Obsession: Movie Review

Be careful what you wish for.

This movie has taken the world by storm. Made on a tiny budget of just $750.000, it has already earned more than $80 million at the box office worldwide. If it goes on to cross the $100 million mark (and at this point, that seems inevitable), it will become one of the few films in history to achieve that on a budget of under $1 million.

Not only is everyone watching it in cinemas, but everyone is talking about it too. On twitter, on tik tok, in real life, and on movie forums, it's been the main topic of conversation over the last month.

Obsession is a complete rollercoaster of a movie, with seamless transitions between dark comedy and actual dread and fear. Thematically, it's a bleak but incredibly believable story. Bear, who is played by Michael Johnston, is a hopeless romantic who has a crush on his coworker Nikki but doesn't have the courage to confess his feelings to her. In a desperate last attempt at getting the girl of his dreams, he breaks a mysterious object called a "One Wish Willow" and wishes that Nikki would love him "more than anyone in the world".

Initially believed by Bear to be a scam, the One Wish Willow proves to be real. He suddenly finds himself having exactly what he dreamt of, but soon discovers that his heart's desire comes at a dark, disturbing price.

There is so much to praise about this movie.

The story itself is bold but also quite humane. Bear is undoubtebly the villain of the movie (although people's opinions have been divided on this), but it's very easy to imagine a real-life person doing what he did. In our day and age, people often struggle to communicate with one another or share their true feelings out of fear of rejection or getting ridiculed, so it's easy to envision someone throwing all caution to the wind and using a magical wish to get the person they so greatly desire. In that sense, the movie seems paradoxical: the events that unfold throughout the story are supernatural and fantastical, yet the premise that sets everything in motion feels very grounded and convincing.

It's also an incredibly scary and disturbing movie. Now, you might think that's a given, as it is a horror movie, but we all know very well that some horror movies rely on cheap jump scares and shock value scenes to impress their audiences. Obsession is not like that at all. Every unsettling scene is earned, and it's the psychological horror that lingers with you long after the story ends.

When it's all said and done, though, there really is only one thing to discuss when talking about Obsession, and if you've read anything about this movie online, then you would've read about this.

Inde Navarrette.

From the very first reviews and reactions, there was unanimous agreement that Inde Navarrette's performance as Nikki was something truly generational. Even with all that praise, though, I promise you that nothing can really prepare you for how incredible her acting is in this movie.

Her performance in Obsession already deserves to be mentioned alongside some of the greatest and most iconic horror performances ever put to screen: Isabelle Adjani in Possession, Toni Collette in Hereditary, Lupita Nyong'o in Us, Kathy Bates in Misery, Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall in The Shining, the list can go on and on and Inde Navarrette's name would not look even remotely out of place among them.

Her acting knows no limits in this film. There are several scenes in which she does things with her body and facial expressions that genuinely make you think you're watching CGI or some kind of special effects, but you're not. It's all just her and her acting. There's one particular scene that stayed with me long after I left the cinema, lingering in my mind as I tried to fall asleep that night. Even days after watching the film, I can still see her face so vividly in my mind, and I can still hear her scream so clearly in my head. It's the kind of performance that's impossible to shake off, the kind you just know aspiring actors will be analysing and dissecting for years to come.

If you've yet to see this movie and you're wondering if you should believe the hype and go watch it, please do. Believe the hype. Buy into the hype. There's a reason everyone is talking about it and praising it. There's a reason you're seeing Inde Navarrette's name being thrown around everywhere on social media. It's just that good.