Obsession

In Curry Barker’s film the wish comes not from a tree but from a cheap novelty toy, the One Wish Willow, bought in a crystal shop and said to grant one wish once broken. Bear gets exactly what he asks for, and that is where the real idea starts: having what you wanted becomes a condition you cannot switch off. Barker wrote, directed and cut it himself. His horror short The Chair, posted to YouTube in 2023, passed ten million views; offered a feature version of it, he pitched this instead. Shooting took 20 days in Los Angeles on, by his own account, under a million dollars, plus reshoots. The house used for the party scene burned in the January 2025 fires and could not be reshot. With cinematographer Taylor Clemons he kept frames centred and left extra headroom, so the discomfort is engineered, not incidental. Barker shot two endings, one where Nikki kills herself and one where she survives; the cinema release uses the survival version. Worldwide it took 513.8 million dollars, the highest gross in Focus Features history. A good fit if you want comedy and dread held in one frame and to see what holds them there. Not for anyone waiting for Nikki’s side of it: the telling stays almost entirely on Bear’s.