12 min readThe following story contains spoilers for Obsession (2026).
IN THE LAST few years, horror movies have found yet more unexpected ways to mine the genre for new and inventive scares. In 2023, Talk to Me turned seances into a deadly party drug. In 2024, Longlegs turned a familiar serial killer story into a surreal, supernatural nightmare. In 2025, Weapons turned a wicked witch into an Oscar winner. And in 2026, Obsession, the feature film debut from writer/director Curry Barker, reveals the “nice guy” to be his own kind of monster. The movie finds terror in male loneliness, entitlement, and internalized misogyny, all in the scariest setting of all: the “friend zone.”
“I mean, the friend zone sucks,” Michael Johnston, Obsession’s 30-year-old lead actor, says. “That's what’s so universal about this movie. Everybody knows what it's like to have a crush and for it not to be reciprocated. But is it so bad? I mean, compared to what ends up happening…”
Johnston plays Bear, a 20-something kid who pines after his longtime friend Nikki. Bear doesn’t have the chutzpah to actually ask Nikki out, but he doesn’t need to once he finds the “One Wish Willow,” a vintage novelty item that promises to grant a single wish to anyone who snaps it in half. Bear wishes for Nikki to love him “more than anyone in the entire world.” ” and snaps the twig. In classic monkey paw fashion, the One Wish Willow does work—but in the most unsettling, brutal, and bloody ways imaginable.
Obsession hinges on the increasingly deranged relationship that develops between Bear and Nikki. Johnston had a series of chemistry reads with actresses auditioning to play Nikki, and Inde Navarrette was the last one to come in. By that point in the process, they didn’t even have time to exchange small talk. They shook hands and started reading. As Johnston puts it, their characters met before they actually did. “As soon as we read together, there was some kind of electricity in the room,” he says. “I think everyone knew that was it.”
Navarrette’s performance ranks up there with other recent genre standouts like Naomi Scott in Smile 2, and has instantly earned her the crown of a scream queen. Her transitions from eerie stillness to explosive physicality fill the movie with the constant thrum of terror. And that terror builds more and more and more and more and more until its final credits come almost as a relief.
Johnston talked to Men’s Health to break down Obsession’s cutting commentary on modern relationships, what its twisted version of the “nice guy” trope says about male loneliness, and what he’d do with his very own One Wish Willow.
MEN’S HEALTH: When you first spoke with Curry, what did he tell you to think about the film and your character?
MICHAEL JOHNSTON: Curry came prepared. He was very specific about what he wanted. At one point, the whole cast got together to watch Hereditary, and that was really fun. It's one of my favorite movies. My co-star, Inde, I don't think she'd seen it. So, we all got together at my house and played the movie, and she was so scared that she ran out of the room. She actually doesn't like horror movies very much, which is shocking because her performance in this movie is just something everyone's talking about.
MH: Jamie Lee Curtis and Neve Campbell, both icons of the horror genre, are also famously not fans of horror movies either.
MJ: Not fans of horror movies! Yeah, when you're shooting a horror movie, it doesn't usually feel very scary. Even though it's dark on screen, the lights are full brightness and it kind of feels silly. You really have to just trust that the director knows what they're doing, because a lot of times it feels quite ridiculous.
MH: Let’s start with the premise of the movie. If Bear would’ve just bucked up and asked Nikki out, do you think she would've been interested? Or do you think it was always a lost cause?
MJ: I think it was a lost cause. I mean, if she would've said yes, I don't think it would've ended very well for Bear. I think this movie works because they don't have that chemistry. I think that's the whole point. And Bear, he's so lovestruck by this girl that he doesn't even see that there's someone else out there that would be even better for him. It's such a tragedy.
MH: Bear makes some very bad choices throughout the whole movie. But do you think there’s a particular misstep that leads him down a path of no return? I’ve got one in mind.
MJ: The tragedy of all of this is that when Bear broke the One Wish Willow, he didn’t wish that Nikki would be happy and for all her dreams and desires to come true. He wished a very selfish wish that she would love him more than anyone else in the world. Bear was in this really vulnerable moment and his wish was selfish.
I think Bear knows for a while that something's not right, and he's so distracted by having his biggest dream come true that he's willing to just deal with it and push it under the rug. I like to compare it to a monster under the bed. Bear knows there's a monster under the bed, but he refuses to look until it's too late. There's a moment in the movie where he knows that it’s all really screwed up. It’s when he asks, "What's so bad about being with me?" Is that the moment that you're thinking?
MH: That’s the one.
MJ: It's a really interesting moment because Nikki does all the switches—there are moments where there are glimpses of her real self. That was a scene during filming that we spent a lot of time doing over and over and over because there's so much going on there in that moment. Bear is feeling incredibly guilty that he's perhaps ruined this girl's entire life, but at the same time, this desire that he has to have the girl of his dreams is just…more important to him. He's so, so, so incredibly selfish.
I think that's his most evil moment, even though later I think he would do anything to undo it. But we see him make this mistake. I mean, it's not good. He did a really bad thing. And I think the question is: Can he redeem himself? Can you come back from something like that? That's what I'm excited to hear from people. I've gotten responses from people saying, "He's the most evil son of a bitch I've ever seen in my life." And then other people say, "No, he just made a mistake."
MH: Even near the end, when he was going to kill himself in that bathroom, if the curse would've broken, she would've just woken up in all of her blood and pee and all this stuff, and had no idea what's going on. Even on his way out, he wasn’t exactly thinking about the gentlest way in for this person he's doomed to a curse.
MJ: It's almost like Bear can never make a decision. He's right about to do something, and then he changes his mind. I think that's just who he is. He's indecisive and obviously kind of a coward. Interestingly enough, we don't actually know whether Nikki has any idea what's going on, or if she's just a passenger and she's seeing every single thing. So that's even more terrifying to think about.
MH: Did the “What’s so bad about being with me” scene color how you were giving the rest of your performance?
MJ: Instead of playing the role as unsure or scared or not knowing what's going on, that was the first time I actually played Bear as like, "Okay, I know now that this is a moral dilemma." That was the first time he was really aware of it in the film.
There's no particular moment you can pinpoint where he knows for sure this is a wish that’s really bad and evil. It's a slow burn until that moment. Even before he says that line, somewhere in the story, there's got to be that moment where he realizes what he's done. We don't really get to see what that moment is. I don't think I honestly made that decision. There was no moment in the movie where I was like, "Okay, this is the moment where he knows." It's almost just like when something creeps up on you and all of a sudden it's there. It's not a surprise.
I don't know. I remember filming that moment was … I wanted to do lots and lots and lots of different takes of that moment. And I'm really glad that Curry allowed that when it was right. Sometimes we would be filming and he said ‘One take and done,’ and that was it. And then sometimes we would do it 40 times. I'm just glad we had the workflow that allowed us to do that.
MH: The film also puts the idea of the self-perceived “nice guy” who isn’t really so nice front and center. It’s a certain type of guy who thinks he’s a soft boy, or like the protagonist of his own ‘80s coming-of-age movie, but can actually be really insecure and dangerous.
MJ: It's definitely a socially relevant topic. I love that it's sparking these conversations. Bear is not a self-aware person. All of what you said is just a product of all of that—just a lack of emotional intelligence. All I did when playing Bear was think about the mentality of, "This is just the one thing. If I get this thing, it's going to change my whole life." Without thinking about Nikki as a person with her own wants and desires.
I’m loving the conversations this film is sparking about the modern-day “nice guy.” Bear is someone whose self-worth depends entirely on the validation of others. When he’s rejected, his niceness evaporates because he was only ever thinking about himself. That scene where Bear asks Nikki, “What’s so bad about being with me?” For me, that really highlights the danger of the loneliness epidemic. Bear is a product of this social-media-addicted Gen Z culture. He’s surrounded by friends but lacks deep, authentic connections. And I don’t think Bear is emotionally intelligent enough to comprehend just how selfish and immoral his actions are. He operates with a sort of willful blindness, desperate to avoid any further pain or isolation. His obsession with Nikki is the perfect distraction, and it's that blurry line between his own suffering and the harm he causes that makes Bear so interesting to explore.
MH: In a way, he’d rather curse this girl than actually ask her on a date and risk rejection.
MJ: Yeah. I don't think Bear really knew that the One Wish Willow would work, but there’s a part of me that believes if he could start over and do it again, that somehow he would still try to make the same wish more carefully. [Laughs] I think that says a lot about Bear.
MH: Like Jordan Peele and Zach Cregger, Curry also comes from a comedy background. Why do you think it is that these guys are so good at pivoting to horror?
MJ: Because comedy and horror are all about timing. It's so important. I mean, Curry's editing this movie in his head, while we're filming. He got so, so, so specific. It's insane how specific he gets with certain deliveries of certain lines. I mean, there are some things you would watch in this movie, little moments that … You watch it and you think, "Oh. Wow, that's interesting. That's a great moment." And you have no idea how choreographed those tiny little responses are. I think that's just key to building the tension.
Comedy and horror go hand in hand. Not to mention these people who come from this background of making their own short movies and sketches, it's like they have all this experience making 100 movies before they get the budget and get to do this one big thing. I think that that's essential.
MH: What was the most unsettling moment on set?
MJ: There was this moment in the film where Nikki is talking, and then all of a sudden she pauses and looks at me and smiles and says, "I'm your freaky Nikki." I never got to see that before—we didn't rehearse it. She had done it in private. At that point, I had seen her do the switch that she does so well from normal to freaky Nikki, I guess you could call it. I'd seen it, but she was doing it right in front of me. And I kept asking her, "Show me what you're going to do. Show me what you're going to do." And she's like, "Nope, you're going to have to wait." And I saw it for the first time on camera, and my reaction was so genuine. It was so freaky. It wasn't one of the big, bloody, crazy moments. It was just her smiling at me and saying, "I'm your freaky Nikki." It got me. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, but I also wanted to bust out laughing because it was so awesome.
MH: What was it like acting opposite her? There are subtle moments like the one you just mentioned, but there’s also so much really impressive physicality. It’s so committed.
MJ: Inde and Curry worked a lot on her physical performance for this film. I wasn't present for a lot of that. So, it was a really big treat to get to experience that in the moment while we were filming. Inde is such a phenomenal actress, and it made my job so much easier, because most of the time what you're seeing from me and my character, Bear, is just a genuine reaction to what’s happening on screen.
We really got to play a lot. We would do different takes of the same scene, the energy would just be all over the place. We tried a lot of different things. The director had a really specific vision for what he wanted, but he was also open to discovering new things in the moment. That's what made this movie work. And Inde and I have this amazing chemistry and just sort of trust in each other. It felt easy. It felt natural. It was genuinely the most fun I’ve ever had, making this movie.
MH: The head-smashing scene is becoming infamous. It’s been said that a couple smashes had to be removed to avoid an NC-17 rating. What’s it like filming a scene literally too violent to show the world in its entirety?
MJ: It was awesome. I mean, I'm a horror fan. It was fantastic. The day we shot that scene, I spent eight hours in the car with the…dummy? I don't know what to call it. Just watching them twist the head around and do all the makeup. One time, I was sitting in the car and it was maybe just after lunch. I was texting, and I heard some kind of noise, and I turned over and looked at the dummy. All of a sudden, blood just poured out of its nose. It was so creepy. There was no one there.
Honestly, it was so much fun. That thing looked so gross. It's one of my favorite scenes in the movie. I also heard they took out a few head smashes, but don't worry, there are still an enormous amount of head smashes, so it'll be okay.
MH: Do you ever get used to being covered in a gallon of fake blood?
MJ: You get used to it, for sure. It's sticky and sometimes smells interesting, but like anything, you can get used to it. For me, the thing about the blood that bothers me the most is the continuity of it all. Just trying to get it to match up exactly. It takes a village to do that. I'm so attentive to the continuity. I try to help out as much as I can with the continuity. I was trying to also take pictures of it every day and it's just like … My ADHD brain thinks about that a lot. How's the blood? Is the blood good? I remember checking on the blood all the time, but it drives me nuts.
MH: If you had a One Wish Willow, what would your wish be?
MJ: I've thought about this a lot. If my wish in the movie doesn't count, because technically, even though it was acting, I've already made my wish.
That was just a prop. My One Wish Willow wish would be a detailed rule book that tells me exactly what can safely be wished for and what can't. And that way I can share it with all my friends and maybe they can help me out with the wish. We could figure it out together. That's my go-to answer, because I don't want to mess with that thing.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
