Obsession

83/100 The hype for Obsession (2026) has been very real, and impossible to avoid, and as such I did honestly fear that I would end up having a similar experience to the one I had with Project Hail Marry (2026), with a film that was... just fine in the end. Luckily, this wasn't the case at all. After processing the film for a bit, I came to the conclusion that I was thoroughly impressed with it. There's honestly not a single aspect I find most impressive, no, rather it's impressive how every single layer of this vision from director Curry Barker just works, and is executed, flawlessly. Like starting from the complete basics, the film simply just works. It's fun, engaging and incredibly scary. You feel the stakes, and the characters are believable. The more nitty gritty aspects, also just work. The cinematography is competent (and honestly felt quite 90s in a cool way), the score serves it purpose well (along with some arguably more important and more phenomenal sound design), the prop and staging work is great, and the acting is simply phenomenal. I mean, what a break out for all four of the friends, but especially Inde Navarette (Nikki). It immediately takes me back to Miley Madison's breakthrough in 2024 as Anora, in the film of the same name, as that was also a female lead that came out of nowhere, and blew everyone away. Now, the most interesting layer, and the one that ties the other two together so well, is the narrative layer. And perhaps unsurprisingly it's also the part I have the absolutely most thoughts on. ⚠️Spoilers will appear from now on⚠️ I think a good way to begin those thoughts, is earlier in the reviews. There I wrote that the characters felt believable. However, I was tempted to add more, and tempted to write that they felt realistic and were easy to understand. But there's one character we never get to understand, and that's Nikki. And I think that's the chilling truth aboutObsession. It's not about loving a person, it's more about loving the idea of them loving you. Sure, this is fairly obvious, perhaps from the title and trailer alone, but what makes it so interesting, is that while Nikki is the most obvious threat, she's not who I found to be the most disturbing. That was Bear (Michael Johnston). Yes, while Nikki, or at least her body, was murdering her friends, and acting beyond creepy, it was Bear that remained the main threat in my eyes. Because he didn't stop, he didn't realize and he didn't think beyond his own desire. There were many moments, where he should've realized that this was beyond her consent, but where he simply didn't do anything to halt it. And whatever sympathy I might've had for Bear (nothing), completely collapsed when he didn't listen to the real Nikki, asking Bear to kill her. I guess you could write it off as him being too kind to kill her and simultaneously too scared to kill himself, but when his first reaction is to make it about himself, and about how "bad" it is to date him, the mask definitely drops for me, and Bear - the real monster of the film - reveals who he's really representing: A sexual predator. And in the end, when he finally feels too bad, caught up in consequences to do anything, he kills himself, leaving behind Nikki. The real Nikki. And I couldn't help but find it symbolic. Symbolic of how many women experience sexual assault, and are then met with a loss off friends, skepticism of their story and resistance, as well as accusations of having made it all up. Because isn't that exactly what Nikki is going to face? No one's going to believe her, and all her friends are dead to her. Just like happens to victims of sexual assault, when they're doubted and left alone. To get a bit back on track, after my admittedly uncomfortable reading of the film, I guess it'd be fitting to say that while the plot and writing is phenomenal, that the third act - specifically the ending - comes a bit fast. Especially Ian's (Cooper Tomlinson) death feels a bit "random". Still, there shouldn't be any doubt that it's written and executed in an amazing manner, and it really feels like it manages to properly explore its serious themes in a way that e.g. Weapons (2025) didn't. Honestly, all that's holding Obsession back from a 90+ rating, is the same excellence we see in the narrative and acting, brought over to the other departments, such as e.g. the cinematography, that was definitely competent, but not something that blew me away - like has been the case for almost all films I've rated 90+. Obsession's peaks are amongst the highest, especially in horror, but the many other departments than writing and acting need to grow on me more before I could justify a higher rating, no matter how great I find it. So to finally conclude, I honestly think Obsession might be among the greatest classical horror films of the decade, and no matter how uncomfortable and disgusted I was, it was worth every minute, and should be watched as well as analyzed by everyone who values the film medium. I'm certainly happy I got to do so, and I can't wait to hear and read others' thoughts on it - which really is a sign that a piece of art is doing quite well. So it's definitely a recommendation from me - and a strong one at that.