Obsession

Writer/director Curry Barker's romance nightmare, Obsession, will be a treat for Blumhouse horror fans who like their love gooey and their gore with heaping helpings of humor.

After making a wish using a new age-y magic stick, the lonely and seemingly vacuous music store clerk Baron (a terrific Michael Johnston) becomes the fixation of his lovely and vivacious co-worker Nikki (an amazingly unhinged Inde Navarrette), to the shock and awe of their besties Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) and Sarah (Megan Lawless).

The night the spell is cast, the formerly independent Nikki moves in with Baron, called "Bear," and they begin an intense though fairly conventional courtship that in short order gets spiced with clingy Nikki's lies, outbursts and threats. 

Baron, who was out of his depth even while longing for attention from the self-assured Nikki, finds himself in the course of a few weeks gasping for air and grasping for sanity in the smothering, suffocating relationship. Barker presents this journey to discovery with moments of genuine, dark hilarity and cringe.

Maybe in crafting this fangoria, Barker reached into his past to relationships that started blissfully and ended badly or worse, or maybe he reflected on personal moments when failing to act or acting rashly meant an escalation of troubles. 

Whatever the case, Obsession offers a deliciously warped turn of that weepy cinema slogan from 1970, "Love means never having to say you're sorry."