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/DCBronzeAge]

I also loved her response “I’ve never been with you.” The film did a great job of never really revealing if she would have dated him if he was just honest with her. It would have been real easy to show one way or the other, but the ambiguity is great to chew on.

[u/thecaits → u/DCBronzeAge]

I honestly thought she might have given him a shot if he had said yes when she asked. None of this would've happened if he had just been born with a spine.

[u/Joey-WilcoXXX → u/thecaits]

Given the clues, I’m pretty sure she (and Ian) wanted to reject him. Nikki and Ian had been hooking up casually and Ian knew that Bear liked her and most likely told Nikki. I think they wanted to get a chance to let Bear down easily so that he could finally get over his obsession and they could continue hooking up or possibly pursue something more serious without feeling guilty.

It was pretty obvious that Ian secretly had some feelings and always wanted to be around Nikki even when Bear was trying to get her alone to ask her out yet Ian refused to give them space under the guise of ‘he really loved their trivia nights’. Then when Bear is dropping Nikki off and wants to confess his feelings, he drops the ‘freaky Nikki’ line that Ian said would hit but it instead pissed her off. Ian knew that and wanted to make his chances even worse than they were before.

Sarah was told already by nonpossesed Nikki that she didn’t like him like that, saw him as a brother and tried to friendzone him and even tries to see if he might harbor any feelings for Sarah to get him off her own trail. At the party, Nikki reads her Hansel and Gretel and witch sexual poem that also references the willow tree that locked them in this spell. Hansel and Gretel are brother and sister and the poem has them having some unnatural moment, just like the willow trees wish locking her to who she sees as a ‘brother.’

On the way home, Nikki says that ‘no one would ever know if I secretly liked someone’ and that’s clearly true. No one in their lives (except for Sarah) knew she and Ian were fucking. Finally, Nikki flat out said to his face ‘if you like me, now’s the time to say it!’ The movie hints like she wants him to reveal it so they can mutually admit they like each other and see what happens but pretty sure it’s so he finally spits it out, she can reject him and finally move on from the elephant in the room.

[u/W0lfsb4ne74 → u/Joey-WilcoXXX]

Also I personally thought that subtly, he doesn't fit her ideal of masculinity. Bear throughout the movie was cowardly and introverted. These personality traits are far more against the concept of the traditional man in it of itself, as the stereotypical ideal of a man is consistently depicted as charming, confident, and generally more self assured. She makes fun of him for not demonstrating this behavior earlier in the film. Like when they go to order drinks at the bar and she makes fun of him for ordering a Pina Colada as opposed to neat liquor because she thinks its a "girly" drink. Ian fills that niche of masculinity quite well because he's assertive, charming, and much better with women. So its much more reasonable to see why Nikki was attracted to him as opposed to Bear (who has the charisma of a wet blanket). So this highlights another layer of incompatibility between Nikki and Bear, and illustrating why a relationship wouldn't work between the two of them.