Obsession found its way back to Brookings, and October is exactly the right month for it

If you've been scrolling past horror thumbnails all week trying to figure out what to watch now that the nights are getting longer and the corn mazes are opening up around Brookings County, here's a title that slipped under a lot of people's radar back in the spring and is worth a second look: “Obsession,” the 2025 supernatural horror film from writer-director Curry Barker. It's landed in the October horror rotation at Brookings Cinema 8, which makes sense. This is the kind of small, strange, low-budget horror movie that was never going to get a big summer push, but fits perfectly into a season when people are actively hunting for something unsettling to watch on a Friday night.

The backstory here matters more than it might for a bigger studio release. Barker wrote, directed, and edited “Obsession” himself, which is the kind of one-man-band credit list you mostly see from filmmakers who are either supremely confident or working with a budget too tight to hire separate department heads for everything. Often it's both. That combination tends to produce movies with a distinct, slightly rough-edged personality, for better or worse, because there's no committee smoothing out the weird choices. You can feel that here. This isn't a polished studio horror product with test-screening fingerprints all over it. It's closer to the kind of film that gets made because one person had an idea they couldn't shake, and then somehow convinced Andy Richter to show up for a supporting role, which is its own small, funny surprise given his history as a comedic actor rather than a horror genre regular.

So, the premise, without giving away where it goes: Bear works a regular shop clerk job and makes an offhand wish, the kind of thing you'd barely remember making. His friend Nikki is the one who ends up changed by it, and not in a subtle way. Her feelings for Bear curdle into something obsessive and dangerous, and the back half of the movie is built around watching that unravel. Cooper Tomlinson and Megan Lawless round out the cast in supporting roles. It's a tight, almost claustrophobic setup, friendship turned into something that can't be undone with an apology or a conversation, and horror has mined that territory before, but the “be careful what you wish for” angle gives it a folk-tale backbone that keeps it from feeling like a retread.

Here's the honest part. There's no critic aggregate score to point you toward with this one, no Rotten Tomatoes percentage to lean on, which is pretty normal for a film this size that never got a wide theatrical rollout. So I'm not going to pretend otherwise or dress up a number that doesn't exist. What I can tell you is how it plays as a piece of low-budget supernatural horror: it's more interested in dread than jump scares, and it trusts its central relationship to carry the tension rather than leaning on gore or effects it probably couldn't afford anyway. That's a smart choice for a film at this budget level, and it mostly pays off. Where it stumbles is pacing in the middle stretch, where the “obsession” of the title needs to escalate and sometimes just sits there instead, repeating a beat it already established. Richter's presence is a nice bit of tonal seasoning but doesn't get much room to do anything beyond that.

My honest take: this is a solid, slightly uneven October watch, the kind of movie you put on with low expectations and come away pleasantly surprised by, rather than a must-see. It won't be the best horror movie you catch this season, but for a Tuesday five-dollar ticket at Cinema 8, it earns its place in the spooky-season lineup. Go in knowing it's a character-driven slow burn, not a haunted-house thrill ride, and you'll have a decent night.

Facts verified as of October 1, 2026.