I really enjoyed OBSESSION and can see why it’s been a smash hit. Inde Navarrette, in particular, is extraordinary. A brave, revealing performance that goes right to the edge in a way that reminded me of the boldest horror performances — let’s say Jack Nicholson in THE SHINING.
And I loved how Michael Johnston played the essential cowardliness of his character in a way that mainstream actors often refuse to do, even though we all know the world is full of people like Bear. So, in his own way, as bold and daring as Ms Navarrette.
I’m looking forward to seeing what they both do next. Ditto the director, Curry Barker. OBSESSION was well structured, confidently crafted — a highly entertaining and thought provoking debut. With a dark, demented, disturbing, deeply satisfying ending. Bravo!
However…
[[Spoilers ahoy! Read on at your peril if you haven’t seen the movie… You have been warned.]]
Why did she give him a sandwich made out of his beloved pet cat?!
He made a wish that Nikki would love him “more than anyone in the fucking world”. So of course that leads her to love him to an insane degree. But in what version of life and love would you show your devotion to someone by serving them their kitty for lunch?
Answer: in a horror movie. And ONLY in a horror movie.
It doesn’t make sense. You’d do that to somebody you absolutely, utterly hate. Somebody you despise to the tips of their fingers and toes. NEVER someone you love. No matter how crazily you loved them.
I have seen this horror trope so many times, not least in scripts I’ve been involved in. It’s the gross out moment designed to shock, to elicit a sickened groan from the audience. For example: somebody takes a big bite from a sandwich and looks down only to see it’s crawling with maggots. And perhaps after throwing it down in disgust they realise the maggots aren’t there, it’s just their imagination playing tricks on them.
I’m attached to a horror film where an early draft had a tired, emotional woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown being gifted a vase of flowers with a human eyeball nestling in the stalks. But it didn’t really make sense. The eyeball didn’t belong to anybody, and it turned out she was just imagining revolting things in service of a gross out moment.
I ditched the scene. I think these types of scene are bullshit.
Now… I have seen way, way too many horror movies over the years, and I’ve made three and developed at least twice as many as that. So I know all the tics and tricks, and maybe I don’t see it from the “average” audience member’s point of view enough nowadays, and perhaps this stuff is harmless fun…?
Jump scares are similar for me. I think they’re a bit cheap and dumb, like a guy in a skeleton mask leaping out at you in a creaky old ghost train at the local fair… Boo! But in the cinema — I’m thinking of THE WOMAN IN BLACK or THE CONJURING — you can hear the audience having a whale of time.
That’s one of the things I love about movies seen in the cinema, and why I hope the art form persists and doesn’t get killed off by people watching things at home (as is so often predicted). I love feeling what other people are experiencing in the room — doubly so if it’s a movie I’ve directed! I don’t know whether it’s pheromones in the air, or some low level psychic connection, or just interpreting the sounds other audience members are making. But it’s fascinating and fun.
Sometimes you’re united with everybody else, on the ride together — I’m thinking of seeing the T-Rex attack the Jeep in JURASSIC PARK, alongside a thousand other people in the Empire Leicester Square, London (now chopped up into much smaller cinemas). Equally, thinking of a particular low-budget British comedy which was a huge, breakout smash hit… I was hating it but I could feel I was out of step with the army — the vast majority of the people around me were loving it, laughing their arses off, moved to tears. That’s educational, too.
OBSESSION did a real number on the audience. They were hooked, whipped away on a tense, terrifying rollercoaster ride, whether they wanted to be on it or not. I can forgive Curry Barker his naff gross out moment because he delivered another perfect horror beat — when Bear was having a heart to heart with Sarah in the car and Nikki suddenly, unexpectedly shows up…
Screams in the cinema. Gasps of shocked horror. Nervous, frightened laughter.
And me with a big grin on my face.
