Obsession As Salvation
Why we convince ourselves certain things will finally make us whole
Film: Obsession
Director: Curry Barker
Starring: Inde Navarrette, Michael Johnston, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless
I think one of the most dangerous things we can do as people…
Is convince ourselves that one thing will finally fix everything.
One opportunity.
One relationship.
One achievement.
One version of ourselves.
We tell ourselves:
Once I get there… then things will feel different.
More complete.
More certain.
More meaningful.
And sometimes…
That belief becomes its own kind of ‘obsession’.
That’s what surprised me most about Obsession.
Not the horror.
Not the tension.
Not even the genuinely unsettling atmosphere the film creates so well.
But the underlying feeling sitting beneath all of it.
The desperate belief that the thing we want most will finally become the answer to everything else.
Horror has never really been my favourite genre.
But I’ve followed Curry Barker’s work for a while now, particularly his independent projects and skits, and after hearing the early reactions surrounding this film, I was genuinely excited.
Thankfully, it absolutely delivers.
Inde Navarrette is phenomenal.
There’s an emotional control and vulnerability to her performance that feels incredibly refined for someone so young, and Barker’s direction is remarkably confident for a major feature debut.
The visual language of the film is what really impressed me though.
The lighting.
The framing.
The way certain expressions are held just a second longer than expected.
It constantly creates the feeling that something isn’t right…
Even before you fully understand why.
And importantly, the film earns its biggest moments.
The tension builds naturally.
The reveals land properly.
The audience in my cinema was completely locked in.
You could feel the reactions ripple across the room in real time.
And honestly…
That’s part of what makes cinema special.
A room full of strangers collectively holding their breath at the same moment.
But the more I sat with the film afterwards…
The more I realised the horror itself wasn’t really what stayed with me.
It was the idea underneath it.
Obsession.
Not necessarily obsession with a person.
Or an object.
Or even an outcome.
But the dangerous act of emotionally attaching ourselves to the belief that something external will finally complete us.
I think a lot of us do that without even realising.
We project meaning onto things.
Careers.
Recognition.
Relationships.
Success.
Purpose.
And somewhere along the way, we quietly convince ourselves:
If I can just reach that thing… everything else will finally make sense.
But life rarely works that way.
Because the problem with obsession isn’t always the thing itself.
Sometimes the real danger is what happens when we expect it to carry the weight of fixing something deeper inside us.
That’s why the film lingered with me more than I expected.
Not because I saw myself in the horror.
But because I recognised the feeling underneath it.
That restless search for meaning.
For certainty.
For something that feels like it might finally quiet the noise in our head.
And maybe that’s why these stories resonate.
Because beneath the spectacle and fear…
They tap into something very human.
The uncomfortable reality that sometimes the things we chase hardest…
Aren’t actually what we need most.
And maybe real peace doesn’t come from finally obtaining the thing we’ve obsessed over.
Maybe it comes from no longer needing it to define whether we’re enough in the first place.
A final thought
What if the thing we’re obsessing over… was never actually the answer we were searching for?
I’ve been capturing some of these reflections more regularly over on Letterboxd under The Resonance Impact.
I think the film also makes a point pretty clearly in how those who are obsessed tend not to realise they are
It’s true we’ve all done this. This is why it’s not a good thing to get so attached and also not to set expectations so high until something real is formed. Excellent review!