Obsession

Barker taps right into Gen Z's au courant crisis and places Obsession in the irresolute territory where love is an all-consuming but never-consummate emotion. The problem is that Barker doesn't know how to flesh this out into a feature length. Once the premise is established, the group of Bear and Nikki, and their friends Ian and Sarah, seem to go over the same lines and scenarios again and again.

To say that Obsession will go down in history as one of the seminal horror films is no exaggeration. Curry Barker's feature film debut is everything horror needs to be - dark, tragic, scary, and discomforting. It shines a mirror onto our society's most privileged and ubiquitous monster - the nice guys.

This blackly funny, gory take on W.W. Jacobs' 1902 short story 'The Monkey's Paw' is obviously far from an original idea. But the way in which it twists and warps the dusty material into a startling meditation on unhealthy infatuations is hugely impressive. Obsession is so fresh and exhilarating, one can forgive its familiar origins.

Obsession is the absolute, near-perfect example of an Indie horror film getting the sense of surprise, bang on. Inde Navarrette's masterful performance is so good that it literally becomes the force and impact of the film, creating a nerve-wracking fear that will unnerve even the bravest viewers with its gruesome emotions and manic devotion.

Curry Barker's psychological horror is impossible to shake off. The film uses that premise to explore loneliness, entitlement and the horror of treating love like possession.

Obsession, as the title suggests, is ultimately about love pushed beyond its natural boundaries. A terrifying Indie horror that turns love into a nightmare.