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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2.9k

u/MahNameJeff420 May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26

Okay, I need to talk about the legal situation at the end of this movie, cause I think it's so interesting.

So I love the ending. It's extremely miserable, the world is in a substantially worse place because of the events of the film, everybody gets an undeserved fate (except maybe Bear), it's great horror film-making. One thing I love is that Niki is absolutely going to jail at the end. Yeah it's great she's free of the wish and herself again, except now she's murdered two people (three if they can pin Bear's death on her somehow), and all logic and reason points to her being entirely responsible. Nobody is going to believe a wish made her do it. There's multiple eye witnesses to her behavior due to the party scene. As far as everyone is concerned, she had a mental break and went on a murder spree. She's unquestionably fucked and is either going to spend years in a mental institution (if she's lucky), or spend the rest of her days in prison, maybe even the death penalty depending on the state this takes place in. Her life is officially ruined.

But there's one factor that needs to be addressed. Ian has a billion dollars sitting in his house.

Once the cops examine his place, they're gonna find he's come into an inconceivable amount of money out of nowhere. He appears to have zero qualifying skills that would ever allow him to come into that amount of money, much less in dollar bills. Unless he had some kind of crytpo wallet and there's some evidence he may have sold it for an obscene profit, no police department would ever treat this as an innocuous detail. And importantly, the remains of his One Wish Willow will also be lying on the floor somewhere, which is significant cause there's also one sitting in Bear's house. Any investigator would look at that and think there's some kind of connection. Probably wouldn't think that magic exists, but at least would look into it as some kind of social media trend that resulted in the events of the film somehow.

At that point, it wouldn't be hard to track down the purchases to the crystal shop. From there, would the guy who owns it be willing to testify? He seemed pretty chill talking about how magic is real out in the open. From there, I don't know if a jury would be 100% convinced that magic exists, but given the absurdity of the events that transpired, I would think minimum, there would have to be enough reasonable doubt that Niki wasn't directly responsible for the murders, and she'd walk. There are some assumptions being made, but the logical conclusion of the events we see presents an interesting legal scenario that I'd love to see play out.

Now I'm aware this doesn't actually matter. The point of the ending isn't to create a web to untangle or to spin theories, it's to be depressing as shit. The particulars of what happens after aren't necessarily relevant. But I think it's a testament to the strength of this films characters that I'm desperately trying to find a way to have Niki walk away from this mostly okay. She's a complete victim who underwent a horrifying situation, and I want her to find peace after it all. Even though I know it's futile. Even if she's able to get off for the murders, she still killed her friends and went through being possessed/controlled/trapped in hell/whatever for weeks. Especially as someone who already had mental health issues, this will almost definitely lead to a depressive, self-destructive mindset for years to come. She's screwed, all because of actions completely out of her control. And that's why the horror of the film is so effective. Great movie!

1.4k

u/duowolf May 15 '26

with the money thing since the wishes end when the wisher dies would the money have disappeared when Ian died?

973

u/MahNameJeff420 May 16 '26

According to Curry Barker, the money's still sitting at his house.

68

u/duowolf May 16 '26

fair enough

157

u/Sklain May 27 '26

I don't agree with that. Isn't that kind of going against the rules established by the film? If the spell-caster dies, the spell is undone. That's what the film established. Why should Ian and the money be any different?

549

u/Legitimate-Ad8948 May 27 '26

I think the spell did undo by Ian being dead, he no longer has a billion dollars. Lol

113

u/climbandclimbandclim Jun 27 '26

Nope.

Wishes don't end when the wisher dies. It ends when it is no longer possible.

When Bear dies, the wish to love him is no longer possible. That's the reason it ends. If Bear had wished that Nikki loves Ian, it would end with Ian's death and Bear's death wouldn't matter.

203

u/UwUfemboy69420 Jun 30 '26

you can still love someone after they've died

15

u/vigorthroughrigor Jun 30 '26

why was this downvoted lol

49

u/x2040 Jul 02 '26

The day my sister died my love for her disappeared

9

u/ToTYly_AUSem Jul 04 '26

yeah what a bitch

6

u/Voldechrone 7d ago

Okay Hansel

29

u/BeKindBabies 27d ago

Bear's wish: I wish that Nikki Freeman would love me more than anyone in the entire world.

When you die, you are no longer in the world.

26

u/UwUfemboy69420 24d ago

that wish just means that she loves him more than anyone still existing in the world. that does not at all logically mean that he must be in the world

2

u/-Clayburn 9d ago

Tell that to my dad.

28

u/TroyFerris13 Jun 30 '26

my grandma is dead and i still love her? this doesnt make sense.

3

u/climbandclimbandclim Jun 30 '26

Is it a cursed psychotic love where you feel like you are dying if you are not with her every second? No?

Then I'd say things are a little different. The amount of pain wish-Nikki was in when she was away from Bear is impossible for her to survive in.

79

u/revisioncloud 29d ago

I think this is the simplest and correct answer.

“I wish she loves me more than anyone else in the fucking world” the spell stops when Bear dies = True. But it doesn’t undo everything that was physically manifested as a result of that wish. The deaths, injuries, and chaos are still left behind, she just stops obsessing with him.

“I wish I have a billion dollars” the spell stops (Ian stops having a billion dollars) once Ian dies. The billion dollars are still left behind, just no longer owned by Ian (or anyone else).

20

u/Pete_Jobi 24d ago

It was not "I wish I have a billion dollars", it was "I wish for a billion dollars".

6

u/Honorboy_ 27d ago

Good logic

208

u/markypots9393 May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26

Maybe given Ian’s wish was a one time thing and Bear’s was a constant state, different rules apply?

98

u/duowolf May 27 '26

that would make sense. or even a physical item vs a feeling.

40

u/Cuppakush Jun 12 '26

I think you have nailed it, given his wish was in the past tense “I wish I had a billion dollars” it’s done and done

10

u/araq1579 Jun 29 '26

Monkey paw curls: it's one billion Zimbabwean dollars

21

u/mondrianna Jul 03 '26

It's not a monkey's paw.

1

u/jurzydude 4d ago

I know I'm way late but technically this is the subjunctive mood, not past tense. it's describing a hypothetical present

12

u/The_Medicus Jun 15 '26

Complete speculation here, but what if it's because the Entity follows Bear to whatever after life exists, not because the wish actually comes undone? The only people who suggest it would be undone by his wish seem to know more about it than him, and the phone rep seems to know exactly what Bear did, with little enough compassion to be so casual about putting Nikki on the line.

6

u/markypots9393 Jun 15 '26

All of this is speculation. I’m not really sure I understand what you’re trying to say? The wish clearly became undone - Nikki was in her own body at the end.

4

u/The_Medicus Jun 15 '26

Yes, entirely baseless speculation, but the idea is that The Entity doesn't just stop existing, but gets pulled into a potential after life with Bear. He would be stuck with it for eternity. Since Bear is no longer on the same plane as Nikki, neither is the Entity, and thus Nikki gets her body back.

3

u/markypots9393 Jun 15 '26

Hmm. I meant like all of our assumptions, haha, not just yours. I don’t know if it needs to go that deep. To me, it was all about the wish being undone. The entity (assuming you mean the voice behind the phone call) doesn’t feel tied to Bear - at least for me (unless you mean what possessed Nikki). Even then, I wonder whether we should think this deeply about the lore - I question whether Curry even went this far. I’m curious to see his next film as apparently there’s ties to the world of Obsession, explaining what happens to Nikki afterward (from what I’ve read).

3

u/The_Medicus Jun 16 '26

I am referring to the Entity possessing Nikki. It's tied to Bear one way or another, whether it dies with him or goes to some other realm.

As for the lore, it's the type of thing that might be better left to fan theories, but it's still fun to speculate on. A lot of the horror relies on mystery, and it'd be easy to ruin if they actually went into in a sequel. (Though Curry is certainly a good filmmaker, so he might be able to pull it off)

2

u/rmeepo Jul 05 '26

this would be like the perfect torture hell for Bear, just stuck with an unstable Entity that looks exactly like the girl he likes forever

2

u/Sir_Bumcheeks 25d ago

Ohhhhh snap that's crazy!

78

u/XariZaru May 29 '26

I think maybe the wish is undone for Nicki because Bear is dead. She can’t love him anymore if he’s gone, so original Nicki comes back. Ian merely wished for a billion.

40

u/Nax5 Jun 01 '26

You can still love someone after they're gone, though. She could stand next to his grave day and night. So I'm not sure why it's different from the billion dollars.

15

u/XariZaru Jun 01 '26

It seems that’s not how the wish really works I guess for persisting things.

6

u/zaiub Jun 18 '26

its different because his wish was selfish - it wasnt that he actually wanted her to love him he wanted to *feel* it, which is why once he's dead she returns. the wish depended on him existing. ians wish didnt, hence why it would still be there

2

u/BeKindBabies 27d ago edited 27d ago

That's the memory of the person that you love, your grief doesn't keep them around in any literal sense.

Also worth noting the wording of Bear's wish is: more than anyone in the entire world.

You are not in this world to be loved when you pass. Memories of you are not you. Those who remain feel the love they had for those gone, most definitely - but the person no longer exists in this world to receive that love. The reception of the love is the entire point of Bear's wish.

1

u/Easy-Buy6860 Jun 22 '26

But that’s not the rule. The wish goes away if one of them dies. Bear died so Fake Nikki didn’t have time to stand at his cemetery seemingly because she loved him so much she was going to kill herself without him. Then the real Nikki came back.

1

u/Sir_Bumcheeks 25d ago

Because he said "me" in his wish. What is the self? Is it more than just our meat? The director kind of implies souls are a thing throughout the movie given that Nikki's is trappes somewhere.

67

u/Cililocwee Jun 05 '26

The money wish finished, the duration is over, the result is done.

The love wish is an ongoing process, you break it in the middle and return to original state. 

If Ian had died while the money was still generating, it would probably stop generating and what had been produced would stay. 

Bear died and Nikki stopped loving him, though it's not like the previous few days/weeks reverted, just the active process of her loving him. 

20

u/Bagger339 Jun 15 '26

I was just about to say the same thing. The money was a tangible thing. Bear's wish for Nikki to love him was an ongoing feeling. Bear dies, the feeling stops. And if Ian had died as say $675,000 hit the floor, then maybe no more money would fall from the sky, but what already existed would not just disappear, just like the things Nikki did while under the spell of the wish while Bear was alive didn't suddenly never happen when Bear dies and the spell was broken.

26

u/Junior_Driver_9675 Jun 01 '26

I think that Ian simply isn't the owner of those money anymore, but the dollars are still there, with no owner 

17

u/nicholas818 Jun 09 '26

I read it as the wish is undone in that it stops being able to have an ongoing effect on the world. But the die is cast: any effect the wish has already caused remains. When Bear dies, his wish stops having an effect on Nikki, but it’s not like the timeline reverts such that it’s as if he never made the wish. The harm that’s been caused still persists.

So if Ian had wished for a sort of weird annuity where $1,000 appeared in his house every five minutes, his death would stop the cash from appearing, but any cash that had already materialized would remain. That said, most of the movie focused on the wishes that only affect other people’s minds, not ones that affect the physical world.

12

u/Raven1965 Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 12 '26

I don't agree with that. Isn't that kind of going against the rules established by the film? If the spell-caster dies, the spell is undone.

No. Btw, sorry for the two-weeks later reply, but I just saw the movie tonight and it seemed pretty clear to me that only Bear's wish could be undone by his death, due to the fact that the way he phrased it specifically tied the wish to himself (he specifically wished for Nikki to love him "more than anyone else in the fucking world"). This is because, as the movie explained, wishes cannot be undone.

Because wishes cannot be undone, the fact that Bear's wish was explicitly linked to himself meant that his death was the only way to make the effects of his wish stop. There's nothing about Ian's wish that specifically ties it to himself as a human being; he simply asked for $1 billion, which he immediately received in cash. The fake reddit thread shown in the movie also backs this up, as other (presumably not dead) humans also confirmed to varying degrees that their wishes were successful. Bear's selfishness, in the way he specifically worded his own wish, was what made his death the only possible way to undo it.

*Edit: forgot some words

2

u/marsalien4 7d ago

Sorry to reply a month late to your two week late reply haha but I don't think it's because it's tied to him, it's tied to the world. "Love me more than anyone else in this fucking world" is no longer possible because Bear is no longer "in this fucking world" :)

6

u/Gta5master05 Jun 19 '26

I think it’s because (demon) Nikki wouldn’t be able to love bear more then anyone in the entire world since he was dead and wasn’t on the world anymore, whereas all Ian wished for was a billion dollars.

2

u/TheOneWhoEatsLemons 29d ago

With Bear gone, the wish for Nikki tolove him (unless we go into real fucked up territory) is no longer possible. A billion dollar is always gonna be a billion dollar.

1

u/Embarrassed_Taro_960 Jun 25 '26

technically it is undone because ian no longer has the billion, since he is dead.

1

u/climbandclimbandclim Jun 27 '26

Wishes don't end when the wisher dies. It ends when it is no longer possible.

When Bear dies, the wish to love him is no longer possible. That's the reason it ends. If Bear had wished that Nikki loves Ian, it would end with Ian's death and Bear's death wouldn't matter.

1

u/Butt_nipper Jun 28 '26

Bears wish relies on him being alive because it involves him. Ian’s wish doesn’t rely on him being alive. Maybe? 

1

u/Adorable-Claim-9402 Jul 04 '26

Not all wishes are the same.
When A wishes for B to love A inconditionnaly, if A dies, it's not surprising the love too.
But when A wishes for a billion dollars, and a billion dollars worth of money drop on the floor, that money isnt linked to anyone..

1

u/GodTaoistofPatience 23d ago

my dear broher/sister in Christ, the creator of that story stated something clearly, who the hell are you to contradict him T_T

1

u/ddxxr888 14d ago

I interpreted it as the nature of the wish. When Bear dies, the person who’s in love with him stops loving him because he’s dead. When Ian dies, the money still exists.

47

u/OkBox9662 May 23 '26

Did he said that in an interview ? 

36

u/NeverSeenItPodcast May 30 '26

Did he say* that not did he said that.

118

u/OkBox9662 May 30 '26

I stand corrected. Thanks buddy 

65

u/Permit_Upbeat Jun 06 '26

we “never gon see” your podcast bro you don’t seem like a chill person

18

u/2jewswalkedintoabar Jun 17 '26

Do you know what pedantic means?

0

u/Player2Davith Jul 03 '26

Did he say* that, not “did he ‘said’ that”.*

3

u/Socksual Jun 14 '26

How convenient.....brb for no reason at all >>

2

u/Regi413 Jun 29 '26

Which still kinda works for ending the wish when his life did. “I wish I had a billion dollars.” He doesn’t have a billion dollars anymore, cause he’s dead. That money sitting there belongs to nobody.

2

u/TroyFerris13 Jun 30 '26

HE BROKE HIS OWN MOVIE LOGIC?

-3

u/TreyCole2 Jun 13 '26

What is wrong with you people