Naman Shrestha
Written and directed by Curry Barker, ‘Obsession’ acquaints us with a music store employee named Bear, who has unrequited romantic feelings for his childhood friend and co-worker, Nikki Freeman. In a desperate attempt to make her fall in love, the hopeless romantic decides to buy her a gift from a new age shop. While at the store, he comes across a wish-granting toy called “One Wish Willow.” Bear ends up using the supernatural toy and wishes for Nikki to fall in love with him.
As his wish is granted, he notices that she has begun loving him more than anyone else in the world, so much so that she becomes obsessed with him in a twisted manner. When Bear tries to dissuade her, Nikki grows more volatile and erratic as her feelings towards him take a deadly shape. The psychological horror thriller drama movie is brought to life by the compelling performances from Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, and Andy Richter, and is set in a series of eerie and visually dark backdrops, including Bear’s residence, the music store where he works, and the new age shop.
Obsession Filming Locations
Production on ‘Obsession’ was conducted in California, particularly across Los Angeles County. As per reports, principal photography for the Curry Barker directorial took place in the fall of 2024, around the month of October, in the span of three to four weeks. Due to the low budget of the film, the director also helped out the production designer, Vivian Gray, and her team prepare the sets by picking up a paintbrush himself.
Los Angeles County, California
To paint a visual aesthetic for ‘Obsession,’ the team visited Los Angeles. Many sites in the sprawling Southern Californian city contributed to creating the tension-filled atmosphere of the horror thriller. Nestled in the San Fernando Valley, the city of San Fernando is also one of the filming locations. Shooting particularly took place at Cassell’s Music, located in the heart of the region at 901 North Maclay Avenue. After catering to musicians for nearly 8 decades, the iconic musical instrument shop closed its doors permanently in 2025.
In collaboration with the creative vision of director Curry Barker, the director of photography, Taylor Clemons, chose to “shoot (the film) center-composed and have extra head space because (he) wanted it to feel uncomfortable in its loneliness,” the director revealed in a Variety interview. The stylistic choice added an extra layer of depth and unease to the narrative. Moving to the southeastern end of the Valley, the cast and crew also taped some sequences in the city of Burbank. For the purpose of creating the setting of Bear’s home, a property in the area was tailored down to the finest details by production designer Vivian Gray and his crew.
In the same conversation with Variety, Barker opened up about the larger scale and creative freedom he experienced while bringing ‘Obsession’ to life as compared to ‘Milk & Serial.’ “This time around I had a way bigger playground,” he stated. “I’ve never had the resources to create a house. We found this tiny little house in Burbank and transformed it into Bear’s house. It doesn’t look anything like that when you first see it. It was a game-changer, for sure. I remember my first day on set and I saw the set being built by (production designer) Vivian (Gray) and people painting the walls. And then I went down into the camera department and everyone’s setting that up, and I remember going, ‘Oh wow, I’m running the ship.’ It hit me that this is much bigger than I’d ever been a part of.”
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