Curry Barker’s Obsession begins like a love story and ends as a nightmare. Michael Johnston plays Bear, a timid music store clerk who makes a supernatural wish for his longtime crush, Nikki (Inde Navarrette), to fall in love with him. At first, the spell seems harmless, almost sweet, as Nikki’s attention shifts toward him. But Barker, who also edits and shoots the film, carefully winds tension tighter with every beat, until what began as a dream mutates into something grotesque.
Navarrette’s transformation is magnetic, her performance shifting from warmth to eerie intensity as the wish corrodes her free will. Johnston brings aching vulnerability to Bear, a man undone by his own need to be loved. Barker keeps the camera close, emphasizing claustrophobia and control, and uses body horror to externalize the collapse of intimacy. What makes Obsession powerful isn’t the scares alone, but the way it forces viewers to question desire itself: how much of love is possession, and when does yearning become violence? It is a daring, unsettling debut, stylishly shot and deeply felt, and marks Barker as a voice to watch.
Obsession is playing at TIFF ’25. For more information, click here.
