By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Starring Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette and Cooper Tomlinson
Written and directed by Curry Barker
Focus Features
“Be careful what you wish for” has been a compelling theme in genre media and literature since before W.W. Jacobs wrote “The Monkey’s Paw” in 1902, and typically, the focus is on the horrific impact on and/or victimization of the wisher. OBSESSION, the first feature by YouTube sensation Curry Barker (MILK & SERIAL, the short film THE CHAIR), flips that script in ways that are as uncomfortable, and provocative, as they are frightening.
As OBSESSION (which had its East Coast premiere at this month’s Boston Underground Film Festival and opens theatrically May 15) opens, we meet a young man named Bear (Michael Johnston) as he’s pouring out his heart to Nikki, his childhood friend and the object of his longtime but unspoken desire. “I would choose you over everything,” he says, before we see that he’s rehearsing what he’d like to say to her. He’s painfully shy and lacking in self-confidence, and Ian (Cooper Tomlinson, Barker’s regular filmmaking partner), his best friend who works with both Bear and Nikki (Inde Navarrette) in a record store, encourages Bear to ask her out when the time is right. But even when that moment does seem to arrive, he can’t work up the nerve. Anyone who has ever been in Bear’s situation (which is probably all of us) will nod in recognition, feel for his inability to say what’s on his mind…and maybe squirm a little bit at the awkwardness of the way he behaves.
Thus does Barker tap into universally relatable emotions, hooking the audience into the central situation before spinning it off in supernaturally chilling directions. In a New Agey store, alongside voodoo dolls and other totems, Bear has come across the One Wish Willow, and its promise to make a single desire come true. The shop’s proprietor advised him that past buyers have complained about the results, but Bear has purchased one anyway, and after he feels he’s blown his big chance with Nikki, he makes a wish upon the willow that she will love him “more than anyone in the entire world.” Presto: Nikki is suddenly full of amorous feelings for Bear, and it looks like the two of them are headed for happily ever after. Right?
Not by a longshot. Nikki isn’t just lovestruck over Bear now; she’s, well, obsessed, wanting to spend every waking moment with him and seeming to lose any of her own agency. Their mutual friends, including another co-worker, Sarah (Megan Lawless), begin to question why Nikki is so suddenly hung up on someone she previously considered just a friend. And in a beautifully played and written scene, Bear himself can’t quite deal with Nikki’s sudden desire for him. They way he’s getting what he wished for isn’t what he expected—and yet he goes along with it anyway for a while, via a combination of denial, libido and insensitivity to what he’s done to the woman he supposedly loves.
Nikki is the one who begins indulging in increasingly bizarre, violent and grotesque actions (warning: animal lovers should proceed with caution), but Bear is the real monster here, and Barker and Johnston don’t let him off the hook for it just because his initial motivation came from the heart. The real Nikki breaks through her lovestruck facade, crying out in fear for a few moments, just enough to make the point that she has been possessed as surely as Regan was in THE EXORCIST. And it’s not just whatever magic was unleashed by the One Wish Willow, it’s Bear who is possessing her. When he finally starts actively trying to free her from the spell, we root for that to happen for her sake more than his.
OBSESSION joins the string of recent films that have presented grisly metaphors for toxic, codependent and, in this case, abusive relationships, and is transfixing in its depiction of a man whose inability to properly deal with his passion leads his soul to rot. And yet Johnston bestows Bear with enough recognizable humanity that it’s possible to feel a little bit for him even in the midst of the psychological chaos he unleashes. Navarrette is a real discovery, making it easy to see why Bear would be head over heels for Nikki in the early scenes, then fully committing to the character’s descent into occult-driven madness. Barker accentuates her growing malevolent side by frequently casting her in darkness, and doesn’t flinch when the damage goes from mental to physical, including one of the most potent, shocking scenes in recent memory. From Taylor Clemons’ moody cinematography to Rock Burwell’s score, which swells to reflect the heightened emotions, to Allie Shehorn’s truly distressing makeup effects, all involved with OBSESSION ensure that this despairing yet gripping study of misapplied ardor and manipulation also works like gangbusters as a horror film.
