|Obsession (2026): Be Careful What You Wish For...It's Watching

Okay picture this. You’re lonely.

Okay.

And you like someone.

I’m listening.

And you’ve liked them for years, probably.

Okay.

And instead of doing the terrifying normal thing where you just tell them and risk hearing “no,” 

Yeah. Nobody likes to hear the word no.

But you find a way to make them like you back. Guaranteed. No risk. No rejection. You just…fix it.

That kind of sounds creepy.

It does.

Yeah it does. But what’s the catch?

The catch is, once you realize you might’ve caused it, your brain immediately turns against you, because now you’re sitting there thinking, okay, hold on, did this really happen, or did I just wish so hard that I broke reality? And this movie basically says, good question, now enjoy watching your whole life collapse.

Yeah, I’d have to agree with you on that, because you’re right, this movie definitely gets in your head and makes you think.

But what if it was actually real, and you had no idea how to make it stop?

See, that’s the thing that got me. The premise is scary on its own. Because the wish is the monster.

Oh that’s good. The Wish is the Monster. You need to write that one down.

I’m not writing that down, you just want to hear yourself say it again.

A little bit, yeah.

But, I have to admit you’re right, which I already hate. 

Of course you do.

Yeah, don’t get a big head about it, because most horror movies at least give you something obvious to point at, like a guy in a mask, a ghost, or even a demon, but here the horror comes from one choice somebody made because he was too scared to be an adult and just ask somebody out on a date.

And honestly, that makes it so much worse, because we’ve all been that coward at some point, maybe not the “open a cursed box” kind of coward, but that feeling where you’d rather do literally anything else than just sit down and have the honest conversation.

Oh, I’ve been there. I’ve ghosted a friendship to avoid that awkward conversation. So, yeah… Glass house over here.

See, this is exactly why I love starting here, because before we even tell everybody what movie we’re talking about this week, they’re already pulled into it, and they can already feel that uncomfortable little squirm.

Yeah, exactly. It’s that squirmy feeling. The whole movie runs on that uncomfortable little squirm.

So let’s just go ahead and say it. The movie we’re talking about is Obsession, directed by Curry Barker, and it’s out right now. People are already losing their minds over it, it’s becoming a whole thing, and we’re keeping this spoiler-free because if you haven’t seen it yet, I do not want to be the guy who ruins it for you.

Which is really hard for us, because the stuff we want to scream about is exactly the stuff we can’t say.

Yeah. And it’s killing me. Because there’s a couple of moments in this movie where I just wanted to grab the listener by the collar. But no. We’re being good. We’re going to be responsible podcast adults.

Wow. That’s a first.

It really is. Because… no, I’m not even going there. So here’s the setup we can safely talk about. You’ve got Bear, played by Michael Johnston, and he’s this lonely guy working at a music store. He seems sweet, but he’s also kind of a sad little mess, and he is completely hung up on his coworker Nikki, played by Inde Navarrette. 

Okay. Keep it simple.

I’m trying. So they’ve known each other for a long time, and there’s definitely some history there, but Bear just can’t bring himself to make a move… and, well, you know exactly why.

Right, we know. But I will say this, the movie doesn’t introduce Bear like he’s some creepy guy hiding in a trench coat. He’s actually likable. He feels like the kind of guy you’d probably root for if this were a normal romance movie.

And that’s the trap. That’s the whole trick right there. You go in thinking, aw, this poor guy, and the movie’s just patiently waiting for you to figure out you just got played.

By the movie?

Yup. By the movie. Because the movie obsessed you, a little.

Don’t.

I had to.

Oh you really didn’t. But okay. So the device. There’s this little trinket, called the One Wish Willow, that he gets from a new-age shop. And it grants you a wish.

Okay, okay, hold on, before we get too far ahead of ourselves, here’s a fun thing I found in the research that I genuinely cannot stop thinking about. Do you know where this whole idea actually came from?

No I don’t, but  I have a feeling you’re about to tell me whether I asked for it or not.

You know me so well. Anyways…The Simpsons.

Wait…What?

Yeah, so Barker was guest-starring on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, right? And while he’s waiting around to see his episode air, a rerun of The Simpsons comes on. It’s one of the Treehouse of Horror episodes I think it was number two. The one with the cursed monkey’s paw, where every wish comes with some horrible little twist. And that’s what clicked for him. That was the spark for this whole movie, this idea that getting exactly what you want might be the thing that ruins you.

So basically, the scariest movie in theaters right now only exists because this guy was sitting around killing time before watching himself on TV.

Just bored on a couch, half-watching Bart Simpson. That’s the whole origin story right there.

Honestly, that might be the most relatable thing I’ve ever heard, because that’s how all my best ideas happen too, just sitting there bored on a couch.

And what I love is that the original script wasn’t even supernatural. It started out as a straight drama about a toxic, obsessive relationship. No magic little trinket, just two people trapped in a really bad situation.

Which kind of tells you everything, right? The horror was always in the relationship. The trinket is just the thing it hides behind.

Yes, exactly. The trinket is just the costume. But okay, I’ll give you that one, because apparently you’re better at this than me today.

I’m better at this most days, you just happen to be louder about it.

That’s fair. Okay, so let’s get into the actual meat of this thing, because the way this movie is put together is really specific.

And we should probably start with the tone, because honestly, that’s the part that caught me off guard.

Oh, the tone is all over the place in the best way.

It’s funny, like actually funny, and then suddenly it’s not, and the switch happens so fast that you almost feel dumb for laughing in the first place.

But that’s kind of the Barker thing, right? He came up doing YouTube comedy with his buddy Cooper Tomlinson on a channel called That’s a Bad Idea, and before this, he made that $800 found-footage horror movie Milk & Serial.

Wait…eight hundred dollars?

Yup. Just eight hundred good old American dollars. And you can feel that background all over this movie, especially in the way he cuts it. He knows exactly when to let a joke hit, and exactly when to rip the floor right out from under you.

And that’s not some small little skill either, because comedy timing and scare timing are basically using the same muscle. It all comes down to knowing exactly how long to hold that pause before the thing hits.

It’s the pause. That’s where the whole thing lives. A joke and a jump scare are basically the same trick, just wearing different hats.

I can’t really argue with that logic, but for me, the first real part of this movie is just watching Bear exist before the wish ever happens. You’re watching all the awkwardness, all the longing, and all those little moments where he wants to say what he actually feels, but he just can’t get the words out.

And Johnston is really good in this part, because he plays Bear’s niceness like it’s the thing holding him together, like his whole identity depends on everybody seeing him as the sweet, harmless guy.

Which, by the way, is kind of a warning sign all by itself, because when someone needs to be seen as the nice guy that badly, that usually means there’s something else going on underneath.

Ooh. Yeah. Because then “nice” isn’t a thing he is, it’s a thing he’s performing to get something.

And the research backs that up too, because Johnston talked about how Bear’s whole sense of self-worth is tied to being validated by other people. So that niceness? It’s not as innocent as it looks. There’s something selfish sitting underneath it.

And you don’t really catch that the first time you meet him. That’s the genius of it. At first, you just see this shy, awkward guy who can’t work up the nerve to ask the girl out.

Rejection hits hard, especially when you’re a guy trying to put yourself out there, doesn’t it?

Yeah. It really does, because putting yourself out there sounds simple until you’re the one actually standing there with your heart in your hands.

And then the wish happens.

Yeah. And once that part of the story kicks in, that’s where the movie really had me locked in, because it doesn't play it like some fun little fantasy where getting what you want magically fixes everything.

No. It doesn’t.

It feels wrong in a way that’s hard to explain without sounding ridiculous. Like, everything on the surface seems fine, but the way Navarrette plays it, there’s just something off. The warmth feels a little too perfect, a little too polished, like you’re watching a version of affection that doesn’t quite feel real.

It’s that weird feeling where somebody is saying all the right things, and technically doing all the right things, but your gut is still sitting there going, nope, something is not right here.

And can I tell you how they pulled some of that off? Because I went in thinking, okay, this has to be some kind of digital trick, but no, it’s way more practical than that.

I thought you were about to say it was CGI.

Yeah. I don’t think so. Barker said those creepy frozen-smile, stuck-in-place moments are about ninety to ninety-five percent practical. There’s a little bit of speed-ramping in there, but almost no heavy effects. Most of that is just Navarrette using her face and her body to make you uncomfortable.

And honestly, that makes it so much scarier, because your brain can brush off CGI pretty easily, but when you know that’s a real person actually holding that expression and staying in that moment, it gets way harder to shake off.

Right, your gut can tell. It’s like your body knows a real person is doing that on purpose, and something about it just feels wrong.

And she prepared for it in a really specific way too. She and Barker looked at Mia Goth in Pearl as a reference, because the idea was to keep it grounded and human, even when the performance starts getting bigger and more intense.

And that’s the hard part, right? Because in the wrong hands, that kind of performance can go overboard real fast, and suddenly it stops feeling real and starts feeling like somebody is just trying way too hard to be creepy.

And once that happens, it just gets silly, and not in the fun way, because now you’re laughing at it instead of being pulled into it.

But Navarrette keeps it feeling human. Even when something feels completely off, you can still sense there’s a real person stuck underneath all of it, and that’s what makes it hit.

She also said the audition was pretty rough. It took a lot out of her emotionally. And when they were shooting those big freak-out scenes, she didn’t really show Barker what she was going to do ahead of time. She saved it for when the cameras were rolling.

Was that because she didn’t want to burn through all that energy before they actually filmed it?

Exactly. She’s doing these twelve, fourteen-hour overnight shoots, so she’s basically saving the real performance for the moment they actually need it.

Now that’s an athlete move right there. It’s like a pitcher not wasting his best pitch in the bullpen before the actual game.

Look at you sneaking a baseball analogy in there. But you’re right, because it really does pay off, and even when the performance gets more intense, it never feels like she’s just coasting on the craziness of it.

Okay, so the next part of the movie, for me, is when the story starts opening up a little more. It’s not just Bear sitting with his own feelings anymore. You’ve got the people around him too, like Ian, played by Cooper Tomlinson, and Sarah, and the movie starts showing how this whole situation looks from outside of Bear’s head.

This is the part I think people might not expect. The horror isn’t just locked between Bear and Nikki. It starts to feel bigger than that. The movie lets you see how awkward and uncomfortable things look when other people are close enough to sense that something is off.

And that becomes its own kind of nightmare, because now Bear is trying to keep everything under control, and the more he tries to act like things are normal, the harder that gets.

And the movie handles that really well visually. But can we talk about how this thing looks for a second? Because for a movie made for, what, under a million dollars, it does not look cheap at all.

Right, it looks incredible. And honestly, the way they pulled it off is so smart that it almost annoyed me.

Oh I got to hear this.

So the cinematographer, Taylor Clemons, didn’t really come up through the traditional film-school path either. He came from shooting skate videos, surf videos, and commercial work for brands like Michelin and Segway.

Of course he did, because apparently everybody involved with this movie came from YouTube, skate videos, sketch comedy, or some other completely unexpected corner of the internet.

Well, honestly, that kind of is the new film school. And one of the tricks they use a lot is this really shallow focus, where Bear or Nikki will be super sharp in the frame, and everything behind them just falls away into this soft blur.

Okay, so it makes everything feel tight and lonely, like the characters are stuck in their own little bubble and the rest of the world has just kind of disappeared around them.

Yeah. And it hides the budget. Because if the background’s a blur, you don’t need to dress every inch of the set. You’re saving money and building the dread in the same shot.

Ahh, okay, now I get it. And that’s the kind of thing that probably makes film students furious, but in a good way, because they took what could’ve been a limitation and turned it into part of the movie’s style.

And the best part is they shot a ton of it all on a locked tripod. No fancy floating camera moves. The camera just sits there…Still…Watching.

And that’s unsettling all by itself, because your eyes keep waiting for the camera to move, but it doesn’t. It just holds there and makes you sit in the frame with them.

And they’ll frame people right in the middle of the shot, with all this empty space hanging above them, which sounds like a small thing at first.

It’s really not a small thing, though. All that empty space above them makes the whole world feel hollow, like something is missing, and these people are just sitting underneath all that emptiness.

And Barker said he really didn’t want it to feel like your typical “horror movie” setup. Even the place where Bear comes across the trinket is bright and normal-looking. It’s not some dusty little cursed-object shop with cobwebs in every corner.

And that’s the right move, because the scariest version of this story is the one that feels like real life. Bright stores, normal apartments, awkward parties, places where nothing looks wrong until something starts to feel wrong.

And that’s the whole point. The horror isn’t happening in some far-off creepy place. It’s happening in rooms and spaces that feel like places you’ve already been.

And that’s why the movie works as well as it does. So, okay, we have to talk about the sound, because pretty much everyone who sees this thing walks out talking about how loud it gets.

Oh yeah, the sound comes at you hard, but in the right way. It feels aggressive because the movie wants you to feel trapped inside it.

And Navarrette even said it caught her off guard when she saw it at the festival, because she didn’t realize just how loud the movie was going to be.

Now that’s funny. When the actress gets startled by her own movie, that feels like a pretty good sign.

Exactly. And the score is not helping your nerves either. Rock Burwell did the music, and this was his first feature, which is wild because the score keeps winding you up like something is about to happen, and then it just pulls back and leaves you sitting there all tense for no reason. 

And that’s just cruel. Like, genuinely cruel, because it starts training you to stop trusting the buildup. Just because the music is winding you up doesn’t mean the scare is coming, so now you can never really settle in.

And that’s what makes it work so well, because when the movie finally does hit you with something, you’re not ready for it anymore. You’ve spent all that time learning not to trust the buildup, and then it gets you anyway.

I know right. It’s gaslighting you with music.

Oh, and before I forget, there’s this small detail in the movie that I really love. That creepy little jingle tied to the trinket? Barker actually composed that himself.

Man, Barker is all over this thing. He wrote it, directed it, edited it himself, and even made that little jingle we were just talking about. You can feel his fingerprints on the whole movie.

And here’s my favorite piece of trivia. You know that phone number on the trinket’s box? 

What about it?

It’s a real working number.

Stop.

No, really. Focus Features actually paid to keep the phone line active, and you can call it yourself. And the best part is, when you do, you get this creepy little customer service menu on the other end, and yep, that’s Barker doing the voice.

Okay, I’m calling it after this. I don’t care.

Of course you are.

And yes, I am absolutely calling the cursed trinket hotline too.

You have to give them credit. That’s really smart marketing, but it also fits the movie perfectly, because this whole thing plays with the idea of something that seems harmless and inviting, but clearly has something much worse sitting underneath it.

It is, really. A phone number you can call that connects you to something you probably should’ve left alone. That’s basically the whole movie wrapped up in one creepy little phone call.

Okay, I’ve got one more for you. Here’s a behind-the-scenes detail that kind of messed with my head a little. There was supposed to be some extra filming for a big party sequence, but they couldn’t make it happen.

That’s because the house burnt down.

Right. It burnt down in the L.A. Fires. So they were stuck with the footage they already had.

Which is wild, because the real world basically stepped in and took a location right out from under them, and they just had to figure out how to make it work.

And you'd never know watching it. Which, again, is the thing about this whole production. Every limitation became a choice.

Honestly, that’s low-budget horror at its best. Whatever gets in your way becomes part of the style. You can’t afford the huge set, so you make the background disappear. You lose a location, so you get creative and cut around it.

And that’s the best part, because it actually feels planned. It doesn’t feel like they were just scrambling and trying to stitch the movie back together.

Okay, so I want to talk about what this movie is really getting at, because we’ve been circling around it this whole time, and I think that’s a big reason why it’s hitting people the way it is.

Yeah, because on paper, it sounds like a cursed-trinket movie. But that’s not the part people are carrying with them when they walk out.

No, they’re shaken because the movie is really poking at that whole “nice guy” thing, and what can be hiding underneath it.

Yeah. You use the “nice guy” in quotes. 

Yeah, heavy quotes. Like the biggest air quotes I can possibly make, because the movie is really picking apart that whole idea of the sweet, lonely guy who thinks being nice means he’s owed somebody’s love.

And it’s brutal about it. I mean the critics have really picked up on that too, this idea that the movie is looking at how entitlement can hide behind something that looks harmless, like loneliness or longing.

Right, because Bear doesn’t see himself as the problem. In his mind, his feelings are so real and so pure that he starts thinking the world should just bend a little to give him what he wants.

And the question the movie is really sitting with is, what happens when wanting someone stops being about love and starts becoming something you’re pushing onto them, whether they asked for it or not?

Oof. Yeah.

Like, he’s not building a real connection. He’s trying to skip the part where the other person gets to choose for themselves. And the movie is very honest about how ugly that really is.

And there’s one critic take I really liked, where they connect the movie to this very 2020s internet-brain kind of thing, where loneliness turns into resentment, and attention starts getting confused with actual love.

Yeah, that’s basically the RogerEbert.com read, that Barker is taking all this messy online resentment around dating, loneliness, and validation, and turning it into something that feels like an old-school horror morality tale. Like one of those EC Comics stories where somebody makes a bad choice, and the universe immediately starts sharpening the receipt.

Which is such a clean setup for a horror movie. It’s that classic monkey’s paw idea: you get exactly what you thought you wanted, and then you realize way too late that wanting it was the problem.

But I want to push on that a little, because I think this is where the most interesting conversation around the movie really starts.

Okay.

Some critics do think the movie has a bit of a blind spot, though. Since we’re seeing so much of it through Bear’s point of view, Nikki can sometimes feel a little boxed in by his story. Like the movie is so focused on picking him apart that it doesn’t always give her inner world the same amount of space.

Hm. Okay. And I don't fully agree, but I get it.

Okay. Tell me why you don’t agree?

Because I think Navarrette’s performance pushes back against that. Even if the script is mostly stuck in Bear’s point of view, she keeps finding ways to make Nikki feel like a real person, not just part of his story. You can still feel there’s a whole person underneath everything happening on the surface.

Okay, I see what you’re saying. Maybe the performance is filling in some of the space that the script doesn’t always give her.

But I don’t want to act like that criticism is totally off-base either, because there is a real tension there. The movie is calling out a certain problem, and it’s fair to ask if, in a smaller way, it sometimes gets caught doing a little bit of that same thing.

And honestly that's why it's a good movie to argue about. The flaw is interesting. It's not "the pacing's bad." It's "is the movie complicit in the thing it's criticizing.”

Now that’s a much more interesting argument to have. And since we’re talking about how the movie is put together, pacing seems to be the big complaint people keep bringing up.

Yeah, that’s the main criticism I’ve been hearing too. Some reviewers felt it gets a little repetitive and maybe sags a bit in the middle, like Barker is still figuring out how to stretch that short-form, YouTube-style rhythm into a full feature.

And I did feel a little bit of that too. There’s a stretch where it feels like the movie is staying in the same emotional place just a little longer than it needs to.

I’m with you. It never lost me, but there were a couple moments where I could feel myself waiting for it to move forward.

But here's the thing. Even the people who say it's repetitive mostly still love it. Like, the festival crowd had one reviewer call it a bit one-note, and the movie still went on to be this giant word-of-mouth thing.

Because the movie has such a strong feel to it that the repetition doesn’t hurt it as much as it probably should. You’re so locked into the discomfort that when it gets a little loose in the middle, you’re more willing to go with it.

That is so true. Okay, I think we have to go there, because this is one of those rare movies where this conversation actually makes sense.

Oh no. I don’t like where this is going.

Have you ever had someone so obsessed with you that you had to take a restraining order out on them.

Whoa. Okay, that came out of nowhere.

I know. But since this movie is about obsession. I thought it would only be fitting to ask that question.

hmm. Let me think about that. Because it’s not really something I would put myself in.

Oh, I know. Well, I’ll go first. I’ve never had somebody obsessed with me like anything in this movie, but I have had a few people in my past who got a little too close to that line, if you know what I mean.

Really now. Do tell.

I’ll keep it short, but yeah, there was this one girl years ago who got a little too attached way too fast. At first, it was flattering, because who doesn’t like attention, right? But then it started turning into her needing to know where I was, who I was with, why I didn’t text back fast enough, all that stuff. And that’s when it stopped feeling cute and started feeling like, okay, this is getting a little weird. Not movie-level obsession, thankfully, but close enough that I remember thinking, yeah, I need to step back before this turns into a whole situation.

Damn…I was not expecting that from you.

Well, what can I say. This movie brought it all back to me.

Well, I’ll keep it short also, but yeah, I had this one guy who got real attached way to fast. At first, it felt kind of sweet, because he was giving me all this attention. But then it started to creep me out a bit. 

How so?

Well, he wanted to know where I was all the time, kind of like what you were talking about. And honestly, it creeped me out. So I blocked his number, and thankfully, he never tried to come looking for me. Looking back on it, yeah, I definitely dodged a bullet.

See, this is exactly what I’m talking about, because in this movie, just like in real life, being the good, trusting, kind friend can put you in a bad spot. Sometimes the nice people are the ones who get taken advantage of first. 

Which loops us right back to the theme, doesn’t it.

It sure does.

This whole movie is suspicious of “Nice”

It is. Nice is a trap in this entire universe. And Bear weaponizes nice. But the danger hides inside nice.

Okay, but here’s my actual survival tip for the listeners. If a friend suddenly starts adoring someone they were lukewarm yesterday. With no in-between.

That’s the tell.

Yes, it is, because real feelings usually have a messy middle. They take time. They grow. So when something feels instant, intense, and a little too perfect, that’s usually when your gut starts saying, okay, something is off here.

That’s genuinely good advice for life, and not just for surviving a horror movie.

I have my moments.

You do. Rarely. But you do.

Whatever. I’m taking the win and moving on.

Okay, so where does this leave us. Who is this movie actually for?

This is for the horror fan who wants more than just a quick jump scare. If you’re looking for pure popcorn-scare fun, this one might hit you differently, because it gets under your skin in a much more uncomfortable way.

Yeah, this is not the fun kind of scary. This is the uncomfortable kind of scary, the kind that sits in your stomach a little. And there’s a big difference.

And the audience numbers actually back that up, which I think is fascinating. People aren't responding to it like a roller coaster. They're responding to the message. The social discomfort. The escalation.

It's a conversation movie. It's the kind of thing where you walk out and you're arguing in the parking lot.

And honestly, that’s the best kind of horror, the kind that doesn’t just scare you in the moment, but follows you out the door and sticks with you after.

And all the way home… So who's gonna hate it? Because somebody will.

This probably isn’t for people who want their horror to stay at a safe distance, because this one doesn’t really let you do that. It makes you sit with some uncomfortable stuff about the way people treat each other.

And let’s not forget the people who want the comedy and the horror to stay in separate rooms. Because this movie smashes them together on purpose, and if that whiplash isn’t for you. This movie is definitely not for you.

But if it is for you, it's one of those movies you can't stop thinking about. It just sits there in your chest.

And that’s the thing about this one. The scariest force in the movie isn’t just some supernatural thing. It’s a guy who would rather look for a shortcut than risk hearing the word “no.”

Yeah, that’s really what the whole movie is sitting on. The scary part isn’t the trinket itself. It’s the cowardice behind it, and what someone is willing to do instead of just facing the truth.

The cowardice is the real horror. The trinket is just the thing that carries it into the room.

And honestly, that’s why this one might stick around longer than some of the louder horror movies out right now. Monsters come and go, but people being too scared to tell the truth? Yeah, that’s not going anywhere.

Damn that’s some grim shit right there. I love it. 

Like I said before I have my moments.

Yeah, well. That’s twice in one episode. You need to write that shit down.

I’m still not writing it down.

Fine then. But you might not have a day like today ever again. 

Okay than.

Damn you’re cold…And you know what time it is?

Oh damn. Don’t tell me we have to go back down there.

What do you mean. We always go back down there. It’s our thing.

Well, I’m just saying it smells down there.

And I keep telling you to bring yourself some perfume for the smell.

You never told me that.

Well, consider me telling you now.

Whatever. So what are you waiting for…Lead the way Crypt Boy!

Okay, watch your step. Loose stone again, same as always, and just so we’re clear, I’m not catching you if you go down.

That’s no surprise. You never catch me.

It’s supposed to be a trust exercise, and somehow you keep failing it.

Wait…I’m failing it?

I said what I said. Anyway, tonight we’re doing things a little differently since this movie is still in theaters. So instead of getting too deep into the story, we’re going to talk more about who this movie is really for, and who might want to sit this one out.

Yeah, we’re not really doing the usual pros and cons for this one. Since it’s still in theaters, we’re talking more about whether this is worth spending your money on, or if you’re better off waiting.

No we’re not. But we will give you our honest opinion on whether you should go or not.

So no scores tonight folks.

That’s right, no coffin ratings tonight. And honestly, we don’t have a full episode built around this one yet, so think of this less like a full review and more like a quick gut check: should you go see it, and who is this movie for, and who might be better off staying home?

Which actually fits this movie in a weirdly perfect way, because it’s built around that whole “be careful what you wish for” idea, and part of what makes it work is not knowing just how bad the “careful” part is going to get.

Right. So instead of walking back through the whole setup again, let’s talk about what really matters here if you’re thinking about seeing it in theaters. This is a movie where the sound, the framing, the awkward pauses, and those uncomfortable little performance choices do a lot of the heavy lifting. So the question isn’t just, “Do I like the premise?” The question is, “Is this the kind of movie that plays better when you’re stuck in a dark room with nowhere to look away?” And honestly, that’s where this one starts making a pretty strong case for itself.

and it works. Which is the problem.

But that’s the point. Once this thing gets moving, it doesn’t play out in the neat, easy way you might expect. It keeps twisting the idea in ways that get more uncomfortable as it goes, and that’s all I’m saying about the plot.

Good. Leave it there.

So let’s start with who might want to skip this one, because there is definitely a specific crowd this movie is not going to work for.

Okay, so we’re starting with the bad news first. Yeah, sure, that actually makes sense.

If you need a hero you can root for from beginning to end, this one might frustrate you. Bear is sympathetic, he really is, but the movie also wants you to sit with the fact that a nice, shy guy can still make a selfish choice.

And that’s the part that’s probably going to split people, because this isn’t really a simple “good guy versus monster” story. It’s more like, what happens when someone you want to root for makes a choice that makes everything way more complicated?

And some people just do not want their nice-guy protagonist to be part of the problem. They want to watch the movie and feel like their hands are clean, and I’m here to tell you, this movie is not going to let you do that.

The other group that might want to skip it is anyone who really hates secondhand discomfort. Not gore, not necessarily blood, but that awkward social tension where you’re sitting there wanting to disappear into your seat because of what people are saying and how weird the room feels.

Yeah, it’s that pipeline from cringe to horror. If secondhand embarrassment slowly turning into something darker is the kind of thing that makes your skin crawl, this one is going to be rough. A fun kind of rough, but still rough.

And the third group? The people who are only showing up because the internet won’t stop talking about it.

Oh you mean the hype crowd.

Look, the reviews are wild, and the internet is acting like this is the next huge horror movie. But if you walk in expecting the scariest movie ever made, you’re setting yourself up. Go in curious, not overhyped.

That’s fair for any movie with a lot of hype around it, honestly. But don’t walk in expecting it to change your life. Just lower the bar a little and let it surprise you.

[Jessica] That is so true. But okay. Who should go and see it?

This is for people who love a simple idea done really well. It’s a small movie with a tiny budget, a small cast, and one nasty little setup that just keeps getting tighter as it goes.

That’s probably the thing I’d sell the hardest. It doesn’t get bloated or try to do too much. It picks one strong idea, commits to it, and keeps squeezing it until you’re stuck with it.

And if you liked movies like Talk to Me or Barbarian, where the scary stuff starts because people make terrible choices, then this one is probably right up your alley.

Yeah, it definitely fits in that group. It’s the kind of horror where everything starts with someone wanting something they probably shouldn’t, and the supernatural stuff feels more like the fallout than the actual starting point.

Which, side note, is pretty much our whole thing on this show, because we spend a lot of time talking about movies where somebody wants something way too badly, and that’s usually where everything starts going wrong.

You don’t have to connect the dots for them.

I’m not, I’m not. I swear. Moving on before I get myself in trouble. The other reason to see this one? Inde Navarrette.

Yes. However you feel about the rest of the movie, she is really doing something special here.

Navarrette plays Nikki, and what makes her so good here is how much she can say without even needing dialogue. People coming out of festival screenings kept talking about her face, because she does all this quiet, unsettling work in the little looks, the smiles, and the tiny shifts that tell you something feels off without the movie having to spell it out.

So. If you like a performance that carries a movie, that's your reason for the ticket right there.

And the last group is people who like seeing a director really swing for it. Because Barker came up making short horror online, and now he’s bringing that same energy into a full movie. You can feel him trying stuff, taking chances, and refusing to play it safe.

It feels like a first feature with real confidence, and that’s worth watching even when every choice doesn’t hit perfectly. And honestly, most of them do.

So here’s my one honest warning, even for the people who should go see it: don’t walk in expecting something comfortable. This is not a pizza-with-friends, laugh-and-scream, fun-scary-night kind of movie.

No. It's a "talk about it in the car for an hour after" movie.

Which, to me, is a recommendation. But you should know what you're walking into.

So here’s the short version. Skip it if you need a clean-cut hero. If awkward social tension makes you miserable, or if you’re only going because of the hype. But go see it if you love a tight little premise, and you’re into that Talk to Me kind of horror. You want a performance that actually sticks with you, or you just like watching a new director swing hard and really go for it.

So I’d say see it on the big screen this weekend while it’s still playing in theaters.

And don’t forget when it leaves theaters.

So there you go. If you’re like us and you just love horror in all its weird little forms, I’d say screw it, spend the money, and go see it. 

I agree. You might actually be surprised by how good this one really is.

Okay, this feels weird not handing out any coffin ratings, so I think we should probably get out of here before this place rubs off on us.

Speaking of things rubbing off on us… I’m pretty sure I just heard something moving over in that corner.

It might be Nikki. And if it is, she is absolutely coming for you first.

Oh, absolutely not. She is not coming after me today. I am leaving…Move your ass Crypt Boy!

Okay, so we just covered Obsession, and I’ve got to say, I was definitely not disappointed with this one.

I have to agree. I really loved this one.

The whole idea is built around this cursed object, and honestly, they handled it really well. It could’ve easily come off cheesy, but it never does.

And I still can’t get over the fact that this whole idea started because of a Simpsons episode. That is just such a wild thing to think about.

Right. And we definitely can’t forget about that phone number on the box.

Oh right. Now I’m wondering if that number still actually works.

I’ll let you know later, because I am absolutely calling that number tonight.

Oh, you definitely have to tell me what happens, assuming the number still actually works.

Trust me, if it works, you’re absolutely hearing about it.

Okay then, I’ll just say this. If you haven’t seen this movie yet, I highly recommend grabbing a ticket and checking it out while you can. Trust me, this is one you probably won’t regret seeing in theaters.

And after you see it, come let us know what you thought, whether you loved it, hated it, or landed somewhere in the middle.

Yeah, we’ll post the episode on our Facebook page, so drop a comment there and let us know what you thought. Was it worth the ticket, or not?

And take it from someone who still hasn’t gotten around to watching Bring Her Back yet, even though it’s definitely on my list, I really enjoyed this movie.

Wait… what? I thought you already told me you watched Bring Her Back?

Uh, I don’t think that was me. Are you sure I’m the one who told you that?

I’m pretty sure it was you.

Well, I don’t know what to tell you, but that conversation definitely wasn’t with me.

You’re messing with me, right?

I’m not messing with you. That really wasn’t me.

Okay, whatever. Just go see Obsession, let us know what you think, and we’ll talk to you next week. Bye.

Byeeee!