution rights to the film for the world (excluding France, New Zealand, and Russia) for $14–$15 million, the highest price commanded by a genre film in TIFF history, with Universal Pictures International handling distribution outside the United States;[37][2][38] the deal officially closed in October 2025, with a screening at the inaugural FocusFest on October 18 at the Universal Studios Lot.[39] The film was theatrically released in the U.S. on May 15, 2026.[40]

In June 2026, art director Sally Choi made a social media post calling for industry reform, noting that she made $300 a day on the non-union production while also serving as production assistant, set dresser, graphic designer, and background actor, and that some crew members were volunteers paid in gas and mileage.[41][42]

Reception

Box office

As of June 21, 2026, Obsession has grossed $215.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $117.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $333.3 million.[3][4]

In the United States and Canada, Obsession was initially projected to gross $8–10 million from 2,615 theaters in its opening weekend.[43] After making $7 million on its first day,[44] estimates were raised to $14 million.[43] It went on to debut to $17.2 million, finishing third at the box office behind holdovers Michael and The Devil Wears Prada 2.[45] The film then made $32 million over the subsequent four-day Memorial Day frame, including $24 million over the second weekend (a 39% increase from its opening).[46][47] Unprecedented for a wide release, especially in the horror genre, it marked the biggest second-weekend increase for a film playing in more than 2,500 theaters outside of the Christmas season. Word-of-mouth and turnout from the 18–34 demographic, making up 75% of audience members, led to its success.[48][49]

In its third weekend, the film made $27.4 million, becoming the first wide release outside of the Christmas season since E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) to increase its earnings for three consecutive weekends; with a total $105.7 million at the time, it also became Focus Features' highest-grossing film domestically, surpassing Downton Abbey (2019; $97 million).[50][51] On the following Monday, Focus Features postponed its expected digital release of June 2.[52] In its fourth weekend, the film became Focus Features' highest-grossing film of all time worldwide, surpassing Downton Abbey ($194.6 million).[53] In its fifth weekend, it outgrossed The Blair Witch Project (1999; $248.6 million) to become the top-grossing festival acquisition title of all time.[54]

Critical response

Inde Navarrette received critical acclaim for her performance as Nikki.[55][56]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 269 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "Taking an icky conceit and twisting it to deviously crowd-pleasing ends, Obsession is dauntingly disturbing while also skillfully amusing and thrilling."[57]

Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 77 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[58] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while 70% of those polled by PostTrak said they would "definitely recommend" it.[43]

Christian Zilko of IndieWire said it was "proof that the Cregger-ification of 2020s horror is in full effect, as its combination of sadistic violence, ironic needle drops, and comedy mined from people responding to tragedy in pathetically self-serving ways will merit plenty of comparisons to Barbarian and Weapons".[59] IGN's Matt Donato noted "familiar romance and monkey's paw tropes" but said "Barker's execution takes things to the next level".[60] Lou Thomas of Empire called it "so fresh and exhilarating, one can forgive its familiar origins".[61] In Compact, Matthew Schmitz said it defined the genre of "heteropessimist horror".[62] Author Rob K. Henderson described it as a "morality tale" that encouraged young men to confess their romantic feelings instead of concealing them.[63]

Navarrette received critical acclaim for her performance.[64][55] Louis Peitzman of Vulture called it a stand-out performance for Navarrette, especially as her first major role in the horror genre.[65] Katie Rife of RogerEbert.com said her emotional scenes revealed the humanity behind Nikki's violent behavior and made the character more tragic.[66] Guy Lodge of Variety praised Navarrette for "acing one of the more physically and emotionally taxing horror leads to come down the pike in a while".[67] Bill Bria of SlashFilm compared Nikki's impact to performances in classic horror films such as The Exorcist (1973) and Carrie (1976).[14]

Benjamin Lee of The Guardian praised the "disturbing sound design" for intensifying the horror elements,[68] while Marshall Shaffer of Slant Magazine complimented the film's audiovisual presentation.[64] Comparisons were raised to Kane Parsons's Backrooms, a fellow commercially successful, low-budget 2026 release directed by a YouTuber; Aaron Couch of The Hollywood Reporter said he anticipated a "generational shift" away from high-budget movie franchises in favor of smaller films.[69]

Accolades

Award / Festival Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.
Toronto International Film Festival (50th Awards) September 14, 2025 People's Choice Award, Midnight Madness Obsession Runner-up [70]
Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival (58th Awards) October 18, 2025 Best Feature Film Obsession Nominated [71][72]
Official Fantastic Selection in Competition - Special Jury Prize Won (Tied) [72][73]
SOFC Audience Award Won [73]
Carnet Jove (Youth Card) Award for Best Film Won [73]
South by Southwest (40th Awards) March 19, 2026 Festival Favorite Audience Award Obsession Nominated [74][75]
SXSW Film Festival (40th Awards) March 20, 2026 Audience Award - Festival Favorites Curry Barker Nominated [76]
Panic Fest (14th Awards) April 15, 2026 Best of Fest - Feature Film Curry Barker Won [77]
Best Director - Feature Film Obsession Won [77]
Miami Film Festival (43rd Awards) April 19, 2026 Jordan Ressler First Feature Award Obsession Nominated [78][79]
Seattle International Film Festival (6th Awards) May 17, 2026 Golden Space Needle Awards - Best Performance Inde Navarrette Won [80]
Seattle Film Critics Society Feature Film Award Curry Barker Won [81]

Future

In 2025, Barker said the characters of Obsession are unlikely to appear in another film.[7] In 2026, Barker said he was considering an anthology television series where each episode explores a new character making a wish,[82] or a sequel, for which he has an idea.[10] His next film, Anything but Ghosts, is set in the same shared universe, including a reference to the events of Obsession in the form of a news report.[83]

Notes

  1. ^ excluding France (Le Pacte), Australia and New Zealand (Rialto Distribution), and Russia (Exponenta Film)

See also

  • Mind control in popular culture
  • Obsessive love

References

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