OBSESSION

So... Curry Baker huh? That's the guy I'm gonna be adding to the roster of incredible modern horror filmmakers up with Oz Perkins, Jordan Peele, Ti West, Nia DeCosta, Rose Glass, Ari Aster and Robert Eggers, just on my own personal favorites list. But yeah, he's going on there right away. Because this movie was something else.

He wants to do a new take on A Nightmare on Elm Street, and he can get in line. If he were the to do it though, I wouldn't have any kind of problem with that.

Okay, so I won't tell you anything you don't learn from the teaser trailer. It's a guy who is in love with his friend that's a girl, and he makes a wish on a little trinket that the girl would love him more than anyone, and the wish comes true, and then... well, the movie.

It's a ride I tells yeah, and it's a very precarious, sensitive ride at that. It's one that I think needed a delicate and balanced hand to create, because we're dealing with ideas about consent, agency, toxic masculinity, male entitlement, and a whole plethora of other pretty intense subjects. Stuff that, if not handled exactly right, could have very easily felt exploitative or insincere.

What really got to me, was how it took the trope of the "crazy possessive girlfriend" and turned it around into something completely unexpected. There were parts were I was squirming in my seat because I so friggin uncomfortable watching these people. This movie was a very voyeuristic kind of experience, because I think a lot of people have been in situations where they weren't their best, or their partner wasn't their best, and it gets ugly. I'm not saying that's everyone's experience, but I think many of us can relate to it.

But those are the things you don't talk about really, except with those you really trust. Therapists and best friends and siblings. Not movie audiences. So watching this "couple" having their twisted, demented relationship, felt like watching someone's private, embarrassing dirty laundry, but so many times worse. Because this is a horror movie, and really, really horrific things happen by the end of it.

I was riveted. The whole time. I didn't like the guy the movie was about, but I don't think that I was really supposed to. The whole experience was an examination of male entitlement when it comes to the affection of women. The idea that because you're kind to a woman, or that she smiled at you, or that you felt like there was some kind of connection, that she should have an obligation to respond well to your advances, regardless of her own actual feelings.

This movie plays with that idea in a very interesting, and deeply uncomfortable way, but also, in a way that rings true. I never felt like I was supposed to feel anything but compassion and concern for Nikki (played by Inde Navarrette and holy shit, where the fuck did SHE come from?! More on her in a minute) and that the main character, Barron, Mr Wish-Maker was kind of trash.

So Inde Navarrette. Wow. I had never heard of her or seen her in anything, and once the movie starts rolling, she's at the goddamned wheel. It's her show. She's something else. The amount of sheer charisma and charm and acting ability it must have taken to have played this character. I won't say what all she does that's impressive, for the sake of spoilage, but I really, really liked her performance.

Also, for some reason Andy Richter is in this movie. Not a bad thing, just an odd thing.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is that this movie is smart, creative, thoughtful, sometimes funny, and pretty uncomfortable at times. It's in contention for best of the year up with Mother Mary and The Bone Temple. It's so good.

In other news, my book Scout Farrow: APOCALYPSTICK is coming out in five days. On May 20th, 2026. So I'll be posting a fair bit over the next week about it. I want as many eyes on it as I can get!

I'm really proud of it and I hope you check out the first chapter, which I've posted here: https://www.joehumphrey.com/the-first-chapter-of-apocalypstick/

https://www.joehumphrey.com/content/files/2026/05/day-one-preview.pdf