Obsession (2025 film)

Obsession is a 2025 American supernatural horror film written, directed, and edited by Curry Barker. The film follows Bear (played by Michael Johnston), a music store employee who buys a supernatural toy and wishes for his childhood friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette) to fall in love with him. Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless and Andy Richter also appear in supporting roles.

Obsession premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on September 5, 2025, as part of its Midnight Madness block. It is scheduled for a theatrical release in the United States on May 15, 2026, by Focus Features. The film received positive reviews from critics.

After breaking the mysterious "One Wish Willow" to win his crush's heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.

• Michael Johnston as Bear, a music store employee
• Inde Navarrette as Nikki, Bear's co-worker and childhood friend
• Cooper Tomlinson as Ian
• Megan Lawless as Sarah
• Andy Richter

Curry Barker was inspired to write the film while watching an episode of The Simpsons where "Bart [Simpson] gets a monkey paw and causes a bunch of chaos". In 2023, Barker wrote and directed the horror short film The Chair and uploaded it onto YouTube. Film producer James Harris of Tea Shop Productions was impressed by the film and reached out to Barker to adapt the short into a feature, but Barker pitched him Obsession instead. The film also led to him being signed by William Morris Endeavor and receiving an offer to direct a feature film with a $1 million budget.

It ultimately took over eight months for Barker to complete the screenplay while working with the film's production companies. In addition to Harris and Tea Shop Productions, the film was produced by Haley Nicole Johnson, Christian Mercuri, Roman Viaris, and Mark Lane, with Under the Shell and Capstone Studios also serving as production companies.

In August 2024, casting was underway with principal photography expected to begin that October. After numerous actress were auditioned, Inde Navarrette was cast as Barker felt that she "nailed" a balance between crazy and scary. After a chemistry read with Navarrette, Michael Johnston was cast as Bear. Production designer Vivian Gray remodeled a house in Burbank, California to serve as Bear's home. Taylor Clemons served as the director of photography, who Barker worked with to "shoot [the film] center-composed and have extra head space because [he] wanted it to feel uncomfortable in its loneliness".

By March 2025, Obsession was in post-production with Barker also serving as an editor. A scene depicting a character getting their head smashed had to be cut down by "six or seven smashes" in order to avoid receiving an NC-17 MPAA rating. Rock Burwell composed the film's score.

Obsession premiered during the Midnight Madness block at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on September 5, 2025. Two days later, Focus Features had reportedly entered exclusive talks to acquire distribution rights to the film for the world—excluding France, New Zealand, and Russia—with Universal Pictures International handling distribution outside the United States, for over $15 million; the deal officially closed in October 2025, with the film being screened at the inaugural FocusFest on October 18, South by Southwest in March 2026 and later being scheduled for a theatrical release in the United States on May 15, 2026. In December 2025, the first teaser for the film was released, with Jason Blum joining as an executive producer under his Blumhouse Productions banner.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of 47 critics' reviews are positive. 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." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 78 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Christian Zilko of IndieWire gave the film a B+ grade, saying 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." The Guardian's Benjamin Lee gave it 4/5 stars, characterizing it as "the perfect next chapter for Barker, who found fame last year when his $800-budgeted online prankster horror Milk & Serial made headlines for being far better than it had any right to be". IGN's Matt Donato gave the film a score of 8/10, writing that it "plays on familiar romance and monkey's paw tropes, turning a wish against the wishee, but Barker's execution takes things to the next level. In the film's simplicity lay the chance to go for broke, putting all efforts into the lengths Nikki is willing to go for her beloved."

• Official website
• Obsession at IMDb