OBSESSION (2026)

OBSESSION is a horror movie about a young man who uses an occult device to make the girl of his dreams where they work love him back, but his demonic wish backfires, and the woman becomes the girl of his nightmares. Despite a good performance by the female lead, the plot of OBSESSION is a fairly predictable morality tale about the dangers of the occult, but it ends on a depressing and hopeless tragic note and has abundant and very strong foul language and extreme violence, plus a strong sex scene, so OBSESSION is a big no from MOVIEGUIDE®.

“Bear” Bailey is a shy young man who has romantic feelings for Nikki Freeman, a pretty young woman who works with him at a music store. They and their other co-workers, Ian and Sarah, love to go compete at the weekly trivia contest at a nearby bar. Secretly, Sarah’s the one who actually likes Bear.

The morning of Nikki’s birthday, Bear finds his cat has died after eating Bear’s oxycodone pills. He puts the cat’s body in the trash.

Knowing of Nikki’s predilection for New Age crystals, Bear goes to a crystal shop to get a birthday gift for her. He doesn’t find a New Age crystal item he likes, but he finds a novelty gift called a “One Wish Willow,” a little box that promises the buyer one wish if they break the twig inside. The cashier lightly warns him about buying the occult toy. He tells Bear that people always complain about the gift later. When Bear asks why, the cashier says because they die, or wish they did. Bear just thinks the man is joking.

That night, at the trivia contest, Bear asks Ian for advice about Nikki, and Ian just encourages him to “go for it.” However, Nikki gets a little drunk at the bar. So, when Bear drives her home, he’s too shy to tell her his feelings or give her the gift. When Nikki goes to her door, though, Bear decides to use the gift on himself. He makes a wish for Nikki to love him more than anyone else in the world.

After the wish, Nikki suddenly reappears at Bear’s car and asks him to take her to his place. They kiss in bed, but Nikki suddenly screams and leaves the room.

The next morning, Bear finds that Nikki has created a memorial for his dead cat. That night, she tells him her behavior was the result of taking some MDMA or Ecstasy.

Bear and Nikki start happily dating. However, Nikki’s behavior starts to become more erratic, with violent outbursts. For example, she makes him a sandwich with the remains of his cat, he wakes to find her angrily accusing him of not loving her, threatens suicide, and suddenly starts screaming and tries stabbing her face with a broken bottle. It’s almost like Nikki has two different people inside her, the Nikki of the past and the new Nikki after Bear made the wish. Or, as if her soul is being controlled by a host of demons.

Bear tries to get the maker of the One Wish Willow to reverse the wish, but they refuse. He tries other methods, but they don’t work either. In fact, things go from bad to worse.

OBSESSION is well acted by Indee Navarette (“Ind-ee Nav-a-RET-ee), who plays Nikki. She’s tasked with acting like she has multiple personalities inside her, so she gets a great chance to portray all sorts of wildly different emotions. However, the rest of the cast is just okay. Also, it becomes clear early in the plot that the story is a morality tale, a warning of what not to do when you become romantically obsessed with another person. So, the plot is too predictable. Of course, the male lead, Bear, is infatuated with Nikki, but his infatuation is voluntary while Nikki’s obsession with him is not. In some ways, OBSESSION reminds MOVIEGUIDE® of the first movie Clint Eastwood directed, PLAY MISTY FOR ME, where Jessica Walters plays a truly crazy woman who becomes obsessed with Eastwood’s radio deejay after they casually sleep together.

OBSESSION is rated R. So, it has some extremely bloody violence. One scene with Nikki killing another woman is particularly disturbing. That scene leads to a violent, tragic, depressing ending. OBSESSION also has a depicted sex scene and a least 132 gratuitous obscenities and profanities and a depicted sex scene, including 90 or so “f” words.

It’s to the filmmakers’ credit that OBSESSION is a morality tale. However, the depressing ending leaves a feeling of hopelessness. Also, the male lead tries to reverse the curse by occult means. He never thinks of turning to God, the Bible or a Christian clergyman. At other points, suicide is presented as one way to remove the demonic curse.

So, ultimately, OBSESSION just has too much abhorrent content. It’s more than just excessive.