Review

Filthy, mean-spirited, and dark (complimentary).

I watched this one right after watching Backrooms. I would definitely say Obsession was my favorite of the two. There's no real comparison between them. They just both happened to be indie horror efforts that came out around the same and have been stuck together by people online who are clamoring for the big studios to shut up and for us to enter an era of New New Hollywood. Don't I wish.

Obsession is one of those films that I don't know if I really ever want to watch again. It's in that Requiem for a Dream category of film where we take a dark premise and we go all the way with it. I respect it and I enjoyed it, but it's a lot and not for the faint of heart. The lead actress obviously steals the show and is worthy of an oscar. But this is horror, so obviously she'll be paid dust. The male lead is also great, but she's acting circles around everyone here. Speaking of the male lead, he is fully up there in the pantheon of detestable villains. The rape scene was truly heartbreaking. Multiple times in the film I held my chest with my arms and visibly cringed from what I was seeing.

I loved the couple forwards-backwards bits of movement we do with Nikki. There was no real in-film reason for it, other than "this looks creepy". But it's done so well and unnerves so much. I loved every scene where we have her obscured in darkness. The switching from threatening to sweet on a dime is so well-acted. There was a Fire Walk With Me-esque misery here that made me desperate for the end to come. I would also point to some Hereditary parallels.

Darkness within darkness. There's bits of highly necessary dark comedy sprinkled throughout, that keeps us from falling into the abyss. But it's certainly no family-friendly romp.