. 

Obsession is a horror film about a guy who uses a voodoo stick to wish for the girl he has a big crush on to love him. In its essence it’s a retread of a tale that’s been told over and over since W.W Jacobs short story The Monkey’s Paw in 1902 where someone thinks their greatest desire has been magically granted only for things to get dark and twisted. This film immediately moves past this tired conceit though and tells a sophisticated and frightening story about gender relations, toxic masculinity and social judgment. 

In fact the method of the hex that triggers everything is largely irrelevant, what is important is that everything that happens is a result of a man’s cowardice, impotent frustration and selfishness. The woman here is playing the crazy girlfriend trope to real extremes which feeds into sexist conventions of the monstrous woman, witches and femme fatales but this is turned on its head because she’s not really the aggressor at all, she is the victim. It’s not obsession, it’s oppression. What is taken to extremes is the man’s controlling behaviour more than her psycho tendencies. The flashes where you see her fighting against this are more powerful and heart stopping than any of her violent or threatening outbursts. She is intimidating him but she is under the influence, jinxed rather than drunk, and as such by going along with this at all he is abusing her. This is certainly not a modern Fatal Attraction.

While it stands as a smart and challenging allegory though, the film is also fun and often even funny. The tone of the piece is masterful as it mixes tension and scares with humour, all the while never compromising its message. The direction as a whole is original and bold and this announces twenty six year old Curry Barker as an important new filmmaker. Similarly this is a star making turn for the female lead Inde Navarrette whose performance is astonishing. Emily Blunt is currently getting props for her work in Disclosure Day, and rightly so, but Navarrette is as good in a role that is not entirely dissimilar. Both women have to swing between moments of lucidity and being possessed by other worldly forces and I would not be surprised to see them up against each other for awards next Spring. Horror has traditionally not got Oscar buzz but after Weapons that has changed so don’t write this off in any category. The cinematography and sound design are also excellent.

Excitingly the movie is already being rewarded with its box office take. Somehow made for only $750,000 this has seen improved receipts weekend on weekend which is almost unheard of. It has so far made about $300 million and is the eighth highest grossing film of the year so far, just ahead of the similarly successful Backrooms, and creeping up on the last Star Wars. 

Simply put Obsession is incredible. It’s not for the feint of heart but it grabs hold of you but and is an important piece of work. If you can stomach it, you have to see it.

I’m not obsessed though.