Obsessed With Obsession

Spoilers

The theater was packed shoulder to shoulder and knee to knee when I was able to snag one ticket for myself to see Obsession. It was one of the last seats available; in a time of digital tickets it makes you think back on standing in line at the box office and letting the law of first come, first served dictate your seats. Or going to see one movie only to find it’s sold out and now you have to sit through Get Smart. Now in this distant age we select our seats as far away from others as we possibly can like we’re playing Minesweeper on Windows. But cinema is a social experience, and to see people come out in droves for Obsession was an inspiring sight for the future of film. 

Curry Barker, director of Obsession, and Kane Parsons, director of Backrooms (we’ll get to you later) are all the talk of tinsel town at the moment with their two horror films eviscerating the box office. It marks a tide of internet creators venturing into film, and Hollywood beginning to take notice with their wallets. There is this wave of darkly comic modern horror first really felt with Zach Cregger’s Weapons, with his Whitest Kids U’Know comedy past echoing through the movie. Like every generation of filmmakers like the “Movie Brats” (Scorsese, DePalma, Spielberg, Coppola etc.) or the influx of 90s directors who were inspired by them (Tarantino, PTA, The Coen Brothers, etc.) every new crop of filmmakers were brought up on the movies before them and their work reflects that. When you grow up watching something you then later can play with some of those themes and tropes, subverting them or turning them on their head. 

Obsession is a fun ride into the paranormal absurd, the ultimate “be careful what you wish for” cautionary tale. Gen Z’s Fatal Attraction. And just like Michael Douglas in that one, Bear here is definitely the one to blame for all the morbid hijinks and ruining multiple women’s lives in the process. And also like Michael Douglas, animals are harmed. Fellas, this here is the result of not communicating your emotions. There was a collective groan in the theater when Nikki asked Bear if he truly had feelings for her and he fumbled it in the end zone with 1 second on the clock. The moment that solidified our cat grieving, star-crossed Romeo as the villain in this story is that line, “What’s so bad about being with me?” when the real Nikki, trapped within the love demon, meekly begs for him to kill her.

This hypnotic state of “Freaky Nikki” is a unique flip of the horror villain, one you can actually sympathize as she is a prisoner in her own body. Imagine watching The Grudge and actually getting to know her (I can hear all the guys saying "I can save her"). Inde Navarrette is incredible in her manic switch between lackadaisical 20-something record store employee and uncanny wraith. And the soulless look on her face as she lays beneath Bear during “sex” is a haunting indication of non consent. And to be left with three bodies when the dust settles and the credits roll is going to be a tough one to explain down at the station. She is a tragic character indeed. 

For a movie that doesn’t rely on jump scares and rather creates genuine tension through great pacing and cinematography, there is one perfectly executed jump scare when Nikki comes crashing out of frame into the car window and batters poor Sarah’s face into a brick. Even though at this point you are aware of the supernatural abilities that Nikki possesses and are waiting for the other shoe to fall after Bear anxiously sneaks out of bed, the scene lures you into a false sense of security with the music, the framing, and all the telling signs of a romantic embrace. For a split second you forget where you are, you’re warm and safe. And then that glass crashes and you let out an audible “OH SHIT!” in the theater. Well done. 

The ending felt expected but necessary. When speaking to the operator on the One Wish Willow hotline who informs Bear the only way to break the wish is to die or have someone make a contradicting wish, suicide became apparent as the only way this character could atone for the mess he's created. This whole exchange on the phone is excellent, feeling like a direct line to Limbo or Purgatory, with director Curry Barker voicing the representative with this casual aloofness that is both unsettling and sardonic, like a minimum wage employee at the front desk of hell. And the screams of Nikki being conferenced into the phone call makes you wonder more about the laws governing the dark magic of this universe. 

While I have you here there’s just one little continuity error that I could not ignore; when Bear walks into the living room and kneels down to talk to Nikki who’s sitting on the couch before turning to leave for work and noticing the door has been duct taped shut, he enters from the left side of the room, and would clearly see what she did to the door at the very least out of his peripheral if not just plainly seeing it before having 3 minutes of dialogue with her. Is this a nitpick? Sure. But I just can't not notice.

Obsession takes a great absurd scenario and places it in an ordinary group of young friends, and with the black humor mixed in it hits closer to home to this target audience. The stinging awkwardness of social interactions is the preamble before the violence and the horror kicks off. The most fun ride at the dark carnival this summer.

Now we just need that Almost Friday movie.