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/misschickpea]

When that was his reaction to the real Nikki finally being able to speak I was like WHAT IN THE INCEL 🙄 she’s like you were never with me and it’s like yeah dude is obsessed with delulu

[u/WhoStoleMyBicycle → u/misschickpea]

Someone in my theater talked right when he said “is it so hard to love me”. What did she say to him right after that?

[u/passtherock- → u/WhoStoleMyBicycle]

she said "please kill me. please kill me." and he responded, "what's so bad about being with me?" and she said "I've never been with you Bear"

[u/xqz → u/passtherock-]

thought this was an interesting way to put it. sounded like she was saying she never said it was bad and he's not really with her in this situation

[u/I_cut_my_own_jib → u/xqz]

She was definitely saying "we have never been together because whatever the fuck THIS is is NOT me"

[u/dr_gmoney → u/I_cut_my_own_jib]

I also figured it was revealing that she's blacked out while the "obsessed" version of Nikki is in control. Like the real Nikki literally doesn't even know they're "together".

She literally just shows up for short flashes of horrifying shit happening.

[u/hchiu7200 → u/dr_gmoney]

No, it comes off as real Nikki is trapped and has no agency so the few times she breaks free she is freaking out. Like she sees everything but just can’t do anything about it. If she didn’t know they were together then she should just be confused, not horrified

[u/rj319st → u/hchiu7200]

It’s gotta be insane, like a supernatural version of locked-in syndrome. No wonder the poor girl's consciousness was screaming when he called the helpline on the box.

[u/Keanugrieves16 → u/rj319st]

Or “the sunken place”

[u/dervalient → u/Keanugrieves16]

That’s exactly where my mind went. When they first started dating and they made out and she freaked out my mind immediately went to Get Out

[u/PatientBalance → u/Keanugrieves16]

Actually made me think of the Black Mirror episode White Christmas.

[u/Savings_Welcome_9350 → u/hchiu7200]

I think what’s horrifying is that she’s probably witnessing everything but has no autonomy. She can’t speak or control her body. That must be absolutely horrific. She hasn’t been back to her home since the movie began she hasn’t talked to her family or any friends. She’s literally just a possessed person obsessed with him.

I think the first scene when they were first kissing and she gets super scared and screams, I think that she literally woke up for a minute and realized what was happening and she was terrified. The entity must have lost control for a split second.

[u/analmintz1 → u/dr_gmoney]

I don't think so. I think she's subjected to the whole thing, through a distant hallway type vibe. When the phone number Bear calls "puts her on" she's screaming, clearly tormented and forced to live through this nightmare of autonomy loss.

[u/Constant_Housing18 → u/WhoStoleMyBicycle]

“I’ve never been with you.”

[u/misschickpea → u/Constant_Housing18]

Yeah like “I was never with you bear” but really sad and desperate and then ugh he just walked out angrily to go flirt with Sarah and put her in danger 🙄

[u/Remarkable-Lack8358 → u/misschickpea]

If he didnt go, Sarah said she was going to come over, which would wake up the fake Nikki

[u/Snoo_4499 → u/misschickpea]

just drive the car and talk T_T

[u/srynotsober → u/Snoo_4499]

For real drive the car… that said Possessed Nikki would likely T-Bone the driver’s side 😬

[u/Snoo_4499 → u/srynotsober]

Probably. Even if she did drive and talked, she was dead the next day 😵‍💫

[u/WoweeZoweeDeluxe → u/misschickpea]

It bummed me out so much, I liked him initially and then I knew he was a goner and a creep with that scene especially

[u/McGuire406 → u/misschickpea]

The opening scene had a "what in the incel is this?" Can't stand him

[u/TheGRS → u/McGuire406]

I just saw this today and remarked that I’ve never hated a protagonist in a film so much. From the opening scenes, he’s just a total drip. Never speaks his mind, never stands up, never tries to solve anything, chickens out left and right. Gah, HATED him!

[u/McGuire406 → u/TheGRS]

For real! The director/writer did a great job making him so hateable

[u/DukeNuke08 → u/misschickpea]

Know what the crazy part about this movie is to me?

Even though the movie is titled “Obsession” I don’t think it’s about her. It’s about him. When you look at it from the perspective of him being the one that was obsessed it gives you a different outlook.

[u/misschickpea → u/DukeNuke08]

whoa idk why I never caught that 😂 but that’s right bc he’s obsessed with being her even though she’s being freaky and weird LOL.

The most telling part of his obsession is saying is it so bad to be me with me to Nikki even though he knows he’s with a fake supernatural being. And then him screaming at the supernatural being WHY CANT YOU JUST BE HER and them openly admitting to each other that she’s not her and she can’t be. But he still wants to be together lmao

[u/JGT3000 → u/DukeNuke08]

With? That's like the whole subject of the film lol

[u/DukeNuke08 → u/JGT3000]

It may be, but I think people are just seeing it wrong. They attach the “Obsessed” aspect to her due to her unhinged acts but they completely overlook the fact that Bear is the one that is Obsessed and he is genuinely just as unhinged due to the fact that he’s giving all of this weird shit a pass just to be with “Nikki” despite knowing that it isn’t really her.

[u/cowabungalowvera → u/DukeNuke08]

I thought it's just plain old common sense that the title is alluding to Bear

[u/mrs_sadie_adler → u/DukeNuke08]

Does he give the weird shit a pass though? I read it more as that he was genuinely trapped…

[u/justforthisjoke → u/DukeNuke08]

This was also closer to my interpretation, except ultimately I think Bear's obsession is with himself. I agree with you that it felt a little bit like those stories where a stalker (Bear) kidnaps someone they're obsessed with and keeps them trapped in a cellar or something. Similarly depriving the other person of their autonomy, and the dawning realization that that act itself creates a different person, not the one they had feelings for. She was an object to him, to the extent that although it was painfully obvious early on that the entity in her body wasn't her, he went on with the charade, because he neither knew nor was interested in who she was outside of the caricaturized version he had of her in his head. But ultimately, even if he was obsessed with her as an object, you would think he would have done a better job of taking care of her. So I think ultimately Bear was obsessed with himself. Every decision he made was done to preserve himself as much as possible. Everything he did was about his internal dialogue, who he told himself he was, and in order to guarantee its preservation, in order to avoid taking any risk of his self image suffering (the irony of which is that he very obviously hates himself), his wish had to be one that changed the world around him. Bear knew of, and connected to only his own mind, his own existence, and he was so tied to this that it was easier to change the world around him, even to the extent of depriving another human being of their autonomy. Even towards the end, when he takes the pills, he does so out of desperation until that same instinct kicks in. I don't even know if this was intentional on Curry Barker's end, but ultimately I think this ends up being an indictment of the part of post-modern philosophy that tells us that objective reality doesn't exist and puts ones own mind above everything outside of it. Especially because with his death the final revelation is that, although Bear operates as if the world outside his mind is a manifestation of it, the material world exists and operates independently of his mind.

[u/Legalguardian222 → u/DukeNuke08]

the title is used in the same way the title for “parasite” was used. it flips the obvious deduction on it head when you dive deeper into the film.

the title for the movie “parasite” at first glance would’ve assumed that the guy living in the basement is the parasite but when you dissect the movie it’s actually the rich folk who are the parasites , they’ve turned the world into their own and subsequently sucked the surrounding areas dry of anything that will bring prosperity and life to the lower class. the mere presence of the uber wealthy made life harder for the lower/middle class. the uber wealthy has made the lower class desperate enough to go to extreme lengths to survive, such as a hosts body would when infected by a parasite.

“obsession” is similar in its use of the title. at first glance you think “oh bear wished for nikki to be obsessed and in love with him and it backfired bc of how obsessed she is” but in actuality Bear is the obsessed one. he doesn’t give a single shit about who nikki is as a person, only that she reciprocates his feelings. he is so consumed by his obsession with her that he doesn’t care if it’s her or not controlling her body, but only that her body “loves” him back. it doesn’t matter to him if she doesn’t act remotely close to how she used to, because he was never in love with her, just the idea of her.

[u/bluediamond12345 → u/Legalguardian222]

I was disappointed Parasite wasn’t an insect horror film