Obsession (film): It's as good as you have been hearing

Every now and then a film comes by that was made with very little money, without the help of the large studios, and is so creatively made that it absolutely kills it at the box office anyway. Obsession is one of these films.

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This one might end up breaking some records because I knew that their budget was low but I didn't realize that their ROI was as high as it is. It was made for less than $1 million, got almost zero promotional budget, but made waves very quickly by solid social media and word-of-mouth exposure. Once you watch the film for a little while, and especially after you are finished watching it, it is really easy to understand how this happened organically. To date, it has made $375,000,000 WOW!

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The story here is something I think that most people can relate to from their childhood in high school or young adult life: Bear Bailey has a crush on a girl he has known for a very long time, but while the two of them are great friends, he fails to move this relationship over to some sort of romantic one. He has "friend zoned" himself to a rather torturous position and even though he hangs out with and works with Nikki, he never manages to move it beyond that point and it is very torturous for him. I can relate to this because there was a girl that I knew in high school that I hung out with all the time but there was nothing more to our relationship (in her mind) outside of things being platonic.

Bear is incapable of moving past thins and one day he picks up a trinket in a hippie store filled with supposed supernatural things and one of them is a product called a "One Wish Willow" which he knows is stupid, but is intrigued by it anyway. Then on that night he is dropping Nikki off at home and has a chance to confess his feelings for her, but chickens out, just like he always does. As she walks towards her house to leave him, he is upset with himself for not stepping up and telling her the truth.

He uses the silly prank gag gift Wish Willow and asks it to make Nikki "love him more than anyone else in the world" and suddenly Nikki's attitude to him starts to change dramatically. She is rather relentless at the car in pursuing having him stay over with her, which he eventually relents and does so.

Because I don't want to spoil this film and seriously think you should go and see it, I am not going to be very specific about anything else that happens. Let's just say that as the title would suggest, Nikki starts to care about Bear a HUGE amount and to the point of, well, Obsession.

This initially really delights Bear, but her devotion to Bear starts out pleasant and slowly but surely devolves into something crazy. The love of his life does in fact love him, but in a way that he cannot possibly reciprocate. She starts to take on the personality of an extremely jealous lover and wants to be around him literally all the time.

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Bear cannot simply go and use the phone or the bathroom without being followed by Nikki, who becomes extremely angry in a sort of loving and childlike way that shows, just like the name would suggest, not just being in love with him, but that he is the only thing in the world that matters to her at all.

Sound like a power that would be absolutely wonderful right? Well, the movie is a horror film for a reason, and you will only understand why that is once you watch it, which you definitely should do.

Now, not all the performances by the various actors and actresses are good, but the absolutely outstanding acting of the main two characters are fantastic. In particular, the woman playing Nikki whose name is Inde Navarrette is just out of this world and I see good things happening for her in the future if she can transcend this into other films. She has been in some things before but I had to look them up and so will most other people.

To me this movie has a very "Black Mirror" mixed with "Needful Things" aspect to it and it is incredibly original in its script and overall design. The beginning, middle, and end of this film are outstanding and better than almost anything I have seen in a long time, certainly from the United States where massive budgets and huge marketing campaigns without even worrying so much about actually having a decent film to do so with, has kind of become the norm.

I hope that the success of this film can inspire other writers and directors to pursue actual good stories instead of just cranking out the usual crap, most of which isn't actually worth seeing.

Should I watch it?

This is one of the most profound "yes" reactions that I have ever given on a film not just recently, but ever. Everything about this movie save a few rather poorly cast and not-so-talented side-characters, this film is absolutely flawless. It is haunting, it will hold your attention from start to finish, it will genuinely scare you and not just with the usual jump-scare tactics that are overused in films anyway.

This movie is quite graphic and scary though, so if you are not down with the horror genre you might want to be a bit hesitant. You definitely do not want to watch this with kids.

_{This film is currently still having a good run in cinemas so that is your best bet to see it. It is on overpriced video on demand on AppleTV, Amazon, and others and is expected to land on Paramount for subscription streaming first due to the various companies involved. Anything can change as far as that is concerned though. It is unlikely to end up on Netflix for the foreseeable future}