Obsession wraps you in the quiet terror of a wish gone horribly wrong. The film breathes in ordinary California spaces that could be anywhere. A music shop on a strip mall corner. A suburban home where loneliness eats at you from inside. The sprawling indifference of Los Angeles around it all. Director Curry Barker found horror not in gothic mansions or isolated cabins, but in the places where we actually live.
The film was shot entirely in and around Los Angeles, California. This guide covers every confirmed filming location so you know exactly where Bear, Nikki, and that cursed One Wish Willow came to life.
Directed by Curry Barker and starring Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette, Obsession premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival before its May 15, 2026 theatrical release. The film tells a deceptively simple story. A music store employee buys a magical toy to make his childhood crush love him. His wish comes true. Then everything falls apart in ways he never imagined.
Is Obsession Set in a Real Place?
The story takes place in unnamed California communities, but every location is real. These are actual Southern California neighborhoods, actual strip malls, an actual music store that served its community for eight decades.
That’s precisely the point. Obsession gives you no haunted mansions, no isolated wilderness, no geography that announces itself as somewhere horror belongs. It gives you places you recognize. A music store on a corner. A suburban house with morning sunlight in the kitchen. A city that holds millions of people and still somehow leaves you completely alone.
Bear lived in those places. The version of Nikki shaped by his wish moved through them without concern for what she left behind. And when it was all over, the strip malls and the boulevards and the California light remained exactly as they were before.
That’s the horror. The places don’t change. Only the people inside them do.
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Principal Photography | October – December 2024 |
| Festival Premiere | September 5, 2025 (TIFF — Midnight Madness) |
| Theatrical Release | May 15, 2026 |
| Streaming | Peacock (Late July – August 2026) |
| Film Status | Currently in wide theatrical release |
Cassell’s Music, San Fernando, California
Cassell’s Music, located at 901 North Maclay Avenue in San Fernando, served as the workplace of Bear where he and Nikki works.
Cassell’s Music operated for nearly 80 years before closing in 2025, making Obsession one of the last productions to film inside its walls. The production didn’t build a set that looked like a music store. They used the real thing – actual instruments on the shelves, cramped aisles that force you too close to the person next to you, a counter where Bear and Nikki share shifts in a proximity that feels like both a gift and a slow torture.
Director of Photography Taylor Clemons discussed his visual approach with Variety. He wanted to shoot center-composed with extra head space in every frame. The reasoning was specific. He wanted it to feel uncomfortable in its loneliness. That compositional choice forces viewers directly into Bear’s isolation. The frame becomes a cage.
Authentic musical instruments line the shelves. The cramped aisles that feel too narrow. The counter where Bear and Nikki work together, tension building with every shift they share. Nothing here was constructed. Everything here was real, which is exactly why it works.
📍 How to visit: San Fernando sits about 25 minutes north of downtown Los Angeles via the Golden State Freeway. Cassell’s Music is permanently closed as of 2025, but the storefront still stands. The neighborhood features other vintage shops and music stores worth exploring. Street parking is available throughout the area.
Also read: Where Was The Gorge Filmed? Every Location Explained
Bear’s House, Burbank, California
According to Variety, the production team chose this specific property for its intimate architectural qualities. They needed spaces that feel suffocating yet maintain a visual elegance. Modern furnishings sit in rooms while Bear descends into psychological chaos. The normalcy of the setting makes his unraveling more disturbing. Your living room could become a nightmare. His does.
The production team worked with the space as it was rather than building sets. Real homes ground psychological horror better than constructed soundstages. Audiences see their own bedrooms, their own kitchens, their own mistakes reflected back at them.
📍 How to visit: This is a private residential property. Please do not attempt to visit. Burbank is easily accessible from central Los Angeles, about 12 miles north. The city has numerous coffee shops and parks worth visiting while you explore the area. Respect the privacy of the residents.
Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley
Obsession scattered its filming across the broader Los Angeles metropolitan area. The production chose real suburban spaces over constructed horror environments. The city itself becomes a character. Vast. Indifferent. Full of people yet achingly lonely.
Scenes of Nikki following Bear through the city carry a dread that builds slowly. She’s always just there. At the right distance to be almost normal. Then slightly too close. Then inside his car. Then already home when he gets there.
The scene where Nikki harms herself rather than let Bear go to work without her was filmed against the banal backdrop of a Southern California morning. Sunlight. Neighbors’ cars. A dog somewhere. And Nikki, doing what she does in the clinical, matter-of-fact way that this version of her does everything. The contrast between the setting and the act is what makes it so hard to shake.
Cinematographer Taylor Clemons’ philosophy shaped every frame. Center the actor. Leave extra space around them. Make the frame feel lonely. Make the frame feel wrong. The empty space in the composition becomes as important as what’s actually there.
📍 How to visit: Los Angeles is accessible from all major highways. International flights arrive at LAX, Burbank, Long Beach, and Ontario airports. Metro buses and light rail serve most areas. Hotels and accommodations suit every budget throughout the region.
Also read: Where is M.I.A. Filmed? Every Real Location in the Peacock Series
The One Wish Willow
The object that starts everything deserves its own section.
Curry Barker co-designed the One Wish Willow with his mother, a graphic designer, and the collaboration shows. It looks like something you’d find at a craft fair or a quirky gift shop – small, wooden, carved with a kind of folk-art charm. You would buy it. You would put it on a shelf. That’s exactly the problem.
Bear breaks it in a moment that feels almost silly. He says his wish with the slightly embarrassed energy of a person who doesn’t entirely believe in what they’re doing but wants to believe badly enough to try anyway.
We’ve all been there – not with cursed wooden toys, necessarily, but with that particular flavor of desperate hope. That’s why it works. You understand why he does it even as you watch the film knowing exactly how wrong it will go.
The practical prop appears during the acquisition and destruction sequences. Visual effects teams built digital versions for specific movement shots. Neither version looks like a special effect. Both look like a small piece of wood that a lonely man broke in his living room and then had to live with forever.
The Film Behind the Wish
Principal photography took place from October through December 2024. The production moved at the pace required by a $1M budget. Curry Barker came from internet comedy, from quick-thinking and efficiency. That background shaped how the film came together.
Rock Burwell composed his feature film debut score. The music received praise for amplifying the psychological horror without falling back on jump scares. The soundtrack was released May 15, 2026, the same day as the film.
Scenes depicting graphic violence had to be trimmed to avoid an NC-17 rating. The production team cut approximately six or seven head smash sequences. The violence still lands hard in the final cut. It just doesn’t linger longer than necessary.
The inspiration came from a Simpsons episode where Homer Simpson encounters a monkey’s paw.
What critics said about Obsession?
The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2025 as part of the Midnight Madness block. It earned a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and widespread critical praise. Reviewers called it technically accomplished. Psychologically devastating. Impossible to forget.
Many compared it to Tim Robinson’s sketch show I Think You Should Leave. Both find horror in social situations spiraling beyond repair. Both use discomfort as their primary tool. Barker’s version simply removes the safety net of being a sketch. The consequences become real.
The performances from Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette received universal acclaim. Johnston carries the film with his face becoming a map of deterioration. Navarrette plays Nikki as something increasingly otherworldly. Their scenes together become unbearable to watch.
Also read: Where Was The Gorge Filmed? Every Location Explained
Where to stream Obsession?
Obsession is currently playing in theaters nationwide. The film will eventually stream exclusively on Peacock, the streaming service owned by Universal Pictures, which distributes the film through Focus Features.
The timeline works like this. Theaters now through late June 2026. Premium Video on Demand (rental and purchase) arriving June or July. Streaming subscription on Peacock likely by late July or August 2026.
