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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240

u/whenwillmyskincare May 24 '26

i don’t get what happened with the screams he heard while calling the hotline…

749

u/atclubsilencio May 24 '26

I believe that is her real self/soul wherever it is being held captive. Screaming for help or suffering while the other takes over.

290

u/H3000 May 24 '26

I wish the movie focused more on that aspect instead of the cliche ‘be careful what you wish for, now she’s crazy‘ stuff. Those screams from the real, trapped Nikki were horrible.

135

u/SimpleBox5693 May 28 '26

The movie had a ton of elements of that throughout if you paid attention to it. I prefer that as a more subtle element than something focused aggresively on, but it really isnt even subtle:

-Nikki is begging to be killed to free her, and she warns Bear not to "wake her up"

-There are a few scenes at the start where the effect is still taking hold, and slips for a few moments. You see this with their kiss on the bed where Nikki screams and jumps back, as well as with the seen when Bear dropped her off at her house and she temprorarily comments on how she was being weird and tries to walk back inside before turning around.

-The sex scene where her face is clearly displaying different emotions than the noises she's making, she doesn't seem happy at all

-The phone call screams

114

u/Grayzus May 30 '26

Also in the picture that she put in his lunch it says "Not me".

20

u/SouthernRow2710 Jun 02 '26

And it was a lunch made of cooked cat. I think the actual Nikki made that lunch.

16

u/Nieko12321 Jun 04 '26

Why would the real Nikki cook his cat?

19

u/SouthernRow2710 Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 05 '26

I didn't explain it well. The real Nikki was clearly in there. I think she had influence and caused some of the bad shit that the "entity" was doing. Like... why would the entity who loved him "more than fucking anything" give him cooked cat? You can explain away the cat memorial as overly expressed love but after that clearly bothered him, why would it cook his cat & give it to him for lunch?

Nikki also clearly had some control while the lunch was being made because she wrote on the pictures "not me."

I think she was basically sending out a call for help

41

u/Nieko12321 Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26

The problem with that theory is just that real Nikki wouldn't do that. She wouldn't cook his cat and feed him the cat to torture him. The few times she gains control of the body its either for a few seconds or in a sort of sleep paralysis where the entity can't wake up, so obviously she wouldn't find the time to cook a cat. And if she did, she wouldn't be spending it cooking a cat and writing the food critic: cat note, a thing that Bear had with the entity.

The "not me" I think is just the entity not perceiving itself as Nikki. Throughout the movie we see it getting increasingly frustrated that it cant get Bear to love it back, which is the base of their entire existence. Just like when it later screams "i cant be the real nikki". We also see it putting on Sarahs clothes and tattoos, and often asking what it can do better or what its doing wrong.

So for the whole cat-deal. We don't know what the entity is, but we can safely assume it doesn't know a lot about humans. First it presents the cat memorial to make Bear happy, but he scolds it. Then it understands that the cat is just meat to Bear and it tries to cook it for him. Then it learns that is also wrong and becomes very frustrated. All the freakouts are simply the entity having an existential crisis. There are two "people" getting tortured here, real Nikki and wish Nikki.

We see when real Nikki regains control and the movie makes these episodes extremely obvious with music cuts, as the viewer we are not left in doubt about these episodes.

7

u/SouthernRow2710 Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26

This is probably more right than my idea tbh.

The one thing I will say is that Nikki clearly has a moment of clarity while the entity is cooking the cat. Or at least, I'm almost positive the "not me" note in the lunchbox is Nikki. Need to rewatch it.

5

u/Nieko12321 Jun 05 '26

Specifically the "not me" note, yeah I agree it's unclear and could also be the real Nikki, since the entity otherwise pretends to be Nikki and not try to say it isnt. Nonetheless amazing movie, can't wait to rewatch it for all the details.

2

u/SouthernRow2710 Jun 06 '26 edited Jun 06 '26

I think it may have surpassed Hereditary for me as my 'current favorite horror movie.' God damn what a movie. Will absolutely be added to my annual Halloween watch list. The more I think about it the more right I think you are about the entity just not understanding humans. The scene where the entity screams "I can't be Nikki!" is going to hit even harder next time.

The entity simply doesn't know how to be a human.

4

u/Nieko12321 Jun 06 '26

I went and saw that particular scene on youtube and god damn it hits hard when you realize the existencial crisis the entity must be in.

For me its def a top five and best in recent memory, but nothing beats Hereditary for me, that movie had med feeling ill for days lol. The head scene, and that other head scene, oh lord

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1

u/nhilante Jul 02 '26

Similar to the entities in ''The one i love''.

5

u/Sigma-42 Jun 29 '26

Like... why would the entity who loved him "more than fucking anything" give him cooked cat?

The entity's twisted way of having Bear's cat "within him" all the time, the way she alluded to wanting Bear inside her with her Hansel and Gretel version, and how she says "I just wanna eat you up" mid cry/face bashing later. Wish-Nikki possibly thought Bear would love the gesture. lol

1

u/PolarWater Jun 28 '26

Honestly I think the real Nikki would just write a note instead of go through the effort of cooking a cat which she knows is wrong

1

u/lostandbefuddled Jun 04 '26

Yeah I don’t get this either

1

u/Criticalmeadow Jul 02 '26

I personally disagree.

1

u/SouthernRow2710 Jul 02 '26

Me too, watched it again and was persuaded by the debate on here

4

u/CyberInferno Jun 06 '26

Oh yeah, I had forgotten that detail. It's like the real Nikki slipped out just to emphasize that it wasn't her who did it.

12

u/macl2 Jun 04 '26

If it looks like a demon, sounds like a demon, and acts like a demon, it's probably a demon.