Obsession (2025 film)

Obsession is a 2025 American supernatural horror film written, directed, and edited by Curry Barker. The film follows Bear, a music store employee who buys a supernatural toy that grants his wish for his friend Nikki to fall in love with him, which makes her become obsessed. Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, and Andy Richter appear in supporting roles.

Overview§

Obsession is a 2025 American supernatural horror film written, directed, and edited by Curry Barker. The film follows Bear (Michael Johnston), a music store employee who buys a supernatural toy that grants his wish for his friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette) to fall in love with him, which makes her become obsessed. Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, and Andy Richter appear in supporting roles. A YouTube sketch comedian, Barker uploaded his short horror film The Chair to his channel in 2023. When producer James Harris approached him to adapt it into a feature film, Barker took the opportunity to pitch Obsession, a different film idea of his partly inspired by The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror II". The film was shot in Los Angeles in October 2024 for $750,000. It is Barker's second feature-length film, after Milk & Serial (2024), and first to be released in theaters. Obsession premiered on September 5, 2025, at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), where Focus Features acquired the distribution rights for $14–$15 million, the highest price commanded by a genre film in TIFF history, and Jason Blum came on board as an executive producer under Blumhouse Productions. The film was theatrically released in the United States on May 15, 2026. It was a critical and commercial success, grossing $488 million worldwide and setting multiple box-office records as the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2026 and seventh-highest-grossing horror film of all time, not adjusted for inflation.

Plot§

Baron "Bear" Bailey harbors romantic feelings for his friend Nikki Freeman. They work at a music store with friends, Ian and Sarah. Bear returns home one night to find his cat, Sandy, dead after consuming oxycodone. He later visits a crystal shop to buy Nikki a replacement crystal necklace but instead buys her "One Wish Willow", a novelty toy that claims to grant someone one wish when broken. After a group hangout that night, Nikki asks Bear if he likes her but is unable to admit his feelings. Frustrated, he breaks the One Wish Willow and wishes that Nikki loved him more than anyone in the world. Nikki immediately reappears, and asks to stay with Bear, saying her estranged father is dying of cancer. Nikki kisses Bear but abruptly screams and pulls back in bed. The next morning, Nikki makes a memorial with Sandy's remains, but later explains her erratic behavior was the result of MDMA. After confessing their mutual feelings, they start happily dating. During a date, Ian calls Bear and reveals that Nikki had told Sarah that she saw Bear as her "little brother" shortly before they started dating, and that she lied around her father's cancer, making Bear realize the wish was real. He then questions Nikki around her father, but she reacts with sudden defensiveness and anger. That night, Bear awakens to Nikki watching him sleep, and she cries hysterically, accusing him of not loving her. The next day, Bear sees that Nikki duct taped the door shut in an attempt to keep him home, and later discovers the sandwich she prepared for him was made using Sandy's remains. Bear calls One Wish Willow's customer support to alter his wish, and they say the wish will only expire when he dies. They then put a screaming Nikki on the line, causing Bear to hang up in panic. He returns home and discovers that Nikki stood in place all day, waiting for him, and is covered in bodily fluids. Nikki accompanies Bear to a party against Ian's wishes. During a Jenga drinking game, Nikki recites part of a book she is working on, a morbid and incestuous retelling of "Hansel and Gretel". Bear draws a block, daring him to kiss the person to his left, who is Sarah. Nikki ousts Sarah from her seat and kisses Bear instead, before suddenly screaming and bashing herself with a broken bottle. Bear drives Nikki to the hospital, but brings her back home after she refuses treatment. Later, Sarah texts Bear to meet at the park. As Bear attempts to leave, a lucid Nikki speaks, claiming her obsessive personality is asleep, and begs Bear to kill her. He refuses, offended that she would rather die than be with him. At the park, Sarah reveals that Ian and Nikki had been casually hooking up for two years and expresses concern that Nikki is using him to get back at Ian. After Sarah hints at her own attraction to Bear, Nikki suddenly smashes the car window and repeatedly slams Sarah's head into a brick, killing her. After moving the body, Nikki tells Bear to go home while she disposes of it. Bear buys the remaining One Wish Willows from the shop to reverse his wish but is unable to break one. He explains everything to Ian and begs him to undo his wish. Ian sarcastically wishes for a billion dollars instead, causing cash to rain from the ceiling. Bear returns home with the last One Wish Willow to get Nikki to reverse his wish and discovers Sarah's mutilated corpse. Nikki, dressed like Sarah, then threatens Bear and herself at gunpoint. Ian arrives and is immediately shot dead by Nikki. Bear locks himself in the bathroom and prepares to shoot himself but is unable to go through with it. He instead consumes the remaining oxycodone but changes his mind and tries to induce vomiting just as Nikki breaks the last One Wish Willow. Under her wish's influence, Bear exits the bathroom and kisses Nikki before dying from the overdose. Heartbroken, Nikki prepares to shoot herself, but Bear's death causes her to regain control of herself before she does so. Horrified by the carnage surrounding her, Nikki wails hysterically.

Cast§

Michael Johnston as Bear, a shy music store employee Inde Navarrette as Nikki, Bear's co-worker and friend Cooper Tomlinson as Ian, Bear and Nikki's friend and co-worker Megan Lawless as Sarah, Bear and Nikki's friend and co-worker Andy Richter as Carter, the music store boss and Sarah's father Haley Fitzgerald as Viola, a crystal shop employee Darin Toonder as Harry, another crystal shop employee Curry Barker as the voice of the One Wish Willow customer service representative

Development§

Curry Barker, one half of the YouTube sketch comedy duo That's a Bad Idea with Cooper Tomlinson, conceived Obsession as a film around a couple obsessed with one another. While gathered with friends to watch an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia in which he appeared, he caught a rerun of "Treehouse of Horror II", a 1991 episode of The Simpsons where Homer Simpson interacts with a monkey's paw, which inspired him to incorporate the wish element in July 2023. Earlier that year, Barker uploaded his short horror film The Chair to his YouTube channel, which impressed producer James Harris of Tea Shop Productions. Harris reached out to Barker's manager to offer Barker the chance to adapt The Chair into a feature film, an idea Barker had already written a script for. Barker took the opportunity to pitch Obsession, also sending over a draft, an one-pager, and a lookbook. The concept led to his signing with William Morris Endeavor and receiving an offer to direct Obsession with a $1 million budget. Around this time, he declined a $2 million offer to rewrite the script to make Bear a hero. Barker took eight months to complete the screenplay while working at a coffee shop and corresponding with Tea Shop Productions. In the meantime, he released his first feature film, Milk & Serial, on YouTube in August 2024. Inspired by Aaron Sorkin's screenwriting MasterClass, Barker decided against expanding Nikki's backstory and the lore of the One Wish Willow by making the latter control the former's behavior. Barker developed the design of the One Wish Willow with his mother, a graphic art designer. Producer Haley Nicole Johnson helped Barker with the hiring of crew members. Obsession was bankrolled by Capstone Studios, after Harris shared Barker's script with its founder, Christian Mercuri, who was familiar with Barker's work.

Casting§

Barker considered casting himself as Bear. The crew shot a screen test for the scene where Bear drops Nikki off at her place and first makes the wish, in which Tomlinson, who had already been cast as Ian, stepped in to play Bear in late 2023 or early 2024. Casting was underway by August 2024. Barker wrote Nikki as both a threat and a victim and sought an actress capable of playing both a normal young woman and a frightening supernatural presence. Amid a long casting process, Mercuri championed Inde Navarrette, who had appeared in three Capstone projects. Navarrette was cast as Nikki after Barker felt she "nailed" a balance between crazy and scary and brought a natural, "bro-y kind of sassy" personality to the role that helped make Nikki believable before the horror elements emerged and made "Bear feel so much like he's in the friend zone". After a chemistry read with Navarrette, Michael Johnston was cast as Bear. Obsession marked Navarrette's second film after Wander Darkly (2020) and television roles on 13 Reasons Why (2020) and Superman & Lois (2021–2024). Much of Nikki's physical behavior was developed through collaboration between Barker and Navarrette, and her screams, facial expressions, and vocal changes were performed without CGI or artificial intelligence. Scenes of Nikki lurking in the dark incorporated practical makeup effects, partly influenced by an uncanny valley makeup trend popularized by TikTok in 2023. Before filming started, Barker had the cast watch Hereditary (2018) and had Navarrette watch Midsommar (2019) and Pearl (2022). Navarrette credited Betty Gabriel in Get Out (2017), Toni Collette in Hereditary, and Mia Goth in Pearl as inspirations for her performance as Nikki.

Filming§

To plan shots, minimize camera coverage, and achieve practical in-camera effects, Barker and cinematographer Taylor Clemons previsualized the film by 3D scanning locations and recreating them as digital models. They shot the film "center-composed" with "extra head space" to build shots that felt "uncomfortable". Principal photography started in late October 2024. It was filmed in 26 days, including reshoots after an initial 20-day shoot, in the Los Angeles area, covering five to six script pages daily. Scenes set in Bear's home, a house in Burbank remodeled by production designer Vivian Gray, were shot in the first week and a half. Other locations included the Cassell's Music store in San Fernando, which shut down a year after they wrapped, the Green Man crystal shop and Roguelike Tavern in Burbank, and Little Toni's pizzeria in North Hollywood. Scenes involving conversations in cars were shot on a soundstage using LED screen technology. Obsession underwent reshoots for a new opening scene and, according to Barker, to "do a better job of showing why [Bear] doesn't want to fix it right away", adding the scene where Bear confronts Nikki for cutting his hair to emphasize "that he wants to make it work". The production had to forgo reshoots of the party scene after the house where they filmed it burned down in the 2025 Los Angeles fires. For the ending, they filmed one take of Bear trying to make himself throw up after ingesting the pills at Johnston's suggestion that it would fit Bear's cowardly nature. Barker initially wrote and filmed an ending inspired by Romeo and Juliet where Nikki kills herself after breaking free from Bear's wish. On the advice of his father (who contributed the "Hansel and Gretel" monologue), Tomlinson, and others, Barker shot one take of a version where Nikki survives, which he chose for the theatrical cut. According to Barker, the film's budget was at most $750,000.

Post-production§

By March 2025, Obsession was in post-production. Barker edited the film on Adobe Premiere. He recorded his dialogue as the One Wish Willow customer service representative on his phone while editing from his bedroom, changing lines to fit the edit. After the film's festival premiere in September, the scene depicting Sarah getting her head smashed was cut down by "six or seven smashes" to avoid a NC-17 rating from the Motion Picture Association. Jason Blum joined the film as an executive producer under his Blumhouse Productions banner after the premiere; his involvement was revealed in December 2025 when the first teaser was released. Rock Burwell composed the score in his feature film debut. The 18-track album was released on May 15, 2026, the same date as the film's release.

Theatrical§

Obsession premiered during the Midnight Madness block at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on September 5, 2025. Two days later, Focus Features entered talks to acquire distribution rights to the film for the world (excluding France, New Zealand, and Russia) for $14–$15 million, the highest price commanded by a genre film in TIFF history, with Universal Pictures International handling distribution outside the United States; the deal officially closed in October 2025, with a screening at the inaugural FocusFest on October 18 at the Universal Studios Lot. The film was theatrically released in the U.S. on May 15, 2026. Art director Sally Choi made a social media post calling for industry reform, noting that she made $300 a day on the non-union production while also serving as production assistant, set dresser, graphic designer, and background actor, and that some crew members were volunteers paid in gas and mileage in June 2026.

Home media§

Obsession was released in premium video on demand format on June 30, 2026; it included behind-the-scenes content and a director's commentary. The film had a physical media release on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K UHD on July 14, and a streaming release via Peacock on July 17.

Box office§

As of August 9, 2026, Obsession has grossed $263.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $224.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $488 million. Obsession debuted with $17.2 million, finishing third at the box office behind holdovers Michael and The Devil Wears Prada 2 in the United States and Canada. The film then made $32 million over the subsequent four-day Memorial Day frame, including $24 million over the second weekend (a 39% increase from its opening). Unprecedented for a wide release, especially in the horror genre, it marked the biggest second-weekend increase for a film playing in more than 2,500 theaters outside of the Christmas season. Word-of-mouth and turnout from the 18–34 demographic, making up 75% of audience members, led to its success. The film made $27.4 million, becoming the first wide release outside of the Christmas season since E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) to increase its earnings for three consecutive weekends in its third weekend. With a total $105.7 million at the time, it also became Focus Features' highest-grossing film within Canada and the United States, surpassing Downton Abbey (2019; $97 million). On the after Monday, Focus Features postponed its expected digital release of June 2. In its fourth weekend, the film became Focus Features' highest-grossing film of all time worldwide, surpassing Downton Abbey ($194.6 million). It outgrossed The Blair Witch Project (1999; $248.6 million) as the top-grossing festival acquisition title of all time in its fifth weekend, and crossed $300 million worldwide by its sixth. On June 28, it overtook Sinners (2025; $370.3 million) as the highest-grossing live-action English-language original film of the 2020s. On July 6, it surpassed Enter the Dragon (1973; $400 million) as the highest-grossing film with a budget under $1 million, unadjusted for inflation. Many outlets pointed to the film as a cultural phenomenon during the summer of 2026, particularly among Generation Z audiences who drove ticket sales. Disney's The Mandalorian and Grogu, a franchise tentpole which released the weekend after Obsession, struggled against the film; the latter eventually surpassed the former's overall lifetime gross despite Mandalorian's initial $98 million opening. This, alongside the overperformance of A24's Backrooms, which released around the same time, sparked analysis over a potential renewed interest in original intellectual property from audiences.

Critical response§

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 314 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8/10. 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 77 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while 70% of those polled by PostTrak said they would "definitely recommend" it. Christian Zilko of IndieWire said 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". IGN's Matt Donato noted "familiar romance and monkey's paw tropes" but said "Barker's execution takes things to the next level". Lou Thomas of Empire called it "so fresh and exhilarating, one can forgive its familiar origins". In Compact, Matthew Schmitz said it defined the genre of "heteropessimist horror". Author Rob K. Henderson described it as a "morality tale" that encouraged young men to confess their romantic feelings instead of concealing them. Navarrette gained critical acclaim for her performance. Louis Peitzman of Vulture called it a stand-out performance for Navarrette, especially as her first leading role in the horror genre. Katie Rife of RogerEbert.com said her emotional scenes remind the audience of "the human being trapped inside" a body she no longer controls, making the character more tragic. Guy Lodge of Variety praised Navarrette for "acing one of the more physically and emotionally taxing horror leads to come down the pike in a while". Bill Bria of SlashFilm compared Nikki's impact to performances in 1970s horror films such as The Exorcist and Carrie. Benjamin Lee of The Guardian praised the "disturbing sound design" for intensifying the horror elements, while Marshall Shaffer of Slant Magazine complimented the film's audiovisual presentation. Odie Henderson of The Boston Globe was more critical of the film. He praised Navarrette's "fearless performance" and complimented Barker for knowing "how to get a communal reaction with his jump scares and savage gore", but said the story "tries to say something around female autonomy and male selfishness, yet... plays like an overlong, 108-minute riff on the old reliable stand-up routine subject 'girlfriends be crazy'". Others critiqued the film's handling of its ideas, Nikki's characterization, and a reliance on "genre clichés".

Future§

In 2025, Barker said the characters of Obsession are unlikely to appear in another film. Barker said he was considering an anthology television series where each episode explores a new character making a wish, or a sequel, for which he has an idea in 2026. His next film, Anything but Ghosts, is set in the same shared universe, including a reference to the events of Obsession in the form of a news report.