#obsession (2025)

[nessa007]

so i just saw obsession

[crimeronan]

So You Watched Obsession And Want To Mainline Curry Barker's Short Horror:

wonderful news!! curry barker is one of my favorite (if not my favorite, hands down) short horror directors. as someone who has watched hundreds and hundreds of short horror films on youtube.

here are five of his films with the runtime and a quick summary of each. (sorry if i miss any, these are what i remember off the top of my head!) i've avoided spoilers beyond the basic premise, but every single one of these deals with Absolutely Haunting Thematic Shit:

-

THE CHAIR - 25 minutes

when horror connoisseurs hear "curry barker," they usually think of the chair first. barker was approached to make this into a full-length film & pitched obsession instead... GREAT choice, as i don't think the chair would Work with extra runtime.

a man finds an old chair on the side of the road and brings it home to his girlfriend. strange events begin to unfold -- his girlfriend's behavior becomes increasingly erratic, he's losing time, he's unraveling at the seams....

if you enjoyed the fucked-up relationship dynamics in obsession then you will probably have a good time.

-

MILK & SERIAL - 62 minutes

barker's other best-known horror film. a twisty found footage thriller about youtube pranksters whose pranks Go Wrong (TM).

i can't say much more than that.... if you watched obsession and thought "pretty good, but pretty predictable. i wonder how curry barker would handle a psychological thriller with more plot twists??"

boy, does this film have an answer!!

-

ENIGMA - 20 minutes

this is a psychological thriller about a man dealing with the impending end of the world. explores how other people are also dealing with the end of the world.

i fear i'll give a skewed impression if i say this one is sort of a feel-good film..... but OF the films on this list, it's Certainly the most optimistic. my partner rafi (who really hates depressing horror) watched it with me and concluded, "oh, that was kind of sweet, actually!!"

this one's great if you want a palate cleanser after The Unrelenting Gutwrenching Horror of obsession.

-

WARNINGS - 20 minutes

my personal favorite!! criminally underrated!! upsetting in a way that stuck to my skin for days!!

a man starts receiving strange written warnings on halloween. things around him begin to unravel.

similar to the chair in its unsettling surreality, but with a bit more supernatural influence imo. you'll recognize a lot of parallel imagery to obsession, especially with Strange Movement and Nightmare Experiences.

-

HEAVY EYES - 5 minutes

the shortest one on this list if you just want to dip your toes in real quick... a pretty easy time investment if you've never watched short horror and aren't sure if you'll like it!

a boy's mom comes home unexpectedly at night.

the only problem?? she's still texting him from the hospital where she works.

this one is both scary and ended up Way More Haunting than i thought a 5-minute short could. even thinking about it makes my stomach kind of hurt.

[skullvis]

**Major Spoilers for Obsession (2026)**

I think the thing that is the most disturbing to me about Obsession is just how quickly it becomes totally clear that Bear not only never loved Nikki, but that he never even liked her.

In the little time we spend with Nikki before she becomes possessed “freaky” Nikki, Obsession goes to great lengths to establish Nikki as a person.

In just the first 15 minutes of the film, we learn that Nikki loves writing, she’s laid back, and that she cares very deeply for others. We see that she’s funny, she likes to gently tease her friends and joke around. She has ambition and wants to pursue her writing seriously. She has her own goals and thoughts and opinions.

She’s also characterized very well by her wardrobe, how she talks, her body language and expressions (courtesy of Inde Navarrette’s absolutely STUNNING and brilliant performance).

In a VERY short amount of time, the audience is given a VERY clear picture of Nikki’s personality and usual behavior.

Which makes her “transition” into “Freaky” Nikki all the more horrific when Bear makes his wish.

Because even if we give Bear some grace, and acknowledge that he couldn’t have known that the One Wish Willow would do what it did, and even if we treat his kissing her on the first night she comes over as morally grey (although in my opinion he absolutely did take advantage of the fragile mental state he believed her to be in), there is no way to excuse Bear blatantly ignoring that Nikki changes so drastically from the person Bear claims to be in love with.

After the wish, Nikki starts speaking differently and using a higher pitched voice, she starts dressing completely differently and wearing more traditionally “feminine” clothing. She suddenly drops her plan to quit working at the music store and pursue writing, she stops showing any care towards her other friends and the people in her life. She defers to Bear in every situation, with the only exception being any time Bear shows any sign of moving away from her emotionally (or physically).

After the wish, Nikki becomes a completely different person.

And Bear does not care or show any concern regarding this at all.

Everything that makes Nikki who she is, everything that makes Nikki, Nikki, is just gone after Bear uses the One Wish Willow.

And Bear couldn’t be happier.

We get a whole montage of Bear and “Nikki” as a “happy couple” hanging out together and ignoring everyone around them.

It’s not until Bear starts seeing actual consequences to his wish, such as “Nikki” causing a scene on their date or feeding his dead cat to him, that he begins to worry about her behavior.

And even then—EVEN THEN!!!!—Bear STILL adamantly refuses to accept that Nikki is not behaving rationally or how she used to in any way. While he eventually acquiesces to canceling his wish, he first tries to just “alter” it to make it so Nikki still loves him, but is just less intense.

He would rather use “Nikki” to satisfy his own desires and ego.

If Bear loved Nikki, hell, if he even just LIKED her for who she is, he would be horrified by “freaky” Nikki. He would have recognized and acknowledge extremely early on in their relationship, that something was deeply wrong. He would know that the woman he was with was not Nikki.

But Bear would rather have a bootleg version of Nikki that he can feel validated by, than have an actual relationship of any kind with the real Nikki.

He does not love Nikki. He does not even like her.

He likes the idea of Nikki. He likes the image of Nikki that he’s constructed of her, the image of her that only exists in his head.

He likes the fantasy of what Nikki would provide to him emotionally and physically.

From the beginning of the film, Obsession shows us exactly who its villain is. Nothing that “Freaky” Nikki does horrifies me as much as Bear’s treatment of Nikki and his refusal to see her as an actual person with autonomy.

For me that’s the most disturbing element of Obsession. That the people you trust the most and care about may be so obsessed with the version of you they’ve created in their mind that they’ll actively ignore your personhood and autonomy.

God. Obsession is so fucking good. I love film. I love cinema. Thank you Inde Navarrette. Thank you Curry Barker. Film of the year, if god hates horror fans why do we keep winning.

[cannonball5]

Anyone else think that Bear’s name in Obsession is a play on the question “Man or Bear?” because he’s not giving a choice at all and is both?

Just me?

[mikelogan]

OBSESSION (2025) dir. Curry Barker

[electricalsun]

[jaime-lannisters]

INDE NAVARRETTE as NIKKI FREEMAN OBSESSION (2025) dir. Curry Barker

[stari-hun]

I really do think Entity! Nikki is a childish existence and on top of it I think that's why it feels so bad to see her becoming traumatized from being with Bear when his wish ripped out parts of her that made it impossible to love him. Not! Nikki exists as sparknotes of her former self with the missing pieces filled in by Bear's own personality and habits, but she's still being traumatized because fundamentally Nikki and Bear's relationship is defined by her saying no and him not caring. It why I see the ending scenes of the movie as really nauseating because Not! Nikki is this new being without life experiences gauging her personality and behavior off of Bear's reaction and she starts to associate her genitals with violence. Entity Nikki is crying in the corner and starts to force herself to sleep at night and give Nikki full control because before that scene E! Nikki has the real Nikki's nightmare about how Bear raped her. It makes me feel sick since she's like a child that can't comprehend what's happening or why this is all hurting, and why she feels terrified by someone she loves. She doesn't understand why she feels so violated when one of the scenes with her and Bear is her assuring him he didn't violate her cause that's what Bear wants her to be telling him