I’m Trevor with the Sasquatch Movie Minute with a look at OBSESSION, directed by Curry Barker, starring Inde Navarrette. A guy makes a wish on a dime-store trinket that his crush will love him. Things go very very wrong.

4 out of 5

I haven’t felt this scared or unsafe at a movie in a long time, this bleak horror flick is terrifying, gruesome, and not for the casual genre fan. It is making huge headlines; it was made by a Youtuber for 750k and has now made over 100 million at the global box office. The film doesn’t feel cheap and uses that low budget to conjure claustrophobia. The compelling concept engages with a lot of current hot-topic social debates. This idea of control, of white male incel ‘nice guys’ and what young men feel they deserve from women. I appreciate the lack of jump scares, Barker’s moments of horror develop at a pace and there is often a delicious pause before we see them coming. There were so many clever camera angles and crafty lighting ideas and the lore is wonderfully ambiguous.

Best Scene. There is a moment where two characters are talking and someone is staring at them in the out-of-focus background. The lengthy blurry stare becomes weird, then uncomfortable, then scary, without any movement. This is Hitchcockian-level shot construction.

Best Performance. I watched Inde Navarette for 4 years as the girl-next-door in the excellent TV show SUPERMAN & LOIS. I was unprepared for her ferocious, fearless, fucking petrifying performance here. This is a full-throated declaration of arrival.

For most people, please don’t see this. For those of us who like things a little demented, you are in for a treat.