One Wish – Curry Barker’s “Obsession” lands as a tense, sometimes grotesque mix of wish-fulfillment fantasy and obsessive control—where the script gestures at female autonomy and male selfishness but the film largely falls back on an old, familiar “girlfriends be crazy”
The trouble with “Obsession” starts long before the screaming begins. It’s right there in the premise, in a relationship story that wants to talk about autonomy and selfishness while leaning into a plot so punishing it practically dares viewers to stay comfortable.
In the film. Nikki—played by Inde Navarrette—gets transformed after sad-sack incel Bear (Michael Johnston. from MTV’s “Teen Wolf”) makes a wish using a cheap novelty item called the “One Wish Willow.” The willow’s promise is blunt: it will grant Bear’s wish that the crush who has friend-zoned him will love him “more than anything else in the world.”
The odd part is how the story delivers that wish.. For a while. it seems like Nikki’s new state will play out as a dark joke about desire and control.. But the movie quickly turns possession into possession’s consequences: Nikki begins going to extreme lengths to keep Bear close—at one point. even duct-taping doors—before she moves into even more unsettling territory.
Those choices don’t live only in the fictional plot.. The review notes that Nikki’s screams are “bloodcurdling. ” a reminder that her “autonomy” is taken away inside the film’s own cruel mechanics.. Even so, the account keeps returning to a basic problem: she’s still visibly the one committing the atrocities.
As the cast draws in—Cooper Tomlinson as Ian and Megan Lawless as Sarah—everyone starts noticing something is off. especially as Nikki snaps from friend-zoning Bear to jumping his bones with reckless abandon.. When Bear reaches for help after things collapse. he calls the “One Wish Willow” hot line and is routed to what the reviewer describes as the same kind of call center “Demi Moore got sent to” in “The Substance. ” where there is “no sympathy” on the other side of the phone.
Barker does keep Bear from sliding fully out of blame. the review says. refusing to let him completely off the hook.. But it also argues the movie doesn’t quite know what it wants to do with anyone’s humanity.. Bear remains hard to like despite Johnston’s constant hangdog look. while Nikki never quite becomes a fully realized person within the script’s framework.
The last act is where the tension turns into a wobble.. “Obsession” tries to balance audience loyalties as it escalates, but it “trips over itself,” according to the review.. Navarrette’s performance is where the film gets its lifeline—fearless. shifting from one extreme to another—while still trying to remind viewers that Nikki is possessed by something beyond her control.
Even so, the movie keeps borrowing familiar shapes.. The review compares it to “Fatal Attraction” and points out that the comparisons fit. even as it says another reference lingers stronger: Takashi Miike’s 1999 horror shocker “Audition.” In that earlier film. a “nice guy” pursues something less than wholesome to get a woman. and the reviewer says that’s a key preview of what “Obsession” becomes—though it feels “more honest” and less of a crowd-pleaser than Barker’s take.
The film, written and directed by Curry Barker, stars Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, and Megan Lawless.. It’s rated R “(things get very. very nasty). ” runs 108 minutes. and is in theaters at locations including Coolidge Corner. AMC Boston Common. Landmark Kendall Square. Alamo Drafthouse Seaport. AMC Causeway. and in select suburbs.
The review leaves one last note of what went wrong for the marketing angle too: an earlier version misstated which company handed out “One Wish Willow” promotional twigs, and the correction says it was Focus Features. The Globe regrets the error.
Obsession Curry Barker Inde Navarrette Michael Johnston One Wish Willow film review Focus Features fatal attraction Audition horror romance