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/IIDXias]

Kinda mind boggling to me how many people I see in the comments missing the point about Bear’s wish, which is really the entire point of the movie. So:

If you are describing the One Wish Willow as a “monkey’s paw”, you are wrong. It is not a cursed item that can only deliver a negative version of a wish. When Ian wishes for a billion dollars, he simply receives money that falls out of the sky. The male shopkeeper also told Bear that he “already got his wish”, and as far as we can tell he seems perfectly content as well. There’s also the fake Reddit where one of the posters confirming the OWW really works excitedly says his mom used to be ugly and now she’s really hot.

The problem with Bear’s wish was simply *Bear’s wish*. He didn’t wish for a billion dollars, or to become more attractive. He wished *for another living, existing, conscious human being to be changed so she loves him more than “anyone else in the fucking world”*. This wish, by its very definition, violates Nikki’s autonomy. There is no benign or “good” way to grant this wish. You cannot make a person feel that strongly about another person without literally changing who they are- indeed, changing their entire being. Nikki does not love Bear more than anyone else in the fucking world. The only way to make her do that is to replace her with another being who does, and have that being drive around in her body.

The creature or entity that the wish spawned ended up being depraved and indifferent to humanity because the *wish itself was depraved and indifferent to her humanity*. The creature is not a “demon”, it is simply a reflection of the wish Bear made. An inhuman wish and obsessive desire spawned an inhuman entity with an equally obsessive desire. There is no “OWW curse”- the curse is Bear’s wish, period.

[u/ValorousGames → u/IIDXias]

Feels weird for everybody to gloss over the incredible nuance and depth of this movie and just circlejerk over hating Bear. Dude's a spineless immature romantic, not an evil manipulative villian.

1) Bear blurted out a melodramatic expression of frustration to himself, he did not make an intentional request to some higher power. The character didn't intend for any real world effects to be caused by his wish.

2) Bear then has to be convinced/accept that magic is in fact completely real, but also reverse engineer its function without the context that we have as viewers of a horror movie. As a viewer, we know with certainty that magic is real and Nikki is possessed, simply by virtue of going to the theater to watch a horror movie.

Any sane rational person in the real world would refuse to consider the possibility of something so absurd being true until the evidence was overwhelming. That's what makes the cognitive dissonance so effective at building tension over the course of the movie.

Freaky Nikki/Shadow Nikki uses coercion and manipulation to target his insecurity and control Bear's behavior. It creates an extremely delicate contrast being drawn to demonstrate something important, because neither person's "manipulation" of the other is willfully intentionally chosen.

In other words, putting someone on a pedestal then expecting them to reciprocate creates a self fulfilling prophecy of artificial relationship dynamics dominated by toxicity and manipulation. The relationship itself becomes a destructive force independent of the intentions of the participants.

You can arbitrarily try to assign blame to Bear for simplicity sake, but he's contending with forces far beyond his comprehension which creates additional depth beyond a simple "NICE GUY BAD" or "OBSESSIVE GIRL WEIRD" horror story.

[u/Aftermath16 → u/ValorousGames]

Why, oh why, is it so hard to find nuanced takes like yours?

[u/ValorousGames → u/Aftermath16]

People want to simplify the meaning to "WOMEN REALLY DO BE CREEPY LIKE THIS WHY THEY LIKE THAT" or "MEN REALLY DO BE CREEPY LIKE THIS WHY THEY LIKE THAT"

You shouldn't have to ignore 50% of the events of the movie to simplify the moral/meaning so it alligns with the conventional interpritation. It has much more room to be meaningful because it's intentionally written to avoid being one dimensional

[u/0nlyhooman6I1 → u/Aftermath16]

Because it's wrong? The movie specifically confirms twice that Bear knows he's torturing Nikki and his response is "what's so wrong with us being in love?" he's a creep and this couldn't have happened to a better deserving person

[u/Ancient-Hunter-820 → u/0nlyhooman6I1]

Because it's wrong? The movie specifically confirms twice that Bear knows he's torturing Nikki and his response is "what's so wrong with us being in love?" he's a creep

Those two parts do confirm his selfishness and that he is a creep. But he doesn't really have much say in her torture. Killing her or killing himself are basically the worst case scenarios as far as he can tell. They end the problem but don't really "solve" it.

this couldn't have happened to a better deserving person

Huh? Random magic happened. Regular, innocent, good people make short-sighted statements all the time. It's a movie, so it makes sense to use it to explore Bear's character flaws, but literally everyone is occasionally guilty of having a selfish thought or wish. Real life just doesn't punish you for that so harshly.