‘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.