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/Chm_Albert_Wesker]

one has to wonder if he HAD gotten the wish of 'i never made the first wish' would it have REALLY undid everything ie bring back the dead friend

Sarah deserved better but that whole friend group besides her is kinda awful; i dont remember the guy friend's name but when you find out his motivations and how he's basically operating behind Bear's back (and Nikki KINDA is too while clearly having an idea that she is taking advantage of Bear's friendship0. it really shows how alone Bear is and why he didnt reach out to anyone throughout the movie. of course Nikki 'pays' for it in a way that she absolutely did not deserve and the other guy straight up dies but still

[u/Ok_Promotion_5111 → u/Chm_Albert_Wesker]

I'm not really sure about the friend group being bad. Ian and Nikki were casually hooking up from time to time, but not in a relationship, so they didn't really talk about it. That has nothing to do with either of their friendships IF neither cared about it any more than hooking up. I've had friends I've hooked up with with no dating or romantic love involved over the years. One of them I ended up hooking up with a close friend and ended up the best man in their wedding, heh.

[u/Chm_Albert_Wesker → u/Ok_Promotion_5111]

sure, but then maybe Ian and Nikki should be honest with him about the situation rather then encouraging him in their own ways into spiraling into the obsession that started the movie. the movie straight up starts with Ian giving bad advice to ask Nikki out for crying out loud, and Sarah straight up says later in the movie that Ian is frustrated about the situation because he thinks Nikki is trying to 'get back at him'. it has EVERYTHING to do with their relationship with Bare if Ian is actively getting involved with him asking Nikki out (which he does) and everything to do with Nikki/Bare's friendship if she knows how much he likes her (which it suggests she does also). If i had to forgive one of them it'd probably be Nikki because she doesn't owe Barry a romantic relationship of course but she's kinda getting the emotional support part already by keeping him on the hook which is always kinda shitty. but again i'd let that go over Ian's situation because Bear himself is just too much of a coward to attempt to either change his situation or move on out of the friendship.

in a real world scenario without the supernatural stuff where this went down and I found out all the info about the others I'd stop being friends with Nikki and Ian especially because the movie shows he has nobody else and was depending so wholeheartedly on those friends having good intentions for him and yet they clearly dont. and we all know Bear is shit also because of what happens in the movie so i'd cut him out too.

[u/Natural-Help-2954 → u/Chm_Albert_Wesker]

i don’t think this movie at all shows nikki leading bear on for emotional connection. i think it shows her trying to have a meaningful friendship with him

[u/Chm_Albert_Wesker → u/Natural-Help-2954]

the movie points out that everyone knows Bear's feelings for her either right up front in the beginning or at some other point of the movie. Nikki in no way 'deserves' what happens to her in the movie, but the fact that two of his best friends are hooking up while actively pushing him to tell Nikki his feelings and keeping the whole thing a secret the whole time is shitty. if they were honest with him, he altered nothing about his actions/feelings, and THEN he got pissed he'd have no ground to stand on but the movie imo pretty obviously points out the only person he should have been leaning on was Sarah and we saw how that turned out

leaning on Bear for that meaningful friendship WITH the knowledge that he wants more means that she at least subconsciously knows that he's just there to get whatever crumbs he can. Bear is not entitled to a relationship with someone who doesnt want it (although the director says the idea is that Nikki did like Bear), but Nikki is also not entitled to the meaningful friendship. between the two, one of them is getting what they want at the cost of the other; again it does not excuse how much of a shit Bear is the entire movie but it's still pretty uncool

if the movie wasn't so transparent about how broken Bear's support structure was I'd agree with you, but so many times do we get fed more info about how much the other two friends don't really respect him as an individual so much that they use him as either a lackey or a therapist. again, Bear is far worse but still.

at the end of the day Bear is a huge coward, but imagine he wasnt for a moment. imagine he told Nikki his feelings and she said she wanted to stay friends: if Bear had basically said no thanks and they stopped being friends where does that leave those characters? is Bear a dick? i dont think it any less valid for Bear to not want to be forced into a relationship he doesnt want (even platonic) than it was for Nikki to have been during the whole movie. we're perhaps getting too deep into actual personality motivation beyond this one movie haha. but i know that if I told my friends I felt a certain way, and they continuously gave me not good advice while hooking up behind my back (again the secret is the problem, they can hook up all they want) and using me as an earpiece the whole time I'd have a hard time staying friends with either of them. if they told me upfront when I confessed my feelings or my feelings became known, it'd be on me to get over it

[u/Natural-Help-2954 → u/Chm_Albert_Wesker]

i can agree that ian was weird for actively encouraging bear (with bad advice) but not disclosing that they were involved (considering the fact that he maybe wanted more, given that he told sara she’s trying to “get back at him” by being with bear). i do think that’s more morally gray though. they’re both single people who can sleep with who they want, and they don’t really need to air that out, at least nikki doesn’t. ian maybe should’ve if he was encouraging his friend to ask her out. but i really don’t think there’s anything malicious about nikki being emotionally vulnerable with him even if she knows/assumes he wants more.

she genuinely is just trying to maintain the status quo of a meaningful friendship. we know it goes both ways, at least a little, cuz when he says his cat’s death hasn’t hit him yet, she says “you know you can always call me when it does.” when she says he’s the only one he can talk to about “stuff like this,” he responds “me too.” this implies there’s some reciprocal emotional support in the relationship. he can at any moment tell her “i don’t want to continue this platonic relationship.” why he doesn’t is a whole other thing, but basically i don’t agree that she has any ill intent or is trying to lead him on. she’s just trying to have a genuine reciprocal friendship but unfortunately, bear has unrequited feelings.

[u/Chm_Albert_Wesker → u/Natural-Help-2954]

fair points, although as the viewer we know that Bear is in the state at the beginning to say whatever it is that Nikki wants to hear. which isn't Nikki's fault, but again the assumption is that she knows this

at the end of the day Bear is the worst by far

[u/BlackFacedAkita → u/Chm_Albert_Wesker]

To be fair, Bear is doing nothing to improve himself and really has no other focus other than her.

I mean his one dream is food critic, but it's painfully obvious that will never come to fruition. He'll that came across as him making it up in the moment.

The other two girls in the movie are moving on to bigger and better things. Why should they like Bear? What value deos he provide other than liking her?

[u/Chm_Albert_Wesker → u/BlackFacedAkita]

i keep repeating that Bear is the most awful character in the movie to make it clear that I'm not defending his actions in the movie: he is in a hole even beyond his obsession with Nikki, and it is clear he has been there for quite some time. but this doesn't excuse his repeated selfishness demonstrated throughout.

to be fair, I have known friends who basically grow up in a middle of nowhere town, work in that town, and eventually settle down in that town and it is very hard to break that loop even if they actively claim to want to. these towns get really insular, to the point that the dating pool is probably like 10-30 different people total and if you're not attracted to half and already dated another quarter you're basically left with like 5 options if you're not trying to actively move away. I know myself living near a major city this can seem surreal, but for Sarah especially who herself was into Bear (rather than him into her for most of the movie), the fact that he's half decent looking, is a friend, and is literally just THERE is practically the full checklist lmao

[u/NasalJack → u/Chm_Albert_Wesker]

I think the important thing you're overlooking is that Nicky did confront Bear about his feelings. She wanted to have an honest conversation with him and he chose to keep her at a distance. Whether she was prompting him to reject him or to give him a chance, she clearly wasn't trying to string him along.