On May 15, 2026, Focus Features released an indie, horror movie directed by Curry Barker to theaters. Unlike traditional horror movies with anticipated jumpscares, Obsession focuses on the lingering horror and unsettling atmosphere throughout the entire story rather than fully frightening viewers with quick scares.
The movie follows the story of Bear, who falls hopelessly in love with his childhood friend Nikki. Even with the help and encouragement of his best friend, Ian, he cannot muster the courage to confess to her in fear of being rejected and ruining their friendship. While shopping at a crystal shop for a necklace to buy Nikki, the One Wish Willow catches Bear’s eye. The packaging of the One Wish Willow promised to grant one wish to whoever breaks it in half. So, Bear wishes for Nikki to love him more than anyone in the world. But, his wish takes a dark turn as Nikki’s “love” for him becomes psychotic and obsessive.
Additionally, despite having a supernatural effect with the demonic entity shown to be possessing “Nikki”, the movie uses the unpredictability of her actions and creates the image of Nikki as a young and vulnerable woman to convey its horror instead of centering it completely around visual terror. Viewers were left at the edge of their seats and lost all sense of security from the moment Bear broke the One Wish Willow. These cinematic strategies and effects are precisely why Obsession was able to exceed expectations and become a multi-million dollar movie from a low-budget idea.
“You could tell that it was newer, but then I also think it was a really good horror movie and it had a great storyline,” says freshman Neesu Girdhar. “I think it was one of the best horror movies I’ve ever seen.”
Obsession started off as an independently produced film with a budget of only $750 thousand. However, as of September 2026, the movie has made over $500 million worldwide and revived movie theaters. Obsession unexpectedly became a massive hit and drew many people to the theaters. What once was a normal horror movie planned to stream in theaters for only three weeks, rapidly grew to a must-see phenomenon that stayed in theaters for over two months— nearly a month longer than originally planned.
Because of Obsession’s massive success, it brought a lot of the younger generation back to the cinemas, and brought back the spark to going to watch movies in theaters. Statistics on Variety have shown that ticket sales increased by 39 percent after the debut of the hit movie.
“It was the first time I actually fully watched a new horror movie,” says Girdhar.
Many people were drawn into the movie because of rising actress Inde Navarrette, the actress for the main girl, Nikki. Navarrette’s astounding performance was something that was unanimously agreed upon by critics and viewers across social media platforms to be a big part of the reason behind Obsession’s success. Her delivery and interpretation of the character gave the movie its uncanny vibe that made chills run down the viewers’ spines.
However, before landing her leading role in Obsession, Navarrette expressed her financial struggles and inability to land any acting gigs. Due to her lack of money and roles, she streamed videos online and walked dogs to pay bills. But, after the debut of Obsession, she has been gaining a vast amount of praise, popularity, and attention for her impeccable execution of Nikki and all her different aspects and emotions.
After Navarrette’s lead in Obsession, she began to land big roles in new productions. 18 months after the release of Obsession, she was casted as Rogue for the upcoming X-Men movie and was featured in sombr’s music video as the main love interest for his new song: “My Body Isn’t Ready”.
“The girl who plays Nikki— she’s very, very, very talented. Especially considering she’s only really done minor acting roles, and it’s really impressive because that is not an easy character to pull off in any way.” says sophomore Luna Burg. “It’s very emotional. It’s very loud. It’s very intense too. It’s not just a few speaking roles… It’s intense [and] psychological.”
The main concept of the movie centers around the common phrase, “be careful what you wish for”. But there is a lot to take away from the story. One is the reality of how toxic “love” can become. Nikki’s infatuation with Bear after he makes his wish reflects deep and unhealthy codependency between partners and Bear’s inability to confess to Nikki shows the refusal to handle rejection of others. Furthermore, because of Bear’s denial for rejection, he decides to abuse the power of the One Wish Willow to forcefully change the way Nikki feels about him.
Burg summarizes the movie’s message that “[Obsession is] a societal reflection, basically, of how we treat people and how we respect people and the ways that our own power can be abused towards other people for our own gain and how terrible, terrible things can happen when people abuse that power.”