"Obsession" review — Barker leaves a mark with queasy, moody cautionary tale
“Why don’t you love me anymore?”
What’s the one thing in the world you’ve wanted more than anything else? What desire did you hold, or hold still, that you’re sure that no one else wanted more than you? What did you do to get what you wanted? Maybe, in that foggy stupor of desperation, you turned to old superstitions, even the power of a magical wish, to make your wildest dreams come true. You aren’t alone. Lovestruck by his friend Nikki Friedman, Baron “Bear” Bailey turns to the mercies of a “One Wish Willow” (marketed as a children’s collectible in a crystal shop) in a moment of weakness to make Nikki love him “more than anyone else in the world.” Despite the numerous warnings on the box and the clear instructions from the crystal shop clerk that he shouldn’t come back and complain later, Bear (played by Michael Johnson) gets exactly what he wished for, with a brand-new romantic relationship exploding before him. Only, his wish doesn’t quite appear like how he wanted it. Nikki (in an incredible turn from Inde Navarrette) begins to behave erratically (even “obsessed”), his friends get worried, and Bear is pulled into an anxious mess of possession.
Written, directed, and edited by Curry Barker, a brand-new face in the indie horror scene, on a scrappy, sub-one-million-dollar budget, Obsession is a nauseating and profoundly disquieting tale of possession, full of excellent performances, squeamish, goopy imagery, and exceptionally strong cinematography and lighting design. The film turns mid-twentysomething suburban malaise (here, a group of four music store employees with varying prospects for an ever-delayed future) into the source of expertly wielded dread. It’d be easy to laugh off the “One Wish Willow” premise as the start of a lesser horror project — a cheap product gone wrong? How original! — but the film gets ahead of the inherent silliness of the premise through a strong sense of humour, eventually converting that laughter into panicked fear. Drawing from his background as a YouTube sketch filmmaker, Barker infuses a mean streak of vicious laughter throughout, blurring the line between humour and horror. That is not to describe Obsession as a “horror-comedy,” there is nothing comedic here; instead, Barker is using the tension between laughter responses and fear responses to never let his audience settle. And, boy, Obsession had me squirming in my seat in a truly memorable way.
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| Photo via Focus Features. |
As Bear and Nikki’s relationship shifts from odd to venturing into disturbing, Ian (played by Cooper Tomlinson) and Sarah (Megan Lawless) start to get worried that their friends are headed for imminent disaster. A bit involving a dead cat, a bizarre phone call, and a duct tape door later, their suspicions are confirmed, as “Nikki” (or whatever she is now) spirals further and further into her erratic, violent behaviour. Director Curry Barker — who’s already in post-production on another feature and is set to helm a Texas Chain Saw remake for A24 — emerges from the slimy muck of Obsession as an immediate filmmaking superstar. From its murky colour palette, visceral soundscapes, heartstopping scares, and general air of intensity, the film is a worthy display of the filmmaker’s talents and the incredible abilities of his collaborators. While not reflected by any means in the narrative content, for what it represents as an artistic work, Obsession is an optimistic film. The credits are a cavalcade of up-and-coming and new talent (with the exception of Andy Richter, who plays a music store owner), an ensemble of fresh talent primed to make waves.
Shooting the film in a heavy layer of shadows, broken up by the sparkling of tungsten bulbs and candlelight, Barker’s mastery of tension and suspense is exemplified in the technical craft. Rock Burwell’s score (his first for a feature film) is a delectable concoction of deep drones, spacey strings, and 80s-esque synths, giving the film an ethereal sonic atmosphere, imbuing layers of magic to the visual language of suburban California. The film’s imagery, captured in a boxy 4:3 by cinematographer Taylor Clemons, another new face, emphasizes uncomfortably large amounts of headroom and isolating compositions. The lightning is always monotone, but never dull, even when moments are supposed to be set under the warmth of daylight. The use of silhouetted catchlight is a particular sinister visual touch, before the gore and goop begin to gunk up the screen, an obvious visual nod to John Carpenter’s icy possession tale. But while The Thing conjures the eventual body horror through alien physiology, Obsession lets human meat become the instrument of deep physical discomfort.
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| Photo via Focus Features. |
The small but mighty cast makes Obsession such an engrossing film to engage with emotionally. Inde Navarette’s performance as Nikki (and the supernatural forces that inhabit her body) is the film’s most glorious achievement, accentuated with a plethora of incredible visual and sound design choices. Especially early in the film’s runtime, Navarette balances moments of lucidity with moments of demonic rapture, using ordinary smiles as some of the film’s most disquieting moments. While the vicious screams of the film’s later scenes are eternally deafening and striking, she is most effective in the moments of quiet, including one moment of quiet pleading with Bear that might be the film’s most intense scene. But Barker plays his best hand as a writer in the construction of our deeply frustrating protagonist, Bear. Ever a punitive genre, a lesser horror film would have Bear filling out the role of the perpetual victim of circumstance, suffering for the rest of the film because of his single mistake. Instead, Bear, with Michael Johnson’s whiny, wimpy performance, avoids every opportunity to get himself, Nikki, and their friends out of this awful situation, and yet, only ever makes it worse.
It’s deeply refreshing to see something with a budget as scant as Obsession making such obvious positive financial waves. With not even a week in theatres (at the time of publication) and already $25 million at the global box office, Obsession is catching on, and for very good reasons. With its unique and intimate spin on possession, stripped of any notion of “demons” or awkwardly interpreted Catholic aesthetics, the film reinterprets the classic adage of “be careful what you wish for” with nauseating effects. Riffing gleefully on tales of love gone wrong and tales of magic cursing the unprepared, Obsession runs rampant with malice in its heart and a glimmer of violent glee in its eye, with more than enough subtle character writing and brilliant performances to keep you digging into the film on the car ride home. Actually, you’d better do that car ride alone. Barker, and the rest of this cast and crew of newcomers, is one to watch in the years to come.
Obsession is now playing in theatres.
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