Obsession is a horror film built around the “be careful what you wish for” concept. The director, Curry Barker, said the idea came unexpectedly during a hangout with friends while watching an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. A rerun of The Simpsons’ “Treehouse of Horror II” played first, featuring a nightmare where Homer ignores a shopkeeper’s warning and buys a cursed monkey hand. In the Simpsons episode, wishes made by Lisa’s family backfire and create chaos. Barker connected the premise to a horror trope he felt was underexplored in a direct, personal version. In Obsession, Bear buys a cursed “One Wish Willow” that grants one wish, which he uses to force Nikki to love him more than anything, leading to regret.
"Barker told in a September 2025 interview that he had invited a group of people over to watch his performance in an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but was struck by inspiration when a rerun of an old 1991 episode of The Simpsons, "Treehouse of Horror II," played before the episode and reminded him of a classic horror trope."
""Bart gets a monkey paw and causes a bunch of chaos," Barker explained. "I was thinking that I've never seen a straight crazy horror where ... we've seen 'be careful what you wish for' tons of times. But we've never seen my version of it. I instantly started thinking about what I could do with that.""
"The throwback episode of The Simpsons centers around a nightmare that Lisa Simpson has about her dad Homer ignoring a shopkeeper's warning and buying a cursed monkey hand. She dreams that her iconic yellow family then takes turns making wishes that backfire and cause chaos."
"In Obsession, the main character Bear (Michael Johnston) buys a cursed "One Wish Willow," which promises to grant its owner one wish, and uses it to force his co-worker and longtime crush, Nikki (Navarette), to "love me more than anything in the entire world." Bear goes on to regret his wish as Nikki"
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