Obsession (2025)

Obsession is a film that says be careful what you wish for, cause you will get fed your recently deceased cat in a sandwich. Barker’s previous film Milk & Serial got my attention because it was released on YouTube which is a novel way of getting attention and it worked. Aside from the fact that it was a bold move to give a film away for free, it was an enjoyable horror film. The set up of the film is that Bear wishes for someone he works with and fancies to fall in love with him and only him and things go very wrong very quickly.

Michael Johnston is quite good as Bear. He is someone who comes across as somewhat of an introvert and when push comes to shove, he always chickens out. You could argue that he is putting his will onto Nikki but the film manages to make it a bit more ambiguous when there are moments which show the real Nikki trying to get Bear to kill her. Inde Navarrette does a great job as Nikki. Playing someone that crazy and yet still coming across as somewhat grounded is a hard thing to pull off. There is one moment where is she is smiling as Bear leaves the house and it did remind me of the ending of Pearl where Mia Goth’s character has an exaggerated smile and stays like that for what must be a couple of minutes. In this film the smile is slightly made worse by the sight of Nikki wetting herself. Both Navarrette and Johnston work well together which is why the story works as well as it does.

The film has an 18 certificate for gore but to be honest I don't think the film was that gory. I’m not a huge fan of gore and I would never sit and watch stuff like Terrifier or Saw or any of the torture porn genre films but I thought that the gore is elevated because it comes at times of extreme violence such as when Sarah’s head is pummelled against a brick on her steering wheel at the hands of Nikki.

There are a few issues with the film. In no particular order, the moment when Bear realises he is eating his cat in his sandwich was quite an obvious thing and although it is still a screwed up thing to do it is something that I saw coming and I usually see that as a bad sign. If I can spot it then it means that it's either way too obvious or the film isn't working. On this occasion it is the former. Then there is his ‘friend’ who fancies Nikki and I think that aspect of the plot and their relationship is a bit underwhelming. When Bear is trying to get Ian to make the wish to get the curse off of him, Ian decides to wish for a billion dollars and in literally his next scene is killed so it kind of made that money scene pointless.    

I enjoyed Obsession. I thought that it took a pretty simple concept and managed to make it atmospheric and proves that smiling is one of the most horrifying things you can do. We have really been on a great run of horror films over the last few years with Weapons, Bring Her Back, Smile, Barbarian and Nope. This more than deserves its place amongst those films and it was to see what Curry Barker could do with a stronger story and also a bigger budget.

Hokum (2026)

Hokum was a film that I didn't know a whole lot about but I did hear it advertised on the radio and they called it ‘a near perfect horror film’ which did put me on edge because its one bar below ‘the greatest horror film since The Exorcist’. I had hopes that it would be very good because it's directed by Damian McCarthy who previously directed Oddity which was an enjoyable and equally atmospheric horror.

There are Stephen King vibes throughout this film. The frustrated writer, the isolated hotel and the room that no one is allowed in. Now I am not comparing this to The Shining because that would be foolish but the hotel is a big part of the film and the film benefits from having a great sense of atmosphere. The film utilises the darkness quite well although there were a few times that I wished the brightness had been turned up a little bit but McCarthy showed in this film just like he did in Oddity that he understands how to create an atmospheric film that isn't just style over substance.

I did feel like the honeymoon suite layout was designed by James Wan. He loves his houses to be oddly large and it seems just a little too big but having never been in a honeymoon suite I don't know if this is too big or too large but it is something that I noticed in the middle of Ohm running around. The film does have a decent number of jump scars but unlike most horror films, these felt earnt. They felt like they had been worked into the story because they didn't take me out of the story but just kept me interested in what was happening. 

I did like the scenes from the book. It would have been nice if they were peppered in throughout the film but I suppose they served their purpose in the two parts that we got. 

Adam Scott is good as Ohm. He starts off as a typically unlikeable and possibly pretentious writer. He has a trauma which sees his mother killed by a gunshot wound and his father resenting him. I thought that the twist that he was responsible for his mothers death is something that might have been obvious to some but it led to the end of his time in the hotel. David Wilmot was good as Jerry. Jerry was styled as the weird guy in the story but by the end of the film he became one of the few dependable characters that Ohm could rely on (arguably the only one). I thought that Brendan Conroy was good as Mr Cobb the hotel owner but sadly he only has one scene which probably lasted for a minute and it would have been nice to have him feature more but that’s just the way it is.

I think the fact that Ohm is still unlikeable means that the ending isn't a good as it could have been. The last meeting between Ohm and Alby was a great opportunity to show some warmth and development on Ohm’s part but the fact that he is dismissive shows that he hasn't really grown despite what he has been through. He got some closure over the death of his mother and seemed to get the ending to his book that he was searching for but he still hasn't softened to a degree that I would have been happy with.

This was a very enjoyable film that shows that Damian McCarthy understands horror and understands that you can use atmosphere and use it well without relying on cheap jump scares. The only real issues with the film are with character development (or lack of it) but if you dont get the chance to see it at the cinema then this is perfect viewing during the Halloween season.