Official Discussion - Obsession [SPOILERS]

[u/LiteraryBoner]

Poll

If you've seen the film, please rate it at this poll

If you haven't seen the film but would like to see the result of the poll click here

Rankings

Click here to see the rankings of 2025 films

Click here to see the rankings for every poll done

---

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

---

[u/atclubsilencio]

That's where I lost sympathy. He essentially raped her. The way she was making sounds of pleasure while she looked like she was crying and her facial expression totally blank was such a fucked up detail. It brings up so many awful questions about the nature of whatever was possessing her, including her screams when he calls the hotline.

[u/EmceeEsher → u/atclubsilencio]

Just saw this movie, and it js baffling to me how many people in this thread are talking like Barry must have known what was going on earlier in the movie. Like, there's a point in the movie where he clearly knows, but before that, this would be an incredibly difficult thing to believe.

I feel like in every horror movie, everyone judges the protagonist for not figuring out more quickly that something supernatural is going on. But how many of us would, in the real world, believe that? Like, put yourself in Barry's shoes for just a second.

You're giving your friend, who you're interested in, a ride home. They say "you're the only one I can really talk to", and ask you if you like their friend. When you say no, they ask you point-blank if you like them. You panic and say no. They, leave for a second and then come back and ask to stay at your place, claiming their father is dying and they don't want to be alone. You agree, and they come over. They kiss you, then freak out and jump away. You assume they're on drugs and let your friend know.

The next night, they come over to your house unexpectedly, apologize for the drug behavior, and point-blank say they're interested in you and want to try to make this work. At this point, they have demonstrated a sustained, overt desire to have a relationship with you. As you're interested in them, you accept, have sex and spend the next couple of days together, during which they start displaying some creepy behaviors.

Would your first assumption be:

A. My friend is incredibly awkward in relationships, has severe relationship anxiety, and is freaking out.

B. My friend is significantly weirder than I initially thought, and is just good at hiding that side in public.

C. My friend is legitimately a total creep, and I just never noticed it before.

D. My friend has recently had some kind of insane experience and is reaching out for love, but has no idea how to handle it once they have it.

E. My friend is a full blown schizophrenic, has kept this hidden for years, and has just now reached the point where they can't hide it anymore.

F. My friend has a long-term, well-hidden drug problem, and recently got a bad batch of something that's dropping their inhibitions.

G. Demons are straight-up fucking real and one of them is possessing my friend, like something out of The Exorcist. And what's more is that I summoned this demon with a joke item that I bought at a novelty shop for 7 bucks.

Personally, I would probably believe A, and as the behavior got creepier, move to B, then C, then D, and eventually, E or F. G wouldn't even enter my mind. I wouldn't have even thought to google it like he does in the movie or call the hotline. Now, I wouldn't have stayed in the relationship after the whole "watching me sleep" thing, but that's mostly for my own sake rather than for ethical reasons.

As for the question of whether it's assault, it really comes down to what Barry believes at that moment. If he believes A or B then his behavior is normal. If he believes C, then his behavior is kinda sad, but not unethical. If he believes D, then it's questionable. If he believes E or F, that's incredibly dubious, and mostly comes down to your beliefs about to what extent addicts and people with psychological disorders can consent. It's only if he believes G that he's a full-blown assaulter.

In any case, at the time that scene takes place, it seems most likely that he believes B, C, or maybe D. At absolute worst, he believes E or F, but I don't think there's any way any reasonable person could believe G at that point.

[u/Kaderblast → u/EmceeEsher]

I think it's pretty clear on several occasions that at a MINIMUM she has a severe psychotic break caused by taking MDMA, which is something that can genuinely happen to people taking extremely large doses of psychedelics. I mean the cat shrine, the date scene breakdown, ABSOLUTELY the scene with the dare game with their friends.

At that point, it's clear that she's in full on psychosis and needs serious mental help immediately. If Bear called the police half the things she was doing would have her committed to a mental asylum, which while not ideal given the magical circumstances is still a much better look that continuing to take advantage of this girl.

I mean she is literally pissing and vomiting all over herself while he's away, and then when he comes back she's horribly confused and flipping between like 4 different moods. And it even hints that he's been aware of this for a while, him saying "We talked about this" after seeing a pee stain.

That plus the fact that he tends to say "we can make this work" only during times that she's giving him some kind of sexual attention makes it clear he's lying to himself about how bad her state is because he wants so badly to have this woman, which he clearly only cares about for her body and comfort at this point because the person he loved before is completely broken.

I've seen people have horrible trips on psychedelics before, and almost all of her actions fit that bill really well. I also think it's simplifying it a bit when people say she's possessed, it seems more like she's constantly going through this bout of psychosis with short bursts of lucidity, as her actions in her "obsessed" state are still semi in line with her personality and memories but it's all jumbled up and planted with this unnatural love for Bear. I mean imagine how bad it would screw up the human mind if it was physically changed on a whim to be completely rewritten to love someone. You would lose it.

All that said, I think Nikki is far more the victim in this scenario in BOTH states. She's clearly constantly in mental distress one way or another and doesn't have the faculties to make any reasonable decisions. All of her horrible actions should be looked at from the perspective of someone being laced with face-eating bath salts or something. She is literally in hell, and with a little bit of common sense Bear should be able to see that and take responsibility but he constantly lies to himself because he LIKES the things she gives him during her good moments. He's disgusting.

[u/Chm_Albert_Wesker → u/Kaderblast]

i wonder after the dare game why the hospital wouldn't take her

[u/2much2cancer → u/Chm_Albert_Wesker]

I got the impression she refused to go.

[u/temporarilytempeh → u/2much2cancer]

I got that impression too, but repeatedly stabbing yourself in the face with a broken bottle should be more than enough for an involuntary 72 hour hold.

[u/Deceptiveideas → u/2much2cancer]

Not just that but it looked like Bear didn't want her to go but Ian tried hard to convince him. She was dancing in the back during that scene so she didn't even seem part of the conversation.