‘Obsession’ Director Curry Barker Reveals the One Wish Willow Isn’t Actually Cursed
Here’s a fascinating piece of trivia regarding Curry Barker’s record-breaking smash hit Obsession, which is currently steamrolling the box office. The film recently surpassed The Blair Witch Project‘s worldwide gross and has cemented its status as one of the highest-grossing horror films of all time.
The premise is actually quite simple, merging The Monkey’s Paw with horror. The story follows Bear, played by Michael Johnston, a young man infatuated with Nikki, played by Inde Navarrette. He longs for her and wants to be with her so badly, but he can never build up the courage to ask her out. Even when given the opportunity, he backs away.
Instead, he chooses to use a little knick-knack he found at a shop that allegedly grants a single wish, hence the name One Wish Willow. After making his wish, Nikki instantly becomes infatuated with him and falls in love. At first, it’s everything he ever wanted. Then, unsurprisingly, things go south.
On the surface, Obsession plays very much like a classic Twilight Zone or Tales from the Crypt episode where a wish goes awry because the item itself is cursed. As the viewer, the natural assumption is that anyone who uses the One Wish Willow will suffer some horrific consequence. Throughout the film, characters make wishes and terrible things happen, especially to Nikki, who makes a wish of her own and finds herself surrounded by dead bodies, with the implication that she may ultimately be blamed for everything that happened.
So yeah, it’s not exactly hard to walk away thinking the One Wish Willow itself is cursed.
However, Barker recently revealed that’s not actually how he views the mythology behind the film. During an interview with Collider, the filmmaker explained that audiences may be focusing on the wrong thing entirely.
When asked whether anyone could theoretically “beat” the One Wish Willow and make a wish without suffering disastrous consequences, Barker revealed that the item itself isn’t necessarily cursed at all.
“I think, yeah, that’s the thing. It’s really funny is that everyone kind of treats the One Wish Willow like it’s this cursed thing, and I understand why because of the context of the movie, but the thing is, the thing that Bear wishes for is cursed. Like taking away someone’s autonomy, taking away someone’s self, that’s cursed. Like, it’s just the wish itself is a very cursed thing.”
Barker went on to explain that he believes someone could potentially use the One Wish Willow successfully if they were careful about what they wished for.
“So I do think if you chose your words wisely, the One Wish Willow doesn’t have to be. I mean, you see the crystal shop guy, he’s like, ‘I already used my wish, man,’ you know? It’s like, he must have gotten away with it.”
It’s a fascinating wrinkle because it completely changes the way the film can be interpreted. Rather than presenting the One Wish Willow as an inherently evil object, Barker suggests the true horror stems from Bear’s decision to strip another person of their autonomy. The curse isn’t necessarily the object. The curse is the wish itself.
It’s a surprisingly nuanced piece of worldbuilding that adds another layer to Obsession. What initially appears to be a straightforward cursed-object movie becomes something far more unsettling when viewed through Barker’s lens. The tragedy isn’t that Bear made a wish. It’s that he made the wrong wish. An inherently evil wish. By framing the real curse as the desire to control another person rather than the object granting the wish, Barker turns Obsession into a story about entitlement, obsession, and the consequences of taking away someone else’s free will.
Masterpiece.
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