After breaking the mysterious “One Wish Willow” to win his crush’s heart, Bear (Michael Johnstone), a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for when Nikki (Inde Navarrette) becomes completely infatuated with him. But, Bear soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
Obsession may be a first-time theatrical feature release for writer-director Curry Barker, but with an incredibly successful comedy sketch channel called That’s A Bad Idea, that he started with collaborator Cooper Tomlinson (who plays Ian in Obsession), and a string of impressive horror short films under his belt, it’s no surprise that the quality and reaction to his latest film has been absolutely stellar, boasting a 96% positive score on Rotten Tomatoes!
With the film opening across Australian cinemas this weekend, Nick L’Barrow spoke with Curry Barker in an exclusive interview about being given the creative freedom to have audiences really sit in the film’s tension, and the first R-rated film he ever saw that sparked the filmmaking bug.
Nick: One of the things that stood out to me was the aspect ratio you shot the film in. I’m curious to know where in the creative process you landed on that, and what were the conversations with your cinematographer, Taylor Clemens, about the narrative decision to do so?
Curry Barker: I mean, I knew from the get that I wanted to shoot this very specifically. So, the conversation with Taylor was about how I wanted to be very still with the camera. I wanted to cut as little as possible, and keep the camera rolling. And the aspect ratio we chose was 3:2, which is basically the aspect ratio where if you pull out your phone and take a picture. We wanted it to feel like we were looking at frames of a person’s life, and when you add that stillness with the centre composition in 3:2, you get that feeling of looking into a picture frame.
Nick: It also feels so claustrophobic as well. You mentioned the stillness, and I love that you have these scenes and moments where you just linger in the uncomfortableness or the tension for a long amount of time. You also edited the film, so could you speak to the art of editing horror?
CB: It’s something that I really toyed around with and experimented with. Because I knew I was pushing the boundaries already. I mean, if it was up to me, in the scene where Nikki is staring after the door shuts and we’re just staring at her face, we would’ve held that shot for like 60 seconds. I actually had it written in the script like that! That the camera literally stays on her face for an entire minute, and I just wanted the audience to be like, “What the hell?”, then it pans down and.. Yeah [laughs]. It was very interesting what the studio allowed me to get away with! But it was definitely a lot of experimenting, and showing friends like, “Hey, is this working?” It’s a fine line of finding what you’re trying to do. And there are no right or wrong answers either.
Nick: I’m coming into this movie and interview as a fan of you and Cooper [Tomlinson]. I love your comedy sketches and your horror shorts. And you’re in a position where you’ve had loads of success in both genres? Do you find that there are unique relationship between horror and comedy from a creative level?
CB: Yeah, definitely. I have a comedy background, and it forces you, when you have that part of your brain constantly on, to think about the human condition and psychology. Why do we do things in a certain way, you know? And because if you’re going to make fun of people, and I mean all humans, it’s about the relatableness of what we do as humans, and how silly and stupid things can be sometimes. That’s the same brain it takes to write psychological things in horror films. You’re studying people, and in this case it’s what they do in relationships. How do people talk in their friend groups? What makes a guy a douche bag? That’s how I look at both genres.
Nick: I really appreciated the complexity of the characters and their dynamics. You balance many different types of relationships in the film, and each character feels fully realised in those dynamics. How important was it to you to make sure that human complexity was the glue holding the story together?
CB: It was really important for me. I wanted every character in this film to have a different perspective because I think that’s so realistic and interesting in the real world. Every argument anytime a couple is fighting, there is always two sides to the story. I’m watching Beef season two right now, and watching the dynamic between the young couple and the older “getting divorced” couple is so interesting. And you see how the boyfriend defends the other husband, or the girlfriend defends the wife, and you realise that while they’re talking about the other person’s relationship, they’re also talking about their own. So, it’s important to have a different perspective for everybody.
Nick: I’ll close out on this, and I know there has already been a lot of discourse around the NC-17 cut of the film, and what you had to cut out for an R rating. I don’t want to ask about that specifically, however as a kid, and even now, I was obsessed with what movies were rated and why. And seeing my first ‘R-rated’ movie was like a come to Jesus moment for me. Were you also a kid who obsessed over ratings, and what was the experience when you saw your first R-rated movie?
CB: [laughs] Yeah, there was a lot of excitement around R-rated films just because I wasn’t allowed to watch them. As soon as something was R, that wasn’t allowed. So, I remember when I watched my first R-rated movie, I was pretty excited.
Nick: What was the first one?
CB: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the 2003 one.
Nick: The Marcus Nispel one!
CB: Yeah that was the first R-rated movie I got to watch. I was excited. I mean, the woman that’s messed up, and then she shoots herself in like the first 10 minutes of the movie..
Nick: And the camera goes through the hole in her head…
CB: That got me. I was like 10 years old [laughs]. I don’t think I was supposed to see that. But that sparked a bug in me, for sure. It’s like that forbidden fruit, you know?
Nick: That’s a good way of putting it. And on the plus side, if you hadn’t watched that movie at 10, we may not have had Obsession and whatever you’re cooking up with the next Texas Chainsaw movie!
CB: That’s true!
Thank you so much to Curry for his time, and to Rialto Distribution and Common State for organising the interview. Obsession is out in Australian cinemas now.
