Obsession - When a Desire Becomes a Nightmare in 4K

Terribly shy, Bear "just" wants to be loved by Nikki. He doesn't ask for wealth, revenge, or power. He just wants the girl he's in love with to finally return his feelings. When he jokingly buys an object that he discovers is capable of granting wishes, he seems to have found the solution to his forbidden dream. The young woman falls for him in a way he never imagined, but her behavior quickly changes, taking an unsettling turn.

It is from this paradox that Obsession builds its horror: the desire is not denied, it is granted. And precisely because of this, it becomes impossible to understand where love ends and where something much darker and more terrifying begins.

Be careful what you wish for: it might come true

Curry Barker constructs a story in which uncertainty becomes the primary tool of tension. Nikki's behavior progressively changes, and it's never possible to precisely determine what is happening. Possession? External will? Something even more undefined? The answer deliberately remains elusive.

Making this transformation credible is primarily Inde Navarrette, capable of shifting from tension to absurdity while always maintaining a sense of unease. Barker, already the author of Milk & Serial, also demonstrates remarkable confidence in visual construction: lights, shadows, sound, and make-up effects contribute to creating an oppressive atmosphere.

Some continuity issues prevent the work from being even more impeccable, but its strength lies in the question it leaves behind: how terrible can it be to get exactly what you wish for?

Shot entirely digitally at native 4.6K resolution (Arri Alexa 35) and finished in 4K, which was the starting point for creating this edition. The HEVC image has a rather unusual and more "square" format than one might expect, 1.50:1 (3840 x 2160/23.97p) on a dual-layer BD-66. Obsession is particularly convincing in the more illuminated and dynamic scenes thanks to Dolby Vision, where the level of detail is high and allows for precise appreciation of faces and environments. The BD-50 with the 2K version is included.

The color rendition is also remarkable, with saturated but natural colors and deep blacks. In this sense, however, the film maintains a deliberately very dark cinematography, which often leads shadow areas to dominate the frame. Detail in the darker areas tends to disappear, a choice that nevertheless contributes to the claustrophobic and unsettling atmosphere of the footage.

The Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 track (640 kbps) offers a decent listening experience, but one soon feels the need for a greater overall scenic presence. It is necessary to switch to the original Dolby TrueHD 7.1 with ATMOS objects, which does an excellent job, especially when the film aims to create discomfort. The pub environment, for example, comes alive with voices, glasses, and noises distributed around the viewer, while in the more tense scenes, the soundtrack grows to become almost physical. The sound effects are also convincing, from footsteps to more violent noises, with present but not overdone bass. Dialogues and screams always remain clean, and the directionality is precise. A track that doesn't try to impress every second, but knows exactly when it's important to be heard.

As for the extras, we have a featurette with cast and director Curry Barker, dedicated to the making of the film (19'), but especially Curry Barker's audio commentary on the film, which shares curiosities about production, actors, and filming. Unfortunately, Italian subtitles are not available for either, but at least English ones are.