Obsession

This is already my third watch since first seeing it earlier this week so that already says enough about how much I like this film. I’m not a big fan of horror but this movie really stands out to me. The more I watch it the better it gets and I begin to appreciate the tiny details that went into making this film so enjoyable. One of the biggest reasons this film stands out to me, especially from the beginning, is its cast. Recently, every movie has the same five actors that you constantly see everywhere, even in movies where they don’t even seem like they belong. Obsession is different in a way where everyone cast in this film is a new face. Seeing a cast of newer faces made the movie feel more genuine and unpredictable since I didn’t have an idea of what performance I would get before I initially watched the movie. This also made the movie not feel like a copy and paste like many other movies that have come out recently have felt. What makes this movie even better is that despite not having A-list celebrities, all the performances were amazing. I don’t have any complaints about anyone in this film. all of them felt in place. Inde Navarrette’s performance as Nikki is on another level. Her performance absolutely carried this movie from beginning to end and gave it that momentum to make this movie as great as it is. Throughout the film, Nikki constantly shifts from a normal person to something genuinely disturbing. This transition between the two personalities could seem fake or overdone, but I believe she did it perfectly. Not that many people can do what she did in the movie. I also liked how Inde used Mia Goth as an inspiration for her role. Pearl is one of my favorite movies so I’m glad she had done so. As the movie continues and Nikki’s obsession over Bear becomes worse, there are moments where her behavior and actions become genuinely disturbing due to how committed her performance was which was something I wasn’t expecting especially on my initial watch. Another thing that was surprising and impressive was how tight the budget was while filming this. Shot for under a million dollars and the movie itself looks amazing. There are movies out there made with ten or twenty times that amount and looked like I crapped them out and made it in 20 minutes. Nothing about this movie felt cheap. If I hadn’t looked it up I wouldn’t have guessed it was made with such a low budget. Cinematography, performance, sound, editing, I have zero complaints with this movie, they all seem to fit into the larger picture. It never once felt like this movie was constricted to their budget but rather that they all knew how to maximize what they had. Knowing this made me appreciate this movie more as it shows the commitment they all had into making it perfect. I love this soundtrack so much it was great. The soundtrack made this movie stand out way more than it would have without it. As a horror movie, you expect some loud noises or scary music to scare the audience, but this movie had very little to none of that. The use of songs by Current Joys, which I haven’t heard of in so long, really elevated the feel to the scenes and made it feel more nostalgic in a way which was something I appreciated a lot. The transition from the ending to the end credits and its use of Forever by The Little Dippers was also a perfect fit. The music in almost every scene fit so well and I was honestly surprised on how good it was. I think this is such an amazing and creative idea for a movie as well. On paper, the idea of someone wishing for their crush to fall in love with them sounds like a comedy and such a plain and simple idea, but Obsession really expands on it and shows how disturbing it could be, turning it into a horror. As the movie progressed, it became more uncomfortable to watch just because of how real everything felt if that makes sense. The movie never felt like it was trying to force a reaction out of the audience or like it was trying too hard which is a problem I see in many current day horror movies. It simply just lets the situation play out, which I found to be more disturbing. Something else I appreciated in this movie was how invested I felt in these characters. A lot of horror movies are so focused on scaring you that you don’t really get a moment to connect with the characters, most of them you just forget. Obsession does the opposite. Even when the movie begins to become disturbing, the movie still spends time with the characters and helps you understand them. I also think the small amount of characters in this film added onto that. This and in addition to the horror aspect of the movie actually work really well together as when something goes wrong in the movie, you actually care about what happens to the characters rather than just watching another scary scene play out. I also think this movie is definitely the type to benefit from rewatches. There are so many smaller details in this movie that cause you to understand more about the character or the atmosphere itself which is something you just don’t catch on first watch. Initially, I was focused just on what was happening in the movie and where the story was going. But watching it twice and now a third time, I’m able to pay more attention to the smaller details like interactions between characters and just things I missed on the first watch. Every watch made me appreciate this movie more than I had last time. That’s honestly pretty rare for me, and it’s one of the reasons why I think this movie is so great. Overall, I’m pretty confident that this is the best movie of 2026 so far and definitely lands a spot in one of my favorite movies of all time. The performances are all so genuine and amazing, the soundtrack is incredible, the concept is creative, and the fact that this movie was made on such a tight budget is so impressive. After three watches, I still find myself appreciating new things about it and I’d be happy to rewatch it again.