Film

Obsession

Name: Obsession
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Released: 2026
Cast: Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, Andy Richter

Other titles called Obsession: the 1943 film, the 1976 film.

Obsession follows a lovesick teen who snaps a branch off the legendary 'One Wish Willow' to win his crush, only to discover its generosity comes with claws. It's teen horror pitched between fairy-tale dread and slasher energy, part cursed-object thriller, part cautionary romance, with young unknowns anchoring the cast and Andy Richter for comic relief. Best for anyone who wants a high-school crush literalized into body horror.

TMDb rating

4.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy wish-gone-wrong horror where the dread grows out of a small, petty want until it becomes something you can't take back, with a lovelorn, slightly goofy opening.

Skip it if you need restraint or slow-burn atmosphere, since this moves quickly and leans on its shocks rather than letting unease simmer.

What it asks of you: About an hour and forty-nine minutes that start bright and sweet, then grow steadily darker, asking you to trust the mood as it turns.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Wish Upon2017

It's the direct blueprint—a lonely teenager granted wishes by a cursed object, each fulfilled desire chipping away a piece of someone she loves. Same bargain, same dread, same lesson about wanting things too specifically.

But The scares lean broad and the moralizing is heavy-handed; critics called it more silly than scary.

Truth or Dare2018

A group of friends unleash a supernatural game that punishes hesitation with death, tapping the same nerve of small choices with catastrophic consequences. Glossy, fast, and unashamedly a teen-horror B-movie.

But The rules keep changing to fit the plot, and the tone stays glib even when people are dying.

It Follows2015

A curse passed on through intimacy stalks its victims with dreamlike inevitability—less jump-scare, more slow-building existential dread about desire carrying a price you can't outrun.

But Its pace is deliberate and its ending ambiguous; if you want answers tied up neatly, this will frustrate.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Obsession

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Crazy Love2007

Obsession dresses a real psychological truth in supernatural clothing; this documentary tells the actual story behind it—a man so consumed by rejected love that he arranged an acid attack on the woman who spurned him, then married her anyway decades later. No curse, no wish, just the mechanics of obsession laid bare.

A jaw-dropping true story told through the people who lived it, decades later, still tangled in the same impossible devotion. Stranger and more unsettling than most horror scripts because none of it is invented.

But It's genuinely upsetting in a way fiction can cushion—this really happened, and the ending offers no catharsis, just discomfort.

Ma2019

Octavia Spencer plays loneliness curdling into control with unnerving warmth, turning a teenage hangout spot into a trap built from someone else's unmet longing. Obsession as hospitality.

But The tonal swings between camp and genuine sadness don't always land, and the final act gets bloodier than the setup promises.

Fatal Attraction1987

The genre-defining portrait of desire that refuses to take no for an answer—one weekend fling metastasizes into a nightmare that follows a man home, to his family, to his sanity.

But It's dated in its gender politics and pacing; some will find its treatment of mental illness reductive by today's standards.

The Craft1996

Teenage outsiders get real power through ritual, and every wish granted comes back twisted—a coven story that's as much about the cost of getting what you want as the getting itself.

But The effects and fashion are proudly '90s, and the back half tips into melodrama some viewers find campy rather than eerie.

Swimfan2002

A high schooler's one bad decision spirals into a stalker nightmare that escalates with soap-opera relish—pure teen-thriller comfort food for anyone who likes their obsession stories lean and mean.

But It's minor and formulaic even by erotic-thriller standards, and nobody's claiming this is prestige cinema.

Jennifer's Body2009

Desire, jealousy and something demonic tangle together in a high school friendship gone wrong, with a script that's funnier and angrier than its marketing ever let on.

But The horror-comedy balance is uneven and it was misunderstood on release; some still find its tone hard to place.

Wishmaster1997

The genre's cheerfully lurid granddaddy: a genie who grants wishes with maximum sadistic literalism. Gory, gleeful, and unbothered by subtlety—if you want the wish-horror premise played completely straight-faced trashy.

But The acting and effects are pure '90s B-movie, and it has zero interest in being scary in a sophisticated way.

Bedazzled2000

Same Faustian engine as Obsession—wish granted, price attached, wish-maker outsmarted by the fine print—but played entirely for laughs instead of dread, proving the premise survives a total tonal reversal.

Brendan Fraser gets seven wishes from an impish devil (Elizabeth Hurley) to win the woman he loves, and every single one goes hilariously, cringingly wrong in ways the small print always allowed.

But It's broad, dated 2000s comedy with a very different sense of humor than horror fans might expect—no scares here at all.

All That Money Can Buy1941

The wishing willow is this century's version of the deal-with-the-devil tree stump—a struggling farmer trades his soul for prosperity and love, discovering eight decades before Obsession that supernatural generosity always collects, fine print included.

A gorgeous, Oscar-nominated slice of American folklore about a poor farmer who trades his soul for good fortune, then has to talk his way out of the contract. Eerie, funny, and surprisingly moving.

But It's a black-and-white film from 1941 with theatrical acting and a courtroom-drama structure—patience for older cinema required.