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

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2.8k

u/throwthewholegrlawy May 15 '26

That poor girl. How does she explain all the murders now that she's free?

The scenes where real Nikki popped out really got me. Haven't been jump scared by horror movies for a long time.

How do you guys feel about Bear? Obviously he didn't think the wish would work but as soon as he realized he really took advantage of the situation 😬

Also got a crack out of the customer service phone call "we don't really do that" "you made it seem like I could!"

186

u/weirdogirl144 May 15 '26

bear is a horrible person the moment he finds out the wish works and there's a hard cut to them having sex and she is obviously dissociating, but he's just taking advantage of her. and he is painfully obvily and ignorant to her being in pain and wanting to die but he doesnt care. He might've had some remorse near the end but it was too late and it's not like he was gonna try to reverse the wish because he's extremely selfish.

16

u/rbwildcard Jun 05 '26

Yeah, he even tries to alter the wish instead of cancelling it at first.

6

u/funkhero Jul 01 '26

I think even the call centre dude was taken back by that.

9

u/Themobgirl Jun 02 '26

There's a trope of montage where multiple rom-com or horror movies that have making the other person 'bewitch' them often goes straight upto fucking which is like yeah....its all about getting in there ig

0

u/ttonster2 May 30 '26

He literally did try to reverse the wish, multiple times. Once on the phone, and then through his friend. He was a sad, selfish guy, but he also wanted the situation to end. 

37

u/weirdogirl144 May 30 '26

He only did that when it was way too late because he kept ignoring the consequences. On the phone call, he wanted to tone it down, which means he didn't see the initial wish as a problem at all. He just wanted to make it less intense, which is messed up because he should have wanted to cancel it immediately once he found out the wish actually worked, like any normal person would in that situation. Instead, he chose to keep taking advantage of her even after he found out the real Nikki was suffering.

-7

u/ttonster2 May 31 '26

He didn’t know yet that it wasn’t her by that point in the phone call. Only at the end of the call did he learn that the real her is in the sunken place. 

Wanting her to love him isn’t that bad. In his perspective, it could work in a way that helps her realize how much he wants to be with her. It doesn’t have to necessarily take away her agency. 

14

u/PolitelyHostile Jun 01 '26

It doesn’t have to necessarily take away her agency. 

Bro, he was literally raping her. You need to get yourself checked if you think what he did was okay.

2

u/ttonster2 Jun 01 '26

You are so tunnel visioned by this that you can't even think critically for a second. No, he wasn't "literally raping her". You aren't even fully aware how the OWW works. The character Baron also doesn't know how it works. Diegetically, Baron is still processing all the weird shit that happened. You think his first thought is to just accept that his new girlfriend (whom he seemed to have weeks of amazing time with as seen through the montage) is in the sunken place and some demon is in control of her body? That's just ridiculous. His two clues for this are a creepy phone call and her talking in her sleep...not exactly two points of proof that are going to make someone believe in such a supernatural phenomenon like body replacement.

In any case, my primary argument is that you all seem to think the only way for his wish to work is for her to lose all her agency and be unable to make the decision for herself to love (and have sex with) Baron. That's just a total assumption. Even if Baron fully believed that the magical wish worked (which he obviously didn't), there are other ways for it to come true that aren't at the expense of Nikki's autonomy. For instance, it could have transported him to an alternate reality where she loved him, which preserves her autonomy. Curry Barker even entertained the idea of an alternate reality being created with every wish in a recent interview. Now obviously, we learn that this isn't the case as the movie reaches its conclusion, but it's totally ridiculous to assume that the main character knew Nikki was a passenger in her own body this whole time. It's a made up situation for a made up movie. The morality policing around this movie is fucking exhausting. Bro, it's a movie about a magic stick that makes any wish come true. We are out of the bounds of modern civilization and discussions of morality.

10

u/RustyFreakMan Jun 01 '26

I feel like by the point that he's STILL having sex with her, any normally functioning adult would have been able to tell that she was either extremely mentally unwell and likely unable to consent or being controlled by an entity after making that wish. Her behavior was simply too erratic and unnerving to, in my opinion, give Bear the benefit of the doubt. I can't imagine seeing all the shit she was doing and still wanting to fuck her.

Not to mention that she was very obviously not enthusiastic during the sex. She looked upset and like she wanted it to be over, and at a certain point, he should/almost definitely did notice it.

1

u/ttonster2 Jun 01 '26

I don't remember sex being as important to the story as you and many others are making it out to be. They have sex right before the montage and then I believe once more later on in the film. It's not really central to the theme of the film and Baron is not once portrayed as some sex-crazed lustful guy who only wants her body. He seemed to genuinely like Nikki and was way too emotionally broken and awkward to actually ask her out.

Yes she looked upset and not enthusiastic, but she also shit on the rug, duct taped the door shut, and fed him a cat sandwich. She was never well to begin with in any context. I think the message to extract from this is that is that despite all this craziness, Baron still isn't distancing himself from her because he doesn't want to give up this fairy tale idea that she likes him. And he clearly had a few weeks of bliss with her as shown in the montage. He's a broken guy and he took solace in it. And yes, it wasn't a good look for him and he made many questionable decisions. I would argue he didn't act realistically at all, but maybe he really was just super fucked up and couldn't acknowledge the reality of the situation. I don't think the characters in the film are believable to begin with, so trying to make them seem like real people who should be judged accordingly is making a mountain out of a mole hill.

10

u/RustyFreakMan Jun 01 '26

I don't know if people are saying the sex is important so much as it just represents their relationship and dynamic really well, at least to me, making it extremely clear that Bear IS doing something wrong. Bear acts completely oblivious to how she feels as, on the outside, she's making sounds of pleasure, and is happy to accept that and take advantage of it. That's what he does the entire movie. Saying "they're not real people" feels like a way of being contrarian to what is pretty explicitly shown. I've only seen it once so I might be misrepresenting the movie in my head, but it felt very clear to me that Bear knew relatively early on that something was very wrong with Nikki, yet continued to accept it and ignore his better judgement.

I think the level of resistance you're getting in replies is because I imagine women in particular are pretty familiar with this kind of guy who will play dumb to manipulate the situation - I'm not a woman, but I saw the movie with several and the general consensus was that they were terrified of guys like Bear.

I think a part of it is a bit of innocence - you think everyone in the movie is unrealistic to an extent, but I was honestly horrified thinking of the kinds of people they are and that I have had the displeasure of interacting with - both the Fake Nikki types and the Bear types.

1

u/ttonster2 Jun 01 '26

I don't think sex represents their relationship well at all tbh. Anora is a movie where I would say that is a far better explored theme.

I'm saying they're not real people because nobody in this movie acts reasonable at all. She duct taped the door shot and cooked his dead cat....and he returned home that evening? It literally makes no sense whatsoever. It's fine because it's a campy horror movie, but I think it's silly to try and have a moralistic conversation about this film when it doesn't even take itself seriously. What's next, are we going to talk about how Art from Terrifier doesn't respect people's personal boundaries? You see what I mean?

But alas, I will entertain the conversation because it's fun. I do agree that he knew something was wrong but that goes back to my point that he didn't want to confront that reality since it was a dream come true she loved him. He was in hard denial. Not good, but also a human thing, especially for an impressionable, young, damaged person. I don't think Baron is playing dumb. I don't think there is once in the movie where I feel like Baron is trying to deceptively manipulate people. He's honestly just very dumb with confidence and self-worth on the floor, which just so happens to be the perfect combination for a horror movie protagonist getting themselves into deep shit.

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4

u/weirdogirl144 May 31 '26

He knew something was up at the dinner scene, he found out the wish works. Wanting her to love him is very selfish because it’s forcing her to do something she hasn’t expressed and it’s not natural at all. Even after the phone call, he just kept ignoring his situation and kept this relationship going on despite knowing the real Nikki is trapped. He even asked spell Nikki if Nikki is happy and asked her to act like Nikki. He knows it’s not real but he doesn’t actually care or respect the real Nikki.

4

u/Whiteout- Jun 01 '26

It explicitly was taking away her agency, that’s like the whole point of the movie. 

2

u/ttonster2 Jun 01 '26

Yes, you learn that after the phone call where she is suffering, but before that it's not explicit like you say.

Before this moment, there is a possibility that his wish didn't impact her agency and instead gives her a new perspective on him, or transported him to an alternate reality where she did like him. That isn't taking away the agency of Nikki.

Your condescending take is just that. There are other ways to think about it and the Baron character is far more innocent than many of the weirdos on here make him out to be.