I’ve noticed a pattern in recent horror movies: specifically, in how they try to scare the audience. Imagery such as having a character smile really widely or hit themselves in the head is something that modern horror filmmakers can’t seem to resist.
Admittedly, Obsession includes some tired modern horror tropes, but something about this movie, directed by Curry Barker, is different. I can say Obsession is one of the scariest horror movies I’ve ever seen.
A persistent feeling of dread, once introduced, is present throughout the whole film. Upon leaving the theater, I felt physically tired from the film’s emotional rollercoaster of shock and tension.
Obsession has some phenomenal moments of purely scary stuff, but some moments that are supposed to be scary fall flat—so much so that they are actually funny. In one instance, a character does something so strange in a failed attempt to be frightening that everyone in the theatre with me at the time erupted in giggling. But these horror flops never overshadow the most memorably horrifying moments, and that’s what makes this film so good.
The performances of the lead actors, Inde Navarrette and Micheal Johnston, are strange in that they excel during the high intensity horror scenes, while ultimately failing in milder scenes where they have to be normal people doing normal things. Navarrette does provide a standout performance—winning a best performance award at the 2026 Seattle International Film Festival playing two characters, real Nikki and possessed Nikki.
Obsession doesn’t look good (Taylor Clemons is credited as director of photography) and it has no interesting style elements, but this might be attributed to its ridiculously low $1 million budget. Despite that, the film won the Best of Fest Feature Film Award and earned Barker a Best Director Award at the 2026 Panic Fest.
The underlying plot plays on the classic “be careful what you wish for” scenario (that’s even the movie’s tagline) without really bringing anything new to the table. Barker, who also wrote the script, spells things out for the audience at times with an utter lack of subtlety, which leads to an ungraceful pacing. I wish the primary conflict of the movie would have remained a mystery for longer; no interesting plot twists or real depth emerge as a result.
Of course not every movie has to be a deep thought piece, and that’s not what Obsession is trying to be. As a super scary, super entertaining psychological horror film, it completely succeeds. I recommend watching Obsession in a theater for that special horror experience.