You Are Right to Be Obsessed

It has been a little over a week since I watched Obsession, a 2026 horror movie that has officially broken the top ten highest-grossing horror films in history. Pun intended, this movie left me obsessed, even till now. I can’t tell if the popularity of this film was being pushed on everyone’s TikTok algorithm or if it was just mine, but every other TikTok or Instagram Reel I would scroll would be an Inde Navarrette edit.

Looking into the film itself, I have a lot of minor thoughts and analysis in terms of the plot, acting, pacing, etc. I certainly am not a movie critic, definitely won’t be a ‘food critic’ (if you watched the movie, you would understand), but it’s interesting for me to see how my thoughts and perspective may differ from yours.

Obsession is the first horror movie I have completed; the only other time I watched a horror movie was at my family friend’s apartment with his girlfriend and her little sister. The idea of jumpscares, gore, and deafening screams never seemed attractive to me. When it comes to film and cinema for me, you would likely catch me watching La La Land (2016), Pride and Prejudice (2005) or Atonement (2007) for the twentieth time. I pre-gamed Obsession by reading the IMDb parents’ guide to make sure that there weren’t classic jumpscares in the movie without spoiling the plot. I’m really glad that director Curry Barker masterfully weaved a ‘love story,’ not a ‘romance,’ into the film; it relieves the initial pressure that many would expect a horror film would have. The intensity and stress build at a perfect rate in my opinion, slowly ramping up scene by scene.

Besides a gradual increase in my heart rate, I felt a sense of emotional attachment to Bear, played by Michael Johnston. Although in hindsight he is this selfish, manipulative person whose desire for lust outweighed affection, I initially felt pitiful for the situation he was in. Only on my second watch (the next day) did I realize there was a scene where the real Nikki, played by Inde Navarrette, was speaking while the possessed was sleeping. From that scene, many made the sympathy shift from Bear to Nikki because of his response.

However, I think the most important aspect to this movie becoming so successful was the way each actor and actress gave it their best performance. Many cast members mentioned that this small feature was a test for them to prove themselves. No one, including director Curry Barker, would have guessed this movie would become one of the most profitable ones in history.

Writing this ‘review’ of some sort at midnight with an internship the next morning was probably not very insightful. I’m interested to hear your take; run over to our Instagram or TikTok @themerger_ and leave a comment in our article recap.