Obsession (Photo – Focus Features)
Be careful what you wish for, runs the old saying; you just might receive it.
Obsession
Directed by Curry Barker – 2026
Reviewed by Garrett Rowlan
The quote ran through my mind as I left Obsession and stepped into an acrid SGV afternoon, whose toxic air didn’t dislodge the thought that, so far, it’s been a good year for horror films, or at least a good month, beginning with Backrooms and now with Obsession, which I missed on its release but recently caught up with.
Two horror movies, but coming from two different places, almost like head and heart. Backrooms was definitely a head trip, whereas Obsession began with a man pouring out his heart to a woman across the table. But soon we learn he is only rehearsing with a stranger his declaration of love for Nikki, a fellow worker at a music shop. A discontented and maybe slightly whacko girl whose nickname (which she hates) is Weird Nikki, she is played by Inde Navarrette, who, once possessed, gets weirder as the film goes on.
And scarier. I was impressed by the way that, as her madness grows, the actress’s expressions could go from doting to sinister with barely a shift in her features. She managed to scare me just by standing still, as she does at the doorstep and later in the dark corner of the bedroom of her boyfriend, Baron, well played by Michael Johnston. He is the primary character who has to deal with the madness taking over Nikki’s bewitched life. The actress is a really good wailer, a quality she has ample opportunity to display as the brief montage of the couple’s happiness descends into darkness.
The dynamism of the plot comes from their interactions and those of the two secondary characters in what is essentially a quartet film. As the tension between Nikki and Baron grows, these secondary characters are pulled into their spiral.
Obsession’s atmosphere is one of growing tension, whereas for Backrooms it’s a growing strangeness. Backrooms is not as scary, but it doesn’t pretend to be; its outright shocks are fewer in number. It relies more on a creepiness and strangeness of atmosphere.
Obsession goes a more tried-and-true route to terror, with touches of The Exorcist, Fatal Attraction, and a dash of Together, the Alison Brie film of a couple of years past. And just for good measure, it even has a little bit of Romeo and Juliet tossed in.
Unlike Backrooms’ hellishly bright chambers, Obsession relies more on the familiar night-and-fog atmosphere of a dozen horror films. Indeed, the store-bought “wish stick” in the film serves the same kick-start purpose as the Ouija board in The Exorcist.
(In one of the film’s grimly funny scenes, Baron calls the phone number on the back of the package and gets a bored response from some call-center jockey who laconically asks Baron if he read the back of the box. The exchange is funny and yet recognizable. Who hasn’t had to deal with an indifferent voice at some complaint desk? Though madness and death aren’t at stake as they are for Baron. The scene alone is worth the price of admission.)
I liked Backrooms slightly more, if only for its strangeness, its novelty. It seems to take place in a void removed from the real world (and it’s set in the 1990s), whereas Obsession taps into many contemporary ills, including mental health and what it feels like to be a young person in the age of Donald Trump.
Both films come from different subgenres of the horror field, and both are recommended, though I know I’m not the first to say this. Both films have done really well.
> Playing at Landmark Pasadena Playhouse, Regal Paseo, Regency Academy Cinemas, Regal Edwards Alhambra Renaissance, AMC Atlantic Times Square 14, AMC Santa Anita 16, Regal UA La Canada, and LOOK Dine-in Cinemas.
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