This low-budget horror flick was a surprise blockbuster at the box office. It has a simple but effective premise that manages to breathe new life into the shopworn “Monkey Paw” cliché. Remember that one Tales from the Crypt episode with Andrew McCarthy? It’s sort of like a 21st century variation on that.
Bear (Michael Johnston) gets put into the dreaded Friend Zone by his coworker Nikki (Inde Navarrette). Frustrated by the fact that he can’t express his feelings towards her, Bear buys a wishing stick and wishes for her to fall madly in love with him. Well, it works… a little too well.
First time director Curry Barker favors creating an unsettling mood rather than out and out shocks. He fills the frame with drab colors, and the muted palette lends the picture an ominous feel. While I kind of wish (heh… perhaps a poor choice of words) he went for the jugular a bit more often (there’s a scene with a steering wheel that is a real crowd pleaser), he nevertheless does a solid job setting the creepy tone early on. Even more impressive is the fact he is able to sustain it for much of the film’s running time. It does wear on a bit long at 107 minutes, and while it would’ve benefited from some tighter editing, Obsession remains a heck of a debut.
The real MVP is Navarrette. The reason the audience buys the premise is thanks largely to her total commitment to the crazed lengths her character will go through to be loved. She does some of her best work hidden in silhouette, but she is equally fine when she goes into full-tilt nutzo mode. We’ve had a lot of great acting performances by women in horror over the past couple of years, and Navarrette’s ranks right there with the best of them.
Barker didn’t reinvent the wheel with this one. Sometimes, you don’t have to. You just have to keep it spinning.
And yes, that’s Conan O’Brien’s sidekick Andy Richter as Johnston and Navarrette’s boss.
No comments:
Post a Comment