Nate At The Movies

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

Weekend double feature #1 is now in the books, and boy, it sure looks like I’m in for a weekend of absolute cinema. After loving Top Gun on a rewatch, I was pretty optimistic about Obsession, which has been getting great reviews. I was hoping that Obsession would fill the same space in 2026 that Weapons did last year—a critically acclaimed, cheeky and creative horror darling—and honestly, it did pretty much that. I couldn’t pick between them right now, but I do know that I’m now obsessed with Obsession.

The bones of Obsession weren’t anything new—the magic that causes these events to unfold and the way that Nikki was embodied were reminiscent of films like The Monkey and Being John Malkovich (my horror library needs some work, so there may be more apt comparisons). What this movie did so well was work within those bounds to create something truly horrifying in ways that I don’t feel like I’ve seen before. The polarity and cinematography of Nikki in particular was outstanding, in a very creepy-crawly get-under-your-skin sort of way. She was equally beautiful and terrifying, and her near-instant switches between loving and unbearable made me very uneasy in a good way. So much of the success of this film can be attributed to Inde Navarrette’s unsettling performance. She was incredibly physical, both in her body movements and especially her facial movements, and I’ve never been so simultaneously entranced by and scared of a person. Props to her!

Obsession was unrelenting in its assault on the viewer, from Navarrette’s performance and cinematography (the use of shadows in particular was very cool and scary) to the sound design. Navarrette also played a pretty big role here, because those screams were constant and piercing and usually total surprises. Make that two movies today where my ears were ringing and I had absolutely zero issue with that. In a landscape of horror films that tends to default to boring, passable technicals, it’s refreshing to watch movies that envelop the viewer in their horrors like Obsession and Weapons. It’s those technicals—especially the sound—that stay with you, and elevate a horror movie from scary in the moment to scary later that day (or that night…or the next day).

By now, it has become quite clear that content creators—from YouTube to TikTok—can make really good movies. It’s certainly a spectrum, and they’re not all cut out for it, but there have been a handful of first-time directors that have proven that their skills expand beyond a computer or phone screen. The Philippou Brothers set the example, but Curry Barker has continued the positive trend with Obsession. As I watch more horror movies, fewer of their scares stay with me long, but Freaky Nikki has been on the brain ceaselessly since I left the theater three hours ago. That’s the sign of a great horror movie, and a sign of nightmares to come tonight, I suppose. Thanks, Curry!