Let's not bury the verdict: Obsession is the most confident horror debut of 2026, and one of the best-reviewed films of the year in any genre. Curry Barker — 26 years old, self-taught, fresh off YouTube — wrote, directed and edited it, and he did it for $750,000. The number on this review is not a rounding-up. He earned every tenth of it.
The hook is a cursed novelty toy, One Wish Willow, and a lonely music-store clerk named Bear (Michael Johnston) who uses it to wish his coworker into loving him. What could have been a one-joke premise becomes, in Barker's hands, a precise and genuinely upsetting study of entitlement and consequence. The man knows how to plant a scare and how to spring it.
The craft is the story. Shot in 26 days, framed with deliberate, center-weighted unease by cinematographer Taylor Clemons, the film never reaches for a cheap jolt when patience will do more damage. The horror-comedy balance — the part most debut directors fumble — is the part Barker nails cleanest, with a tonal control critics have fairly compared to Barbarian.
Then there's Inde Navarrette, who turns the role of Nikki into the breakout performance of the horror year. Reportedly built on practical makeup with no CGI, her work is fearless, physical and weirdly moving — the rare scream-queen turn that earns the title outright.
The receipts back the rave: 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, a 77 on Metacritic, an A-minus CinemaScore, and a record-setting Focus Features acquisition out of TIFF Midnight Madness. But the score below isn't about the numbers it posted. It's about what it is: a breath of fresh air, made by a director worth betting your year on.
The Verdict: A near-flawless debut and an instant scream-queen coronation. If you see one horror film in theaters this year, see this one.
Comments (4)