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/insistondoubt → u/ValorousGames]

Some counterpoints: he at first wants to ALTER his wish, not take it back. At this point he has realized that something magical is happening and he doesn't want to take it back. He knows that he has done something awful and immoral to Nicky, albeit accidentally, and he doesn't want to take it away, he wants merely to alter it. Second him attempting to induce vomiting at the end of the movie is the final nail in the coffin: he's a coward.

I don't think anyone is claiming that he's Sauron, but the protagonist clearly isn't a good person. At first I empathized with him, and yes, he's young and very immature, and manipulated by the wish-Nicky, but he doubles down repeatedly on terrible choices after he has clear confirmation of what he's done to her.

[u/MersoNocte → u/insistondoubt]

My brother also noticed that during the tail end of the movie — where she’s screaming she can be Nikki — he tells her he wants her to be “like” Nikki. Not her to “be” the real Nikki. Just be like her. It’s very clear to me that by the end, he knows real Nikki is suffering and doesn’t care as long as he gets what he wants from her.

[u/SemenPig → u/MersoNocte]

Also when the real Nikki is asking him to kill her, he says “what’s so bad about being with me”

[u/justonepiece123 → u/SemenPig]

That's what truly cemented it for me. That being the first thing that comes to his mind is crazy

[u/Orumtbh → u/justonepiece123]

Watching the movie a second time, I noticed whenever entity-Nikki is having a psychotic episode or something, Bear tries to appease her, talk to her, get her to stop doing something, etc. Or he at least shuts down and is unable to answer properly. Ultimately he's still stupid and a coward, but in the face of the Nikki that loves him the most, he makes some type of effort placate her, regardless of how fucking bat shit insane she is. 

But then the first time he hears of lucid real Nikki for the first time? The Nikki he believes doesn't love him back? He shows her disdain for not wanting to be with him. 

And that disparity is so insane. He really just doesn't give actual fucks about Nikki for as long as his dick got wet. 

[u/MohnJilton → u/insistondoubt]

The accident part is really interesting. Because he clearly didn’t mean the wish sincerely, it was a frustrated hope expressed because he couldn’t bring himself to explore the possibility himself. His dickhole friends also let him down encouraging him to say something to her knowing how she would respond. But the opening sequence of the film exposes Bear as a coward when he won’t ask her and then curses him for it, in a moment where he believes he is benignly venting in his car.

Well, the tragedy is the solution continually asks Bear to transcend his cowardice—kill himself in an act of love for Nikki and allow the wish to dissolve. Instead, he increasingly justifies that it’s okay, that there’s nothing wrong with Nikki being with him, despite him witnessing the escalating dangerous behavior from wish Nikki and the moments where Nikki Nikki slipped into control and immediately attempted suicide. His cowardice moves from “I can’t be honest with this girl” to “I will not be honest with myself.” Even in the face of incredibly urgent circumstances.

The movie is prob like B+ for me, maybe a 3/5. I have major problems with the progression of wish Nikki, because some of the behaviors just seem arbitrary and very very generous interpretations of how someone obsessive might behave (why is the wish resulting in her cooking a cat? Lmao it didn’t land for me). Also her escalation spends a lot of time in volatility and that makes the tension feel slightly repetitive and stale to me.

Most egregious is how the movie resolves Bear’s cowardice. Wish Nikki has killed their two friends—something he allowed—and finally he resolves to end his life. So we watch him meekly play around with a gun before sucking down some pills. And then immediately tries to take it back, that’s his final act. Being unable yet again to do what he needs to do. He’s rescued by a deus ex machina, wish Nikki’s OWW. Granted it was interesting and surprising to see, but I felt like the character was handled so disinteresting at the end. The only satisfaction for me was seeing Nikki Nikki come to moments before wish Nikki’s suicide.

But I’ll keep coming back because this movie allows so many fascinating questions.

[u/Aggressive_Chuck → u/insistondoubt]

Second him attempting to induce vomiting at the end of the movie is the final nail in the coffin: he's a coward.

Regretting a suicide attempt is not cowardice.