Obsession (2026) 💔🥀🍫

One Wish. Endless Regret.

Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers shall we? 🎬

I’m not gonna lie, this was one of my most anticipated horror movies of the year. Part of that was because the trailers looked creepy as hell, but another reason was because this was yet another YouTuber making the jump into feature filmmaking. 2026 has honestly been a huge year for YouTuber horror movies. We kicked things off with Markiplier’s Iron Lung, then later got Curry Barker’s Obsession, and then The Backrooms. I actually watched this one on discord with some friends and every single one of us slowly went from laughing and joking around to sitting there saying, “What the hell is happening?” That alone should tell you how this movie plays out.

So does Obsession live up to the hype?

Absolutely.

The trailers sold this as a creepy psychological horror movie, but I honestly don’t think they prepared me for how disturbing this thing would actually become. This movie doesn’t simply scare you. It slowly gets underneath your skin until you feel just as trapped as Bear does.

Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

Bear has secretly been in love with his childhood friend Nikki for years. After suffering a heartbreaking loss, he stumbles across a mysterious wishing stick and makes what he believes is one harmless wish. He wishes that Nikki would love him more than anyone else in the world. Sounds simple enough, right? Well…that’s exactly where everything goes wrong.

At first it feels like Bear finally got everything he ever wanted. Nikki suddenly wants to spend every waking second with him, they start getting closer, and it almost feels like this could turn into a weird romantic comedy. Then the cracks begin to show. Nikki starts acting strange. Then unsettling. Then outright terrifying. Before long the movie transforms into a psychological horror film that just keeps escalating until it becomes something much darker than I was expecting. The less you know going in, the better, because this movie constantly finds new ways to make you uncomfortable.

Character Rundown

Bear is honestly a character I had mixed feelings about throughout the movie. At first I genuinely felt bad for him. He’s grieving, awkward, lonely and clearly has feelings for someone he’s never been able to tell. Unfortunately, instead of accepting reality, he decides to make one selfish wish that completely ruins everyone’s lives. As the movie goes on, he makes several decisions that had me yelling at the screen, and by the end I honestly felt like Bear had everything coming to him…and then some. None of this would’ve happened if he hadn’t made that wish in the first place. It doesn’t mean I hated him, but it became harder and harder to defend him the deeper the movie went.

Nikki absolutely steals this entire movie. Inde Navarrette gives an incredible performance because she has to play two completely different versions of the same character. One minute she’s Bear’s sweet childhood friend, the next she’s saying and doing things that make your skin crawl. She changes emotions in an instant, smiles at the worst possible moments, says things with complete sincerity that are absolutely horrifying, and every single scene she’s in becomes impossible to predict. She genuinely made me uncomfortable throughout almost the entire runtime, and that’s one of the biggest compliments I can give a horror performance.

Then there’s Sarah, who honestly became the character I felt the worst for. She was just trying to get accepted into college, hanging out with her friends, and living her life. She had absolutely nothing to do with Bear’s wish, yet she ends up paying one of the biggest prices. The movie really twists the knife with her storyline, and by the end I just felt awful for her.

Ian…oh Ian. I like the guy, but he might honestly be one of the dumbest horror movie friends I’ve seen in a while. Bear literally proves magic is real, begs him to help undo the wish, and Ian immediately wishes for a million dollars instead. I was sitting there thinking, “Buddy…you had one job.” At least the movie deserves credit for actually dropping a million dollars out of the sky instead of making some cheap genie joke about a million bucks meaning deer.

Even the wishing stick manager was memorable. This dude has to be running the worst supernatural customer service department imaginable. Bear asks if he can get a refund. Nope. He asks how to undo the wish. The guy basically tells him maybe somebody else can make another wish…or maybe just die. Thanks for the advice, I guess.

Pacing

One thing I absolutely loved about this movie was the pacing. It wastes no time getting started. Bear loses his cat, makes the wish, and within minutes Nikki already starts acting strangely. From there the movie never really slows down. Every time I thought I’d seen the creepiest thing Nikki was going to do, the movie somehow found another way to make me even more uncomfortable.

What I also appreciated was that the horror never became repetitive. Instead of relying on the same scare over and over, the movie constantly evolves. It starts with awkward behavior, then psychological horror, then disturbing imagery, then emotional devastation, then full-on tragedy. Every act somehow manages to raise the stakes without feeling like it’s repeating itself. I was hooked the entire way through.

Pros

This movie genuinely horrified me, and that’s something I honestly don’t say very often. There are plenty of horror movies that scare me for a few seconds before I laugh and move on. This movie was different. It made me uncomfortable. There were scenes where I physically wanted Bear to leave the room because I didn’t want to see what Nikki was about to do next.

The atmosphere is phenomenal. The horror comes from behavior rather than loud noises. Nikki standing in the corner watching Bear sleep. Whispering “Kill me” while she’s asleep. Walking backwards across the room for absolutely no reason. Calmly asking, “Why does it matter?” after lying about something huge. Smiling while acting completely detached from reality. Every one of those moments made my skin crawl.

The movie also deserves a lot of credit for its emotional moments. Sarah’s storyline absolutely broke my heart. Watching Bear discover her college acceptance letter after she was already dead was one of the cruelest moments in the entire film because of course she got accepted. She was finally going to get the future she’d been working toward, and she never even got to find out. That’s heartbreaking.

The gore was also incredibly effective because it wasn’t constant. When the movie finally decided to get violent, it hit hard. Sarah’s death was brutal, the cat reveal made me feel sick, and the final act just kept getting darker and darker. None of it felt like gore for the sake of gore. It all served the story and made the tragedy feel even heavier.

Cons

Honestly, I don’t have many complaints. Bear makes some unbelievably frustrating decisions throughout the movie, and there were multiple times where I wanted to scream at him to just leave. Ian’s decision to wish for a million dollars instead of undoing Bear’s wish was also incredibly stupid. Outside of that though, I really don’t have much to complain about. This movie knew exactly what it wanted to be and committed to it from beginning to end.

Final Thoughts

I honestly wasn’t expecting this movie to affect me the way it did. I thought I was walking into another creepy horror movie. Instead, I got one of the most genuinely uncomfortable horror experiences I’ve had in a long time.

There’s a huge difference between scary and horrifying. Scary movies make you jump. Horrifying movies make your stomach turn. They make your skin crawl. They make you dread what’s about to happen next. That’s exactly what Obsession did to me.

By the end of the movie, I honestly felt Bear had everything coming to him…and then some. He made one selfish decision because he wanted someone to love him without ever thinking about what that would actually mean. Every terrible event that followed came back to that single wish. I still felt bad watching everything happen, but I couldn’t ignore the fact that he started this nightmare.

The person I truly felt sorry for was Sarah. She was completely innocent. She deserved none of what happened to her, and that acceptance letter made her death hurt even more.

Ian…well…Ian was just kind of stupid.

And then there’s Nikki. I don’t even consider her the villain by the end. She’s another victim. She finally gets herself back only to wake up surrounded by the bodies of Bear, Sarah and Ian. That’s not a happy ending. That’s one of the bleakest endings I’ve seen in a horror movie in quite some time. Sure, the curse is broken, but what exactly is Nikki supposed to do now? She wakes up to discover everyone she cared about is dead. That’s devastating.

Curry Barker absolutely knocked this movie out of the park. If this is what he can do now, then I seriously can’t wait to see what he does next because this was one hell of a horror movie.

Be careful what you wish for.

You might actually get it.

Rating

10/10

Spoiler Warning

Everything beyond this point contains full spoilers for Obsession (2026). If you haven’t seen the movie yet, this is your chance to back out because I’m going into absolutely everything.

Spoilers

The movie starts things off brilliantly by making Bear’s wish come true almost immediately. Nikki starts acting just slightly off at first. She accidentally says her cat died before correcting herself and saying she meant Bear’s cat. Then she starts switching emotions almost instantly, crying one second before calmly asking if they can leave the next. It’s subtle enough that you wonder if maybe she’s just acting weird, but the movie keeps slowly revealing that something is very, very wrong.

The first night together already made me uncomfortable. Nikki climbs into bed with Bear, kisses him, suddenly screams and throws herself backwards before acting like nothing happened. Then the next morning she proudly presents Bear with a memorial she made…using his dead cat. I was already disturbed at that point, and little did I know the movie was only getting started.

Then came the taped-up front door, Nikki watching Bear sleep, whispering “Kill me” while asleep, walking backwards across the room, the phone call revealing there are no refunds and that Bear basically has two options—find another wish or die. Every scene somehow became more unsettling than the last.

The reveal that Nikki had cooked Bear’s cat into his sandwich actually made me feel sick. That’s one of the few horror movie moments where I physically recoiled.

Sarah’s death was absolutely devastating. Not only was it brutally violent, but then Bear opens her college acceptance letter afterwards and realizes she got accepted. She had her whole future ahead of her and never even got to know. That scene broke my heart.

Ian somehow manages to prove the wishing stick is real by wishing for a million dollars instead of simply undoing Bear’s wish. I honestly couldn’t believe how stupid that decision was, even if it did lead to one of the funniest moments in the movie when actual money started falling out of the sky.

The final act was just one gut punch after another. Bear discovers Sarah’s body inside Nikki’s shrine, Nikki hurts herself trying to prove her love, Bear tries talking her down before attempting to kill himself with pills, Nikki makes her own wish for Bear to love her, Bear dies anyway, Ian gets shot when he arrives with his million dollars, and finally Nikki gets herself back.

Except that isn’t really a happy ending.

She wakes up surrounded by Bear, Sarah and Ian’s dead bodies. Everyone she cared about is gone. The curse is finally over, but all that’s left are the consequences.

That’s why I loved this ending so much. It doesn’t magically undo everything. It forces everyone to live—or in Bear’s case, die—with the consequences of one selfish wish.

Be careful what you wish for.

You might not survive getting it.