Movie Reviews: The Sheep Detectives & Obsession
- Faiz Faisal
- May 29
- 4 min read
Every night, a dedicated shepherd named George Hardy (Hugh Jackman) reads murder mystery novels to his flock. The sheep secretly understand every word. When George is found dead under highly suspicious circumstances, the flock realizes it is murder. Because the local human police officer is completely clueless, the sheep take matters into their own hooves. Using the detective wisdom they absorbed from George's bedtime stories, they track clues, shadow human suspects, and crack the case.
Whodunit is my second favorite genre after horror. I love the suspense of finding out who the killer is and what their motive is. So when I saw the trailer for this movie, I was ecstatic! It combined two of my favorite things into one.
For those who do not know me, I have a deep fascination with goats, sheep, and anything within that animal family tree. Maybe it is because I was born in the Year of the Goat in the Chinese zodiac, but that is beside the point. I find sheep and goats to be the cutest animals after cats. When my favorite movie genre featured my favorite animal, it was a no-brainer—I had to watch it!
My Rating: 9/10
This is an absolute 9/10 for me because it is such a fun take on the mystery genre. However, nobody warned me that this was going to be a complete tear-fest! I thought this was going to be a fun, light-hearted movie, but I found myself crying.
The film features a stellar cast, and the sheep themselves are absolutely adorable. Surprisingly, the animals somehow make the story feel even more human. The relationship between the shepherd and his sheep is wonderful. I loved the dynamic the film pulled off between the sheep and the human characters. It is definitely a drama first, but it still has adequate humor to lighten the mood and touch your heart.
If you are a soft-hearted person like me, please be prepared to be moved by these lovely sheep and how their relationship with their shepherd is portrayed. I also loved getting a perspective on life and death through the eyes of the flock. As humans, we usually outlive our animals, so to them, we might seem like immortal beings who cannot die. When their shepherd passes away, the way the sheep process his death really got me thinking about my own pets. I have outlived all of my pets up to this day, and I never once thought about what I meant to them, considering I was basically their whole life.
Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. It has all the right ingredients for a great film!
Obsession is a 2026 supernatural psychological horror film written, directed, and edited by breakout filmmaker Curry Barker. Built on a micro-budget of under $1 million, the film follows Bear (Michael Johnston), a hopeless romantic who uses a supernatural "One Wish Willow" toy to make his childhood crush, Nikki (Inde Navarrette), fall in love with him. While the wish works, Nikki’s affection quickly devolves into a terrifying, violent, and inescapable fixation. Stripped of typical horror tropes, the film relies on escalating psychological dread to explore the nightmare of a wish granted too perfectly.
I am always incredibly excited to see up-and-coming horror directors step onto the scene. New blood in the genre almost always guarantees a fresh take on my favorite style of filmmaking. You only have to look at someone like Lee Cronin—who gave us The Hole in the Ground and the brilliant Evil Dead Rise (we will politely not talk about The Mummy for now)—to see how exciting new directorial voices can be. Because of that, Obsession and its trailer gave me something to look forward to immediately.
While the premise itself is relatively simple, what makes this movie truly great is the execution, how the story is told, and the incredible performances. The true horror of Obsession does not rely on cheap jump scares—in fact, there are almost none in the entire film. It also doesn't rely on excessive gore, though the violence it does use is highly effective.
Instead, the horror is a constant, suffocating presence felt throughout the entire runtime. It makes you deeply uncomfortable because you never truly know what this level of fixation will turn someone into. The film forces you to stay on your toes, making you hyper-aware of every single action on screen. There is a secondary layer of horror rooted in the terrifying realization that you can never truly predict how badly things will spiral out of control from your own choices. It is highly effective because of exactly how it makes you feel.
The main cast delivers stellar performances across the board. Inde Navarrette, in particular, steals the show. Her performance is unhinged, and I am officially petitioning for her to become our next big Scream Queen.
Though it is incredibly disappointing that Obsession did not get a theatrical release in Malaysia, I am so glad I managed to watch it. It easily earns an 8/10 from me.
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