Obsession Movie Review & A One Wish Willow Prop Giveaway!

Obsession didn’t just live up to the hype, it made me wonder how so many bigger movies keep missing what’s right in front of them. I’m giving a spoiler free movie review that gets into what makes this original thriller horror hit feel so addictive. A simple hook that keeps building, a tone that can make you laugh one minute and feel genuinely sick the next, and a performance from that plays like a career launch.

Then we get into the part I can’t stop thinking about: The film marketing. Obsession’s team didn’t just run trailers, they ran an experience. From social media saturation to the “text Nikki” phone number powered by an AI chatbot, the promotion makes you feel like the movie is reaching back at you. I break down why interactive campaigns like this outperform traditional ads, especially when studios are competing for attention across X, Instagram, and everything else. 

Finally, I’m doing a listener giveaway of the sold-out One Wish Willow movie prop, because it’s too cool to sit on my shelf. I explain exactly how to enter, why scalpers are killing the fun, and when I’ll announce the winner. Listen, share this with a movie friend, and if you’ve seen Obsession, message me your take and who you think the real villain is. If you’re enjoying Cookin’ With Gas, subscribe and leave a quick review so more film fans can find us.

Transcript

Welcome And Quick Review Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:31

What is up? Yellow, yellow, yellow to everybody out there. If you're tuning in, thank you. If you're new to listening to this podcast, I appreciate you. If you are a returning listener, you know what it is, you know how it goes here at Cookin' With Gas. I am your host, Jared. This is going to be an episode about one thing and one thing only, and that is my review of the movie Obsession that I went and seen this past weekend. It was my most anticipated movie of the year. I have been waiting a long time to see this movie since it premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on uh September 5th of 2025. I read about it way back then. Uh there was a couple edits that were done to this film since that release. Uh nothing too crazy, but ultimately they gave this movie an NC 17 rating because of a scene that was shot in this movie. They had to go back and kind of edit that scene in order just to give it a heavy R rating. Um I hope I get to see that scene that they cut or at least edited. I want to see the scene that everyone saw at the Toronto Film Festival. That's what I want to see. But this is going to be a quick review of that movie. Um, let's just say that Curry Barker, he's got it made right now. That's the director of this movie. He uh is a star on YouTube, he makes all these short videos

YouTubers Taking Over Movie Studios

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with his buddies and pals on YouTube, and he has garnered a a big following, and good for him. Uh nowadays social media makes it to where individuals like himself, who back 15, 20 years ago maybe wouldn't have gotten a second look from movie studios, they're the ones that the movie studios are going to right now to make their movies. And that's pretty crazy, and that's awesome because it gets original content out there that you wouldn't be seeing. And that's what we're getting this year in 2026. The original content that's dropping, especially in the thriller horror category of films, is is pretty awesome. And even when it comes to movies like Back Rooms, that's coming out in a couple weeks. It may not be necessarily original content, but it's directed by a young YouTuber who is getting the chance to showcase his talents, and this that movie is probably gonna do well just like Obsession. The thing with Obsession is it's totally original, and and the promotion for this movie was out cold. The way that they promoted this film, whoever did it, whoever hired the person, whether it was Curry himself,

The Marketing That Hijacked Social Media

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whether he had people in the background that were taking care of all that at the studio who picked up the movie, however, the production of the promotion of this movie transpired, those people are the people that deserve a ton of credit. For first, of course, you got the promotion that's going on online. Nowadays, movies that they don't really they don't really put a bunch of of promotion out there on the TV. You know, everything's done online on social media, and obsession was getting pumped into your veins no matter what social media outlet you were on. It was getting pumped into you. And they did it the perfect way. They actually had a phone number that you could text. You could text Nikki, the crazy girl in the movie. Now let me rephrase that. Nikki was only crazy because of what occurs in the film. She she's not a crazy woman uh naturally in the movie, but with what transpires, she becomes crazy. So you could text Nikki at this number, and it was like an AI chatbot that would text you back. Of course I did it. It was hilarious. The thing, the conversations that you could have with this girl were hilarious. She'd blow you up at like four in the morning and send you these voice texts. She would just randomly text you and say that, oh, she misses you and you haven't talked in so long. You could respond to her and she would respond back. Things like that you just don't get necessarily with the promotion of films, especially current films. They stepped outside the box and had something bright and original, and the promotion was the exact same way. It was bright and original. Now they also have uh a prop from the movie. It's called a one wish willow. That is what

One Wish Willow Prop And Giveaway Tease

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obsession is completely about. This is why obsession of occurs in the movie. The one wish willow. Uh, he picks it up in a store. He doesn't know if it's real or if it's not, he just knows that he can make a wish. When he makes this wish, this wish goes completely sideways. While they actually created and made these one wish willows for fans of the movie to be able to purchase, and you could get them for a cheap price. That was another cool thing. It wasn't like they were charging $25 for these, uh, you could tell, probably 3D printed one wish willows that come in this the same box from the movie, which is pretty cool. And you could purchase it. If you got one, you were pretty lucky. Right now they're sold out everywhere you can't get them. I have no idea if they're going to restock them or not, but I ended up getting two of them uh myself. I got lucky, I snagged two of them. I wish that I would have got three. I wish that I would have got three. I want to give one of these one wish willows away to a lucky listener, which I will explain uh at the end of this podcast exactly how you can do that. It's gonna be super simple, and I'm gonna ship out one of these one wish willows that I have to a lucky listener out there. Um I'll I'll I'll ship it obviously on my dime. It's free to the person that wins it. I just want to give it away. I want to give it away to someone who uh enjoys movies, who enjoyed obsession, uh, and I was trying, I was battling about how I was going to come up with a way to to get this to someone. Uh, how am I gonna do it? How am I gonna make this a contest? I decided I'm gonna make it really, really freaking easy. And uh I'll explain that to you at the end of this episode. But as for my review of this movie, I think everybody knows how I feel about this movie. I pumped this movie up. I can be an individual that hypes things up to a point where if somebody sees it, it could be ruined. That may be a fault of mine. I I get locked in on a show or a movie or even a song for that matter, and I can hype it up so much that when an individual sees it, they're like, I think Jared, you know, he hyped it up a little bit too much. And and you know what, like I said, maybe that's a fault of mine, but it's it's nothing that I'm gonna change. This movie does not fall into that category. This movie lives up to every bit of hype that I gave it and every bit of hype that you are seeing online. If you have clicked on anything of obsession, you've been brought into the algorithm that is on social media right now, and it is insane. It is insane. And I'm going to look right now because I haven't looked lately at Rotten Tomatoes,

Hype Check With Rotten Tomatoes

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but I'm gonna take a quick look right now to see what it's at.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Um Bear with me here. I'm getting to it.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

So right now, on Rotten Tomatoes, still, with the critics, this movie's at 95% with the critics. Now, usually when you get these critics, the audience score, which on Rotten Tomatoes is called the Popcorn Meter, there's over 2,500 verified ratings on the popcorn meter from just normal studio audience people. It is at 94% right now. You have 94% from the audience, 95% from the critics, that shit does not happen when it comes to movies. Critics and normal individuals just do not agree ever when it comes to movies. It is a very, very rare instance when this occurs. This is one of those movies that it just grabs onto you. It builds and builds and has so many levels. People are they are arguing over who they believe the villain in this movie is. Obviously, I do not believe that Nikki is the villain in this movie. Nikki is is brought into this world because she is possessed by something that's going on. And this right here, I'm just gonna put this out here. I need a prequel of this movie or see, I don't care how you do it, I need an origin story of

The Wish Concept And Sequel Potential

SPEAKER_01 9:00

the One Wish Willow. I need to know where this One Wish Willow came from. I have to know. It is such a brilliant idea for a film. Obsession period is a brilliant idea for a film. This has never-ending aspects to it that you can bring uh into another movie, into a television show. Uh, they're speaking right now of, of course, sequels. Uh the director is speaking more of how he would like to do an anthology series where every episode is a different individual making a different wish and having that wish go sideways. Uh that's something that I anything that's in this universe, I'm down with. I'm there, I'm seated, let's get it going. This is a this is something where, like I said, the the possibilities are endless. So good for everybody that was involved in this movie, whether it was behind the scenes, whether it was on can on camera. I mean, Indy N Navarrett, which I I believe I'm pronouncing her name correctly, sorry if I'm getting it, uh, this is a showcase

Theatrical Vibes And A Star-Making Turn

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performance for an actress. This movie was made uh for her to be showcased, and let me tell you, she can kiss her normal life goodbye. She is going to be a megastar. They are talking awards for her, and when I say awards, I'm talking uh Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards. And for a movie like Obsession that costs $750,000 to make. Yes, seven in today's day and age, seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars to create a movie from beginning to end is pocket change. It's pocket change. They created, they they filmed, they produced, they made this whole movie from beginning to end for $750,000, and it has made more. Here we go, let's take a look at that. The gross for it right now in the United States, or for the three days in its release, was $17 million it made. I want to say right now it's up to over $21 million worldwide on a $750,000 budget. That is incredible. It is well deserved, and I cannot rave enough about this movie. You have to see this movie in the theater. I said it on my previous podcast where I was hyping it up, telling everybody that I'm going to see it, and I and I was not wrong. The theater has an awesome vibe to it. There's there's it's weird to say there's there's a lot of comedy in this movie simply because of how insane Nikki is. And you find yourself laughing at the fact that she is under this curse, but at the same time completely brokenhearted over the fact that is sh is her real self inside of there trying to escape. And I d I this isn't a a spoiler type of podcast where I'm going to get into the the the the cracks of the film, but it it's tragic when you watch her the way she can switch uh the for her character right in it just just m mid bam. She just changes character so quick in this movie. It is impressive to watch an actress do that. I can't say ever in my life, uh wanting to be an actor myself, I have never in my life been jealous of an actress's uh performance. This the the jealousy that I feel uh uh how talented she is, it it it has no bounds. She is incredible in this movie. Um everybody is, everybody is, but like I said, this the showcase is hers. That that's what this is about. This movie was made for her. And does that kind of take away from the other performances in the movie? Of course, because hers is so out there, you're focused on that on that performance. But everybody in the movie kills it, everybody, from Bear to his best friends to just everybody in that film does an awesome job. You have to go see this movie. I have now coming up in the month of May, to the we're at the end of May right now, I have two movies that have A pluses. Two movies that I've given A pluses to. One of them being the Michael movie. I thought that movie was outstanding, outstanding, and that of course is still just making an uh an unbelievable amount of coin. And now Obsession. I do have Project Hail Mary that I gave an A to, but it wasn't an A plus. But Obsession and Michael get A pluses out the game. Go see the movie, you will not regret it. It's it's something that you have to experience in the theater, and I hope that it it it continues to have legs. I hope this weekend it continues uh with that momentum to create even even more revenue in the theater. It deserves it, it deserves every single bit of it. Uh this weekend we have the movie Passenger that comes out. I'll be going to see that. Nothing I I don't think there's gonna be a month at all in the year of 2026 that's going to touch the month of May for four movies. It just it just not it's not gonna happen. I do I do not see a way that there's been a movie every single weekend in the month of May that it that has come out from the beginning. Whether whether it was Hokum, and then you have Obsession, and then you have Passenger, and then after that you got Back Rooms. I'll of course be going to see every single one of them. But uh how you can compare any single month into this future, plus there are movies out there that I don't know who's behind the

Why Big Movies Flop Without Buzz

SPEAKER_01 15:16

scenes uh doing the promotion for these films, but they they need to pick up their game. There was a movie that was released this past weekend, the same weekend as Obsession. This movie was called In the Gray. It starred two of the biggest stars in Hollywood with a massive director. The director was Guy Ritchie, who I am a huge fan of, and the actors were Jake Gillenhaal and Henry Cavill. These two actors, two of the biggest megastars in the world. This movie released, nobody even knew it was out in the theater.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Nobody cared, nobody gave a shit. It made like $2.9 million dollars. $2.9 million this movie made.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

And it looks like a good solid film. It probably should have just gotten released uh on streaming apparently, but nobody gave a shit that it was out there. There's another movie that's coming out I want to say it's in in June or July, I want to say it's in June, uh Steven Spielberg's Disclosure Day. Listen, I am a massive Steven Spielberg fan. I grew up idolizing every single thing that Steven Spielberg put out, and it's been a long time. A long wait for Steven Spielberg to actually make another sci-fi film which is back to his roots. I don't I I enjoyed West Side Story. West Side Story was a great movie, even the original, it's one of my favorites, but I don't need Steven Spielberg remaking West Side Story, okay? I need Steven Spielberg to stay in his lane, alright, and make sci-fi movies. So he comes out with this disclosure day movie. Nobody cares. You you see it every once in a while on TV, and this is another one. Has Emily Blunt in it. I mean, there's Steven, it's Steven Spielberg. You shouldn't even have to promote that movie, right? Well, you better step on the pedal because nobody even cares that the movie's coming out. It has zero traction, zero hype. It's like it's not even dropping. And I feel you can you can feel these mega budget movies that are coming out in the theater that they're just gonna fall flat on their face. And it's not what the studios obviously want. But it's all their fault. It's all in the promotion of the film. Like I said, obsession is $750,000 to make. I want to say the production company paid $15 million for it after it premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. They bought it for $15 million. And that they're just gonna they found original ways to promote it, and it's exactly how it went. Now look at now look at it. It's it's a massive global hit. I mean, that that's all you that's all you need is smart people behind the scenes doing things in an original way. So congratulations to everybody that has to do with anything with obsession. That it that was just uh it was an experience. I'm going to see it for a second

Seeing It Twice And Living At The Theater

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time this week with one of my buddies who who wants to go see it. I'm happy to go see this movie a second time. It takes a lot for me to watch a movie a second time, this day and age. I usually when I see it in the theater, I don't even watch it when it comes out on streaming or anything. I'll go see Obsession a second time in the theater, no problem. I will also be going to see, like I said, passengers, passenger this weekend in the theater. Uh, I'm excited for that, and I'm excited for next weekend uh with backrooms. I mean, all these movies just stepping on each other's toes. I'm here for it. Keep me in that theater. It's the best place. It's my church, it's my sanctuary. It's it's it's awesome, and that's where I want to be. So keep these movies coming out. Go see Obsession, gets an absolute A plus from me. Now, real quick, I have this one wish willow that I want to give away to a lucky listener.

How To Enter The One Wish Willow Giveaway

SPEAKER_01 19:08

I'm gonna make this real easy. I'm on social media, I talk about it all the time. I'm on Facebook, you can get on the page, Cookin' with Gas Podcast. I'm on X at CWG Podcast. I'm on Instagram, Cookin' with Gas Podcast. I am on TikTok and I have absolutely no followers. I'm an old dude, I'm on TikTok, I throw a couple videos on there, I do a couple things. It's uh I I can't grasp the TikTok nature. I know that it's this this crazy popular thing. Um, I'll probably post uh my the video that I make for this episode on TikTok, Instagram, it'll be on everything, but I'm gonna focus on Facebook and X, okay? So uh if you want to be entered into this contest to win this one wish willow, again, I want I want to set give this one wish willow to someone who I know is a fan of Obsession specifically. That would be awesome. And yes, I have friends and family that listen to my podcast. I would truly love to be able to give this one wish willow to someone I do not know at all, and I do not care where you live in the world. I don't care. Uh, I can see some of the stats of my podcast, and it appears I have people uh all over that listen to my podcast. It this is not some massive podcast by any means, but I can see that people in Canada or uh in India, which that could be a bot. I have no idea. It could be some fake person listening to my podcast as well. However, if these if you if you're real, please enter into this contest. I I I want to uh I want to involve the audience, I want to do this giveaway and give it to someone who truly likes movies, likes the movie obsession, and will put it in their room and enjoy the prop as much as I enjoyed it. And all you need to do is take the post that I put on Facebook or X or Instagram for that matter and repost it. That's all I want you to do. Take it, repost it. You don't have to do anything crazy. I'll see the people that have reposted it, and I will do a drawing from the individuals, and I'll pull a name out of a hat or I'll make a pick of an individual and I will send this one wish willow to them. I will I will contact you, I'll direct message you and tell you that you're the winner. It's it's plain and simple and very easy. All I ask is that you uh retweet or repost Facebook, X, Instagram, however it goes, whatever. Just just retweet or repost the post that I will be putting out there, and I will keep track of everybody that does that, and I will send out this one wish willow, which is really cool. I mean, yeah, it's nice and simple, but they're sold out, you can't get them anywhere. Who knows if they're going to restock? And I see people on X all the time like, What the hell? I can't.

Scalpers Ruin The Fun

SPEAKER_01 22:00

It and and there's people on eBay that are trying to sell these things for like a hundred dollars. Like, let's be reasonable here, folks. Everyone wants to make a buck, but if you buy something for like eleven dollars and pay for shipping on top of it, what's like that's like thirteen dollars, you're charging a hundred bucks for it. I mean, come on, like have a heart here. You know, people just want to get their hands on something because they're a fan of something, and and the scalpers out there are just absolutely demolishing people's dreams of something simple, as simple as a one wish willow movie prop from the movie obsession. So again, it's super simple. Just repost or retweet on X my what I'm going to post promoting this episode. I'll keep track of it. Come next week, I will announce the individual who gets the one wish willow. I will find a way to ship it out to you. And that's that. So that's what this episode was. That's what it is. It is a giveaway for a one wish willow from an awesome original movie, the movie Obsession, which I give an A plus to.

Final Grade, Socials, Send Off

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If I could, I mean, I could give it an A plus plus plus. That's what I'm doing. Fuck it. A plus plus plus plus for Obsession. Go see it. It is uh an amazing film. You will not regret it. And if you do go see it, hit me up also. Hit me up on the socials. Tell me what you guys thought of this movie. If for some reason you don't feel the same way I do, let me know. You know, if you're a fan of horror, if you're a fan of thrillers, if you're a fan of original content and just good movies that'll keep you on the edge of your seat and build and build and build up until it just explodes in your face and you have no idea what the hell you just watch, go see Obsession. Totally worth it. Again, follow me on Facebook, follow me on X, Cookin' With Gas Podcast on Facebook, at CWG Podcast on X, get at me on any of the streaming platforms Apple Podcasts, Spotify, uh, Amazon Music. I'm on them all. I appreciate every single one of you. Go to the movies, enjoy the views, have a great time, have a great holiday weekend. Peace out.