Obsession (2026) Review
The best reviewed horror film of the year, Obsession has finally dropped in theaters. This film has been premiering at film festivals for several months now and has been getting non-stop positive reviews. Because of that, this movie was one of my most anticipated films of the summer. What did I think of it? Was it any good? Let’s talk about it!
The Review
Watching Obsession was such an interesting experience because throughout the film I felt like my thoughts on the film were constantly changing. The first 15-20 minutes, I wasn’t really connecting with it. Something felt missing and I wasn’t understanding why people were loving this movie. And then the horror stuff started it and I thought it got better and then there’ll be some reveals that made me more curious. I felt like my thoughts and feelings on the film were constantly going up and down and whether I was positive on the film or more negative. Leaving the theater, I didn’t really know what to make of it and what my review for the movie would be. Even writing this, I could see my thoughts on the film changing with time and having more discussions with people about it. In simple terms, I don’t think Obsession is as good as people made it out to be. I believe this is the highest rated wide released film of the year so far and that’s a bit crazy to me. As I’m talking about this movie, the reason why I’m not formatting this in my typical review format is because I felt like almost everything was very mixed for me.
The basic idea for the film I think is a very fun and clever concept for a horror film. It’s about this guy who is in love with a very pretty girl, and he decides to make a wish using this wishing stick where he wishes for her to love him more than anybody. From there, he gets what he wished for but things get weird and creepy very fast. That is a very fun and interesting concept for a horror film. You can see all of the fun that comes with that, while also seeing how that’s very relatable. Where we’ve been in that situation of liking somebody and not knowing if they have feelings for us or not wanting to ruin a friendship. There’s something in this crazy idea that can anchor it into reality. The movie does a good job of exploring that concept and fleshing it out. But throughout the film, I kept on wishing that it went further and deeper. This is where my thoughts on the film get so complicated because I don’t even know where I wanted the film to go further and deeper. There’s not a specific moment or a piece of lore that I wanted to know more of. I wish that it took the extra step to make it more interesting and developed. There’s two friend characters to our two leads of the film that are basically providing the audience’s perspective on the film. The things they’re saying or exactly what the audience is thinking. They revealed a piece of information about the leading lady of the film that I thought was going to be more prominent. I think it would’ve provided some very interesting dynamics but the film touches on that but doesn’t really go into it. It felt like they almost captured this horror concept but could’ve gone much deeper with it.
The other thing you have to talk about with this film are the performances. The big one that people are talking about and I think are going to continue to talk about is Inde Navarette as Nikki who is the main love interest for the film. This was a really fun performance because she’s having to do so many different things in the film to make you buy into her character. At the beginning of the film she has to portray this very charming likeable character that the audience has to believe that somebody would fall in love with her and be attracted to her. But as you go throughout the film she gets crazier and crazier and she’s doing these very creepy things and she’s able to portray all of it so well. You’re able to buy the fact that our lead character would be attracted to this character while also believing her as this complete psychopath. I’ve seen several people say that she’s the front runner for the best actress Oscar and worthy of a nomination. I think it could be a cool nomination for her because it’s a small budget horror film getting massive recognition. But I don’t think she’s getting in and I don’t know if she’s fully worthy of the nomination. The other performance that should be discussed is our lead character played by Michael Johnston. Going back to what I said earlier, but this was a performance and an aspect of the film that I don’t think works. The film is trying to portray him as this shy awkward guy that’s trying to get this girl to fall in love with him, and between the performance and the writing I didn’t really buy it. The only reason why I “bought into it” was because the movie was trying to show me and tell me that he’s awkward and desperately in love with this girl. This next part is very much a nitpick that isn’t really a negative. But Johnston looks so much older than Navarrete that it’s very confusing as to how old the characters are supposed to be. I’m 21 years old and she’s only a few years older than me, but Johnston looks like he’s 10 years older than she is. She looks like she’s in college and he looks like he’s years removed from college. It was a bit distracting to me the look of the characters and how different in ages they look.
One weak aspect of the film that I didn’t find many positives about was Curry Barker as the screenwriter. I found there to be so many frustrating aspects about the script that bothered me and I wish were just fixed. There’s two big aspects of this that really frustrated me. First up, the dialogue amongst the friends I found to be cringy and wasn’t relatable or something I could connect with. I never bought into the friendships amongst the characters. As I kind of said earlier, it felt like the film was trying too hard to get me to connect with these characters and their relationships. But I didn’t buy it through the script or the performances. The film opens with a conversation between our lead character and his best friend at this diner. The dialogue in that scene was so cringy and at that moment I started to get very nervous for the film because I was worried that this cringy dialogue was going to ruin the film for me. The dialogue didn’t ruin the movie for me, I think it got better in the back half of the film. It felt like Barker didn’t have friends growing up and didn’t know how to write dialogue between teenagers but it didn’t feel like normal teenager dialogue at all. The second issue is a massive plot hole. Throughout the film Nikki keeps on getting crazier and crazier and keeps on doing multiple weird things that are disturbing and creepy. Maybe I missed something but it made absolutely no sense that our lead character would stay with Nikki. I get that he’s finally getting the woman of her dreams. But if I was the main character in this situation I would’ve left her so quickly. I would’ve gotten on a flight and left the state. It was such a confusing aspect of the film and pulled me out of the film. I was getting frustrated with the film because it made no sense as to why our lead character would stay with her. There’s multiple characters in the film that are designed to tell him “she’s acting weird, get out of that relationship” and he doesn’t listen and there’s really no explanation as to why.
Final Thoughts: I know this is probably going to be one of my movie hot takes of 2026, but Obsession didn’t really work for me. There’s some interesting ideas and a great performance with Inde Navarette as Nikki. But almost everything else about the film left me so frustrated where there was something good about it then there was something bad about it. Maybe I watched the film in the wrong headspace, and I need to rewatch it with proper expectations. As of right now, Obsession is one of the biggest disappointments and frustrations of the year.
The Score: 7.7/10 (C+)
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