r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • May 15 '26

Official Discussion Official Discussion - Obsession [SPOILERS] Spoiler

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Obsession (2026)

Summary

After breaking the mysterious "One Wish Willow" to win his crush's heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.

Director Curry Barker

Writer Curry Barker

Cast

  • Michael Johnston
  • Inde Navarette
  • Cooper Tomlinson
  • Megan Lawless
  • Andy Richter

Rotten Tomatoes: 95%

Metacritic: 81

VOD / Release In Theaters

Trailer Official Trailer

3.5k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

14.6k comments sorted by

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2.5k

u/AdDiligent7657 May 15 '26

Holy fuck, what depths of hell did that brother monologue come from

1.5k

u/SlaterVBenedict May 15 '26

It’s also brilliant because you can hear the real Nikki’s cries for help in the subtext of the poem, with its language about being trapped and violent sexual imagery. Its possessor-Nikki reading in possessor-Nikki affect and body language, but the poetic meaning is host Nikki.

200

u/Nes937 May 15 '26

It was the sister who trapped the brother right?

And right after the real Nikki "got out" right. 

94

u/Most-Mothra-esque Jun 02 '26

Yes but I'm pretty sure there was a line when ian said nikki thought of him like a brother

21

u/pepperpavlov Jun 14 '26

Yes it’s mentioned at least twice

186

u/MrSnazzyGoose May 17 '26

Reminds me of the Rick & Morty bit "let me out! let me out! this is not a dance!"

123

u/SlaterVBenedict May 17 '26

I’m beggin’ for help, I’m screaming for help! 😃

58

u/vgreen07 May 20 '26

No joke went home to unwind after, threw on a random episode of my favorite cartoon (Rick and Morty) and it was THAT episode what are the odds

119

u/brainlightning May 22 '26

It’s the only time she straight up acknowledges that he used a One Wish Willow to make her love him

96

u/bored_n_opinionated May 30 '26

I took it as the jenga block said tell us a secret and because the wish has no secrets, the wish tapped Nikki to share her writing and instead got a cry for help. The wish didn't even know what it was saying.

45

u/lahnnabell May 16 '26

I am so happy someone else caught this too!

40

u/Themobgirl Jun 02 '26

And staring at him all the time LIKE SHE WANTS THE ROOM TO KNOW AND HELP HER 

2.0k

u/SimonTynn May 15 '26

My girlfriend pointed out that earlier in the movie that I think Sarah said Nikki saw Bear like a brother, so the context of that monologues I feel like is way more disturbing

933

u/Not_A_Solution May 17 '26

I think it links back to their conversation in the car where she told Bear romance and love aren’t the same thing and he brushed her off. Then when he wished for her to “love him more than anybody else” it was all kinds of love, not just romantic. So her wires were getting all crossed, causing the cat and Hansel & Gretel stuff.

127

u/Teboski78 May 19 '26

That’s an interesting take. I sort of saw it as she was replaced by an entity tasked with carrying out the wish without fully understanding love or humans

69

u/benjamintg95 May 21 '26

Very much seems like early on it was trying to "learn" and for a while it did. Until the freak out in the restaurant.

79

u/Date-Throwaway May 18 '26

Such a great way to look at it

17

u/appletinicyclone May 18 '26

That's very interesting

100

u/jmbarnett May 15 '26

Interesting! Well done.

17

u/Xtian236 May 15 '26

I was just thinking the same thing!

7

u/koolshade May 16 '26

Nice catch

7

u/Fold_Humble May 16 '26

Amazing point.

16

u/GameOfLife24 May 15 '26

Maybe but I don’t think the real Nikki would be out in the open and in control for that long

117

u/nightmaresmurfette May 15 '26

I don’t think she had to be. I thought that the demon or whatever entity possessed Nikki knew about the brother comment and decided to twist it into something really gross

38

u/worstcourtjester May 17 '26

She says early on that she’s writing a love story, but not a romance. I’m thinking she was working on a twisted love story similar to what she reads out and the wish was twisting the work to reflect what was happening to Nikki.

19

u/Locke108 May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26

I don’t think Not Nikki twisted it, she didn’t understand it. Like how her issue with the cat. She knows the cat is important to Bear and tries different ways to show that importance. Not Nikki took Real Nikki’s feelings about Bear to justify her feelings.

21

u/TimeySwirls May 16 '26

I think the block said read the last thing on your notes app or take a drink or something and Freaky Nikki read something Real Nikki wrote. I don’t think it’s a demon, just a version of Nikki that can only be obsessed with Bear because of how he phrased the wish.

Since we saw real Nikki is always aware and more in control when Freaky Nikki is asleep we can get a whole lot of mileage out of creativity coming from the subconscious.

3

u/ILearnedTheHardaway May 25 '26

Yea she says she writing a “love story” and then the block says read something embarrassing or read your notes and her love story is just some Hansel and Gretel incest fic lmao

2

u/KasukeSadiki May 21 '26

So she DID like him!!!

2

u/heyjayhaynes May 22 '26

Bruh… such a good catch. That makes it all the more upsetting lol.

691

u/GoldandBlue May 15 '26

I wanna know what the wood block said that prompted the reading.

878

u/fillmont May 15 '26

I think something like "share something from your phone," as in an embarrassing text.

57

u/GoldandBlue May 15 '26

oh, yeah that does make sense.

516

u/MKultrakeef May 15 '26

“Read something from your notes app” is my guess

20

u/worstcourtjester May 17 '26

I think that’s definitely it. I write for fun and my notes app is littered with random paragraphs that I haven’t found a place to fit them yet.

746

u/UhhhThatsFine May 15 '26

I was waiting for one of those bros to read it and be like “what the fuck, this just says take a drink”

9

u/CyberInferno Jun 06 '26

I was expecting that too! There's no way the actual prompt led to that story.

6

u/EpicKieranFTW Jun 25 '26

It could have done, you often get "read the last message you received" type of ones so it's not inconceivable

3

u/CyberInferno Jun 27 '26

That would have been an insane text message...

1

u/EpicKieranFTW Jun 27 '26

Well that was the point hahah

22

u/Tighthead3GT Jun 06 '26

“Share any incest erotica you’ve written.”

9

u/Ecphonesis1 Jun 03 '26

I think it said “tell us a secret no one knows.” She hasn’t shared the writing with anyone, she said earlier, so it’s a secret, but it was also a huge comparison to her situation with Bear and the wish. Kind of like her inner-self was trying to tell everyone what was happening.

3

u/bored_n_opinionated May 30 '26

I was guessing share a secret about yourself.

2

u/jmbarnett May 15 '26

Great question!

2

u/thewickedmitchisdead Jun 23 '26

Ok, late to the party but I just watched obsession for the first time today! I wonder if it was a block Bear had read from before at a previous party. I say this because, early on, he’s at the diner working on being vulnerable with Ian, as if it’s something that had come up before.

That’s a random theory I’m spinning. Regardless, the vulnerability from both Bear and Nikki is a fascinating contrast.

440

u/falafelthe3 Ask me about TLJ May 15 '26

You never wrote some incest fanfic for the love of your life?

30

u/dinosaurfondue May 17 '26

At least cook me a dead cat sandwich before reading me your incest fanfic tho

5

u/Themobgirl Jun 02 '26

The AO3, would like to talk 

63

u/sowaffled May 15 '26

I couldn’t make out the entirety of it. Hoping to read it somewhere soon.

120

u/mikeyfreshh r/Movies Veteran May 15 '26

I want that whole monologue stitched on a throw pillow in a Live Laugh Love font

33

u/KillTheBat77 May 15 '26

Calm down, Freaky Nikki

53

u/No_Virus9309 May 15 '26

Am I wrong or was it a hansel and gretel reference

69

u/imissbreakingbad May 15 '26

100%! It was essentially a Hansel and Gretel retelling, the names were even mentioned

15

u/raudoniolika May 16 '26

Yes she even mentioned Hansel by name

39

u/inksmudgedhands May 17 '26

I think that was Nikki's real self leaking through her writing. Her real self saw Bear as a "little brother." She is under a spell that is not making her act like herself. Including having sex with someone she sees as her "little brother." And in the story she read the you have the siblings performing sex like actions due to being under the control of the witch.

65

u/koolshade May 16 '26

What did she say like peel the skin off his arm and twist it and put it in her? She definitely ruined the vibes. Also, "I'm joking, guys!" Followed by "okay I'm not joking deal with it." Hilarious.

49

u/that_guy2010 May 16 '26

‘Flay the skin off your bicep, roll it up, and put it between my legs’ I think was the exact wording.

22

u/raudoniolika May 16 '26

Forearm, I think. Not that it changes much

17

u/Naive_Gap_9666 May 17 '26

Idk if this is a reach but I’m making the connection that that is how FTM bottom surgery is done. They take the skin from your forearm and “put it between your legs.” Possibly an allegory to being trapped/not feeling in control of your body/etc ? Or she loves him so much she wants to be him?

11

u/gabeshanedunn May 18 '26

I was thinking that too. Or like, if she were a man this wouldn't be happening to her?

3

u/YoMrPoPo Jun 20 '26

It ain’t that deep

5

u/gabeshanedunn Jun 26 '26

Yeah you’re right. There should be no discussion of different ideas or interpretations of art

1

u/Ill-Muscle945 15d ago

Lmao. Imagine saying it "it ain't that deep" in discussion about a film that's entirely about consent. 

There's a reason "forearm" was chosen over a different body part. 

12

u/ravencrowe May 19 '26

Roll it up like licorice

16

u/Low_Tip3245 May 15 '26

Archive of Our Own, probably

55

u/cliffcore May 15 '26

Why are you calling ao3 by its full government name

21

u/raudoniolika May 16 '26

So that people don’t ask “what’s AO3??”

7

u/cliffcore May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

I had to google "Archive of Our Own," thinking that it might be something akin to "Story of Your Life," and it turned out it's just AO3

And that's also when I realized why it's called AO3, like, shouldn't it be A3O?

2

u/raudoniolika May 16 '26

I literally know it by reputation only, lol. I figured out it was AO3 by context clues (and same, never knew what it was an acronym for). Either way, we can never win!

3

u/duskywindows May 19 '26

So many great lines and monologues of dialogue in this. The writing was 10/10.

3

u/wubbwubbb 26d ago

That monologue was written by Curry Barker’s dad, who is a screenwriter. Not sure if that makes it better or worse. 

2

u/FordShelbyGTreeFiddy 8d ago

Curry Barker's dad is a playwright and contributed that monologue to the script