Why Horror Fans Should Fall For This Love Spell Gone Wrong Movie
Curry Barker’s Obsession received its world premiere as part of TIFF’s Midnight Madness strand in 2025, and genre fans have been anxiously awaiting it ever since.
Reviews praise the movie’s mean-spirited nature and embracing of gore, with several comparing it to Danny and Michael Philippou’s Talk to Me. The comparisons are warranted, but Obsession is very much its own beast and is set to be one of the most talked-about horror films of this year. Obsession’s pre-release reputation also helped Barker snag his next directorial gig – snapped up by A24 to helm a new film in the Texas Chain Saw franchise.
Riffing on the classic wish-gone-wrong trope, Barker’s Obsession, which is out in cinemas now, proves exactly why love should never be tampered with. Funny, intense, icky, and pretty gory to boot, if you haven’t bought your tickets yet, here’s why Obsession is a must-see for horror fans.
Who Is Curry Barker, and What Is Obsession About?
Curry Barker is an actor, filmmaker, and comedian, best known for his work as one-half of the internet sketch comedy duo ‘That’s a Bad Idea’, alongside Cooper Tomlinson. After years of content creation, Barker branched out into feature directing with his debut, Milk & Serial, released directly to his YouTube channel. Milk & Serial was praised by critics as being a found-footage movie able to stand comfortably beside films such as The Blair Witch Project and Host.
The premise followed a pair of YouTube pranksters (played by Barker and Tomlinson) whose pranks on one another spiral out of control, taking a violent turn. Made for a rumoured $800, Milk & Serial exposed the extreme lengths that content creators go to maintain their followings.
Obsession marks Barker’s sophomore feature and is a wicked reworking of the classic wish-gone-awry format. The story follows the meek, mild-mannered, and lovelorn Bear who has been in love with his best gal pal, Nikki, forever. Terrified that he’ll ruin the friendship if he makes a move, Bear instead opts to use a One Wish Willow to wish for Nikki to love him ‘more than anything in the world.’ Nikki’s behaviour then quickly becomes increasingly more unhinged as she tries to prove her devotion to Bear.
Why Horror Fans Are Going To Love Obsession
Obsession is a mean-spirited delight. Those anticipating a fluffy and happy ending should seek out a more bubblegum pop horror movie, as Obsession is an emotional juggernaut that may break some. Curry Barker blends his trademark comedy into the cracks of Obsession, allowing them to provide tiny fissures of relief from what is otherwise an exceptionally intense viewing experience. Nikki’s metamorphosis is instantaneous, and once Bear has made his wish, Obsession hurtles along at a breakneck pace.
Whilst horror fans enjoy a fun genre movie, they also enjoy one that has layers to pick apart and study, and Obsession certainly aligns with this method of viewing. Depending on how deeply the viewer wishes to go, Obsession can be read as a simple cautionary story, but a little digging uncovers plenty of fertile ideas. From toxic masculinity, gaslighting, female autonomy, and coercive control, Barker leaves no hot button topic untouched, providing audiences with plenty of food for thought should they be looking for a feast.
For those who prefer more immediate satisfaction, Obsession has plenty of sequences to leave them gasping and agog at what they are witnessing. Full of instances of graphic gore and goo, as well as sequences of skin-crawling dread, Obsession covers all the horror bases. A perfect film for those who enjoy their genre movies, jet-black and dripping in malice, this film is going to become exactly that for a significant portion of horror fanatics.
More Love Gone Wrong Horrors To Watch Next
The cautionary tale of being careful what you wish for is always a fun concept to explore, especially within the horror genre, and Obsession demonstrates just how good these stories can be. Obsession is more than just a bad wish movie, though; it is far more about the exploration of the dangers involved in performing love spells. As with wishes going wrong, love spells in horror have a history of going really, really bad. Horror is scattered with warnings about the perils of trying to make someone love them. Perhaps if Obsession’s Bear had watched any of them, he would have rethought his use of the One Wish Willow.
A key example of a film that explores issues caused by messing with magic is The Craft. Set in Los Angeles, The Craft sees new girl Sarah taken under the wing of her new school’s trio of outsiders. The trio is actually a coven of aspiring witches, and with the arrival of Sarah (who just so happens to be a natural witch), they find themselves in possession of unexpected powers.
Every teenage girl has their own issues and wants for magical abilities, and Sarah uses hers to make high-school jock Chris fall in love with her. It works, and Chris becomes akin to a puppy dog, following Sarah everywhere, doing whatever she says. As his feelings intensify, Chris takes extreme measures to be closer to Sarah. His actions result in coven member Nancy exacting revenge, tragedy for Chris, and the toxic unravelling of the quartet of girls. The ramifications of their dabblings come back to them times three.
In Midsommar, Dani’s boyfriend, Christian, catches the eye of one of the young female members of the community that the pair have visited. Initially brushed off as a schoolgirl crush, Christian soon finds himself in over his head as she performs a love ritual on him. The details of her ritual are rather grim, requiring him to ingest certain parts of her, but it works and places Christian into a trance. How complicit Christian is in what happens next depends on how much the audience wants to dislike him, but there is no denying that his final fate is genuinely horrific.
Finally, it is not just scary movies that demonstrate the dangers of love spells, but also Practical Magic. Starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, Practical Magic tells of two sisters with magical powers who live under a curse that results in death for those who fall in love with them. This curse was born out of the heartbreak of one of the sisters' ancestors, and it causes all kinds of trouble for the pair. Namely, one of them falls for a serial killer, the other for the officer investigating him. The overall message in Practical Magic is that trying to control love with magic will often result in tragedy.
With Practical Magic 2 just around the corner, it seems as though someone will have forgotten this lesson, meaning more magical hijinks for fans of this trope.
