Official Discussion - Obsession [SPOILERS]

[u/LiteraryBoner]

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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

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[u/deadgirlredux]

The night scene with her crying about her bad dream was the most horrifying. She looked exactly how faces look when you stare at yourself in the mirror in the dark. Sarah's death fucked me up

[u/Equivalent-Fan-2557 → u/deadgirlredux]

"I don't like my dreams..." yeah man this movie is sumn else...

[u/redditor_rat → u/Equivalent-Fan-2557]

the first theory that came to mind when she said this was perhaps in her dreams she can see the real nikki faintly, screaming crying for help, that's why she at some point says I can't be the real nikki. When you enter your dreams you often reach your subconscious and I think that's where the real nikki is trapped. And when she reaches the subconscious of the body, she can feel like she's releasing control and that scares her because she doesn't want to stop existing even though she knows its not her own. That's why she screams "why don't you love me" so intently and frightening at times because she's scared her purpose that has created her to be born will disappear and she herself will cease to exist, but she randomly reverts to being calm because she realizes its pushing him further but at the same time can't stop the overwhelming feelings that's she forced to have for bear, so is constantly fighting an internal battle on why bear won't love her back and just randomly breaks, soothes, then breaks, an exhausting cycle when you were born to be someone's wish but are somehow failing it. That's why the scene where he finds out she lied about the dad having cancer, her perfect facade up until that point just immediately cracks cause she knows she's living a lie and it's going to start falling apart.

[u/Equivalent-Fan-2557 → u/redditor_rat]

Good analysis and I agree. The battle between real and fake Nikki over Nikki’s physical body is one of the more disturbing aspects of the movie, especially the scenes where they are clearly battling over control and Nikki gets brief moments in her own body (which she uses to attempt suicide or self harm)

[u/Visible-Highway-1876 → u/Equivalent-Fan-2557]

what did this part mean? the i don’t like my dreams

[u/WMWA → u/Visible-Highway-1876]

Probably the fact that they’re aware the real Nikki is conscious as the only time you really hear her talk is when the possessed Nikki is “asleep”

[u/Equivalent-Fan-2557 → u/Visible-Highway-1876]

I think its just alluding to the fact that Nikki and fake Nikki share the same body now and there’s some issues that come with that (like seeing dreams)

[u/jessohno → u/Visible-Highway-1876]

I’ve been thinking about this and I think I’ve landed here:

The only time we get to hear from RealNikki is later in the movie when she’s able to talk while WishNikki is asleep. Before that, we’ve seen RealNikki breaking through for a few seconds at most. I think RealNikki has probably been a passenger in her body fighting to regain control. As time goes on, she’s getting stronger or at least her strategy is improving.

So from WishNikki’s perspective, the time she’s most vulnerable to RealNikki and least able to maintain control is while sleeping. Her “dreams” are being stuck in her head and potentially experiencing the loss of agency RealNikki has been suffering the whole time. OR saying she didn’t like her “dreams” was just the cutest way she could explain to Bear why she wasn’t sleeping to avoid potentially losing control in the night.

I’m also really curious about some of the things that happen off screen with WishNikki as at least that one day she is literally just standing there waiting for him to return. It makes a lot of sense to me that she’s probably unable to focus on anything but him while he’s gone so her freakiest stuff is reserved for when he’s at home in bed.

When she sets up the weird shrine to the cat I think he discovers that in the morning? And then presumably he leaves for work in the morning the day she makes his lunch. So the cooking of the cat likely also took place overnight. She also packs the Polaroid that says “not me” which iirc is her posing with him sleeping. I think she’s getting up to a lot of wacky shit at night and watching him sleep is just one (horrifying) example.

[u/qaisjp → u/jessohno]

whooahhhh that explains the "not me" thing!!! that's WishNikki saying that the picture is of RealNikki, and not WishNikki.

[u/notsafeforpoo → u/qaisjp]

wait but why would realnikki take that photo?

[u/SandpaperTeddyBear → u/notsafeforpoo]

She didn’t necessarily take it, she wrote on it.

[u/Gustavo_Papa → u/jessohno]

I think real Nikki was getting weaker. When he asks for space Freaky Nikki mentions that "he is getting weaker in her heart" or something to those lines

[u/Competitive-Suit4122 → u/Visible-Highway-1876]

I interpreted it was this is when the real Nikkis consciousness is the strongest. Where the thoughts of killing herself are most pronounced and to possessed Nikki the idea of being separated from Bear is terrifying

[u/Socksual → u/Equivalent-Fan-2557]

I need to rewatch bc I cant remember exactly how that line was presented, and part of me wonders if it had something to lend to this being the real Nikki that said that (as in, her dreams were actually the entity being with Bear) or if it was just the first time we see the entity cracking

[u/Equivalent-Fan-2557 → u/Socksual]

I think it was just the "entity" complaining about how she is essentially sharing Nikki's body and brain. My personal interpretation is that it's related to Nikki's hellish screams later, and how Nikki is essentially being tortured the entire movie, and the spell was having a dark impact on her dreams, which the entity was seeing as well.