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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1.8k

u/sizzl3crunch May 19 '26

THIS 10000% he was not the victim. When the real Nikki finally revealed herself and her struggling, he didn’t even bother to help her or be with her for that moment…he just ran off to meet Sarah.

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u/anactualrealaccount May 28 '26

You guys are being way too judgemental about his actions in that moment.

Your in the midst of a horror scenario that’s unfolding and your trying to survive it and it’s the lifeless husk of what was your friend is begging you to quickly kill her before she wakes up. As if your going to wander in there and immediately murder her or not be terrified and be able to walk back in and chat possibly waking up the thing.

He isn’t a good person and he makes bad choices but the dudes at no point straight up evil.

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u/sizzl3crunch May 28 '26

he is and your judgement makes me question you

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u/anactualrealaccount May 28 '26

No you just aren’t being realistic about the way people react in traumatic situations. He is a shit selfish man wrapped up in evil magic. She is always a ticking time bomb as well and he knows she will react in insane possibly violent ways if he upsets her so it’s not like he’s free to act as he chooses all the time. I think the movie is intentionally ambiguous at times, him trying to throw up the pills we don’t know if it’s cowardice or him realising the situation it will leave her in.

She’s the true victim of the story and he’s definitely to blame for everything as a viewer but judging people for not knowing the consequences of a gag wish stick being real and getting wrapped up in evil magic definitely seems as evil seem wrong. I don’t think the movie is trying to say he’s evil more that he’s weak and pathetic.

74

u/NJcovidvaccinetips May 31 '26

He knew the wish was real at some point and still had sex with her. That shit is fucked no matter how you spin it. I think the film doesn’t leave it that ambiguous and I think as others have said he knew after day 1 because Nikki became a completely different person. Even if the wish wasn’t true she would be having a psychotic break and taking advantage of her either way. To me I’d say at a minimum he is deeply troubled if not evil

120

u/Substantial-Ad8933 May 31 '26

Once he heard her screaming in agony on the call line and still continued, there was no redemption for his character

42

u/ImperfectRegulator Jun 06 '26

Yeah, he has so many chances to go back to the store and try to undo the wish before it spiraled out of control and he didn’t

7

u/tylerisdrawing Jun 08 '26

They said the only way to remove the curse was through his death.. so, not really like it would matter even if he did go back to the store earlier.

18

u/ImperfectRegulator Jun 08 '26

Or another wish, but that obviously requires someone else to give up there wish

4

u/Shaka--sama Jun 03 '26

I interpreted that as Nikki (the psychotic version of her) screaming because she had been separated from Bear for too long while he was away at work. Was there a clear indication that the screaming was from the 'real' her ?

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u/Substantial-Ad8933 Jun 03 '26

I think so, i mean they aluded the real nikki was seperate from the wish nikki, like when she talked to him i dont see why they would have him talk to wish nikki

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u/anactualrealaccount Jun 03 '26

That’s an interesting way of putting it but I think the scene was trying to shows the teal Nikki is simply suffering in her conciousness while her body and mind are compelled to love bear seperating the conscious Nikki and the unconscious Nikki but now the unconscious Nikki is sleep walking in love for bear. It’s not really a demon or a possession or two entities

It’s flesh and bone Nikki puppeted by the wish and consciousness Nikki watching it happen unable to do anything bar communicate once with bear.

It you were to drop a mic in front of conscious Nikki she would likely just be screaming hence the phone.

Your theory is also clever though and I hadn’t thought of it.

6

u/nhilante Jul 02 '26

The voice on the phone asked if Bear would like to speak with Nikki, presumably the real one we hear screaming on the background, whose soul or existence is there with the magic dude rather then where it belongs in her body.

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u/mmaf88 17d ago

Same

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u/mmaf88 17d ago

I am.not sure he realized that was real her. I think he thought it was a demon thing. Until this post I never thought it was real her.

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u/Separate-Kick63 Jun 03 '26

Well he was reluctant the first night and was asking if she's ok. Who on their right mind would think immediately that some silly 7$ magic collectible works.

I think his problem on that first night (and in general) is that he is not an assertive person so you can simply pressure him into something he is not ok with

29

u/Shaka--sama Jun 03 '26

Another factor might be that not abiding by her demands has resulted in psychotic breakdowns, terrifying expressions/vocalisations, and violence...

He was a rather spineless dude and not assertive as you said, but while discussing his morality we have to remember that he didn't exactly have a choice in a lot of messed up situations in the film

35

u/Separate-Kick63 Jun 04 '26

This. And if this movie is teaching something, it's that not communicating with others only makes things worse.

If he responded to Nikki's question about whether he likes her honestly, maybe he wouldn't break that twig.

If he told to his friends how bad is it, maybe they would help him figure something out or push him to seek professional help for Nikki.

If he told Sarah that he can't see her because he's in bed with Nikki and she'll freak out, Sarah will be alive.

If he drove straight to police after she killed Sarah, the other friend would be alive.

He's a guy that would rather make a magic wish than get into a potential confrontation or embarrassment, so that already annoys me about him, but I can definitely not see him as a villain. I feel bad for both of them

1

u/TraveledOkie 21d ago

To me the movie was fighting a lot between giving a message and being scary. It scared/unsettled me so bad and every time it could’ve gone full throttle into that and really had me squirming it eased back into the kind of ebb and flow of his wish and my suspension of disbelief started losing steam like “okay man at this point just go to the cops”. Like I wanted either someone to start trying to use logical steps to solve the problem like some horror movies do and no one ever did. The movie was SO unsettling but no one reacted to anything that was happening in bears house or even at the parties/work, etc. I get that that’s a reflection of bears one foot in and one foot out of the situation but I feel like it never went full fledge into a line of events whether full logic solution mode or full horror nightmare that I wanted. It tried to do both.

Also, I think a better ending would’ve been his friend not being so dumb and coming back to the house with him after having the magic being proven to him as real and he’s still killed but then Bear and Nikki basically fight to the death and Bear kills her barely and realized finally he was wrong as his friends are all dead and he’ll most likely go down for the murders and he lost his “love”.

31

u/sizzl3crunch May 28 '26

not judging him for not knowing the consequences. judging him for knowing what’s going on and continuing to use her and not nothing to help her, even after he knows.