Obsessions by CineKyle

Obsession is one of those movies I wish I had gone into completely blind. In this day and age it’s increasingly harder to pull off but the rewards are there if you’re able to. I think all of the “next great horror movie” talk set my expectations a little too high, which is never really the movie’s fault, but it definitely shaped my experience. If not for the hype, I may not have been inclined to go to the theater and that in itself shows the power of the word of mouth. Ultimately, I had a very positive experience but it felt worth mentioning at the top here.

Before I get too far into this, I’d like to just say that Curry Barker has a really bright future. He’s already signed on to remake The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and he has another project set to release before that. This feels like an incredibly confident feature, and it’s easy to see why so many people are buying stock in him.

My biggest hang-up was the horror. I went in expecting something that would truly terrify me but it never quite got there. The tension is solid and the scares land, I just found them to be more shocking than genuinely terrifying. The use of shadows is very cleverly done and that does add a bit to the scare factor. I also understand that fear is different for everyone and it’s hard to make blanket statements about what is scary in horror movies. There’s an argument to be made that the real horror element here is the amount of cringe that Barker uses, it’s evident that he’s been part of some very awkward situations. I may not have been scared a lot, but I was certainly squirming at some of the social interactions that take place in the film.

The biggest surprise was the cast. Inde Navarrette steals the show here but that shouldn’t take away from anyone else. Everyone feels completely natural, and the chemistry goes a long way in making you care about what’s happening. A great example of this is the dynamic of the core friend group, they genuinely seem like friends so when things start to go sideways, you’re legitimately concerned. Barker also nails the comedy. I’m not usually a fan of mixing the two but it never feels like it’s trying too hard, and every joke lands exactly when it needs to.

At the end of the day, this is just another reminder that hype can be a dangerous thing. It can build excitement, but it can also reshape expectations in ways that no film can fully live up to. Strip away the online discourse, ignore the teenagers who saw it countless times in theaters, and Obsession is still a really good horror movie. More importantly, it’s an introduction to the world that Curry Barker is a filmmaker worth keeping an eye on.