ziyah reads and writes!

I  just saw Obsession in theaters last weekend and it’s definitely an 9/10!

This one is a good one and its taking horror to a new height. Bringing in conversations of gender, autonomy, insecurity and more into a deeply entertaining display of witchcraft and fear. Watch it if you want to be scared but for a good reason and with a powerful message.

To summarize it for those who don’t know what this movie is about, Obsession follows a character Bear, an average guy who’s extremely lonely, and insecure who yearns deeply for his childhood best friend who he works with.

One night while out with his co-workers, Bear goes out to buy a gift for this girl, Nikki, who he’s been in love with for a while. He buys a one-wish willow that is meant to give any wish one can ask for. After a failed attempt to ask Nikki out, he breaks the willow and wishes for… well I won’t spoil it.

The vibe is if Get Out and Weapons had a baby, keep the witchcraft and power dynamics but remove discussions of race, and age, and replace it with gender. The actress Inde Navarrette, who plays Nikki does a stellar job displaying emotions of fear, loss, anger, loss of control, and more with just her facial expressions. 

Although I recommend going blind like I did, here’s the trailer for those interested:

If you like horror movies this one is for you! Overall, this film had me at the edge of my seat. I had to close my eyes to many of the scenes due to the gore, and blood but I give it 9/10!

Excellent film and message and all heterosexual couples should definitely give it a watch and discuss with their partners.

Now on to my review…

Spoilers Below:

Okay let’s get one thing f***ing straight. BEAR IS THE VILLAN. PERIOD.

The film makes this clear, many different times. For one, within the first five minutes of breaking the willow, Nikki acts completely erratic and opposite to her character. There is no guessing whether this behavior is due to the wish or not. IT IS!

Bear continues to date her for months afterwards, because he just wanted to date her, regardless of her wellbeing. All of her friends repeatedly say “Something is wrong with Nikki” and he immediately makes it about himself, saying “Why is it so unbelievable that she’d be into me?” This AGAIN shows us that he was never concerned about Nikki’s true wellbeing. 

Only when BEAR’S life is threatened does he start to question the wish. When Nikki starts, watching him in his sleep, being disruptive at parties, cooking his cat, etc., he decides to call and ask the One Wish Willow company to see if he can “alter” the wish. He repeats that he wants to alter the wish, not reverse it. This shows he wants to benefit from this relationship, no matter the cost. When the people on the phone hand it to “the real Nikki” shes screaming violently. Which indicates to Bear and the audience that the person he’s been with is not the real Nikki, and that Nikki’s “soul” or true identity is trapped and tortured at the very moment. 

After this Bear hangs up the phone and CONTINUES HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH NIKKI. He sleeps next to her KNOWING that the person he’s sleeping next to isn’t Nikki.

The fact that he’s able to sleep at all shows us not only how trusting he is of this dark entity that is torturing his supposed friend. [WHICH IS STUPID] But also, it show us that he never really wanted Nikki, he just wanted someone to be with him and make him feel desired.

It was never about partnership or Nikki, it was about HIM, and his selfish desire for a fake love that lacks agency. He doesn’t attempt to change the wish because of her suffering at all.

Which means he never really loved her, but the idea of her being with HIM.

Again, after this the “real Nikki” speaks to him while the entity is asleep, and begs him to k*ll her, and again he makes her suffering about himself saying, “Is it really that hard to be with me?” she replies saying “I’ve never really been with you” which indicates again that the wish has altered her person into two, one with and without agency.

The real her has never consented to this relationship, and therefore the real her was never there. But does Bear care? No. He isn’t disturbed by the fact that the woman he’s been sleeping with isn’t the real Nikki. After this conversation Nikki cries begging him to k*ll her and free her from her prison and Bear walks away. Again, solidifying that he is the sole cause and perpetrator of Nikkis continual imprisonment.

Shortly after this encounter Bear meets with his coworker and friend, Sarah, who reveals that she had a crush on him the whole time.

This is a sad revelation. 

If Bear had just had the courage to get rejected, he would’ve eventually been redirected to Sarah and found the true, real love he was looking for the whole time. But he was impatient, and inconsiderate. When he broke that willow he didn’t ask for courage, he didn’t ask for a do-over of the conversation, he didn’t even ask for his cat to have never eaten the pills, he asked for Nikki to love him more than anyone in the world.

He may have felt at the time that he also loved Nikki more than anyone at the time and he may have also thought that the willow wasn’t real. But this wish shows us that he sees Nikki’s autonomy, Nikki’s agency to say NO, to reject him, as the obstacle to tackle. 

The wish alone shows us that he doesn’t love Nikki more than anyone in the world. He loves himself more. If he loved Nikki more than anyone in the world, which would include himself, he would have loved all of her. Her ability to say no, her obstinance, her stubbornness, her humor, her personality, all of it. And he wouldn’t want to alter or change it in any way because he loves it more than the possibility of being rejected. More than his own sadness that may follow after being rejected. 

This is why the wish itself manifests into a lack of agency. Nikki becomes childlike at times, having outbursts and tantrums. How does a child act when you try to control them? They lash out!

It’s also because deep-down Bear wants Nikki to be dependent on him, to make him the sole priority, which is childlike. 

But I digress… 

I also loved the theme of Bear’s name, as a play on the online conversation of “Would you choose to be in the forest alone with a man or a bear?”, and many women said “I choose the bear”

Bear being the name of the exact man we would chose a bear over. Come on it’s kind of funny. Because a real bear would never inflict this type of harm on any person. They may physically harm you, k*ll you even. But even they would never use your body, and entrap you with a wish until your physical and mental health deteriorate just to stroke their own deep insecurities and ego.

I think what makes this story really poignant is that Bear at the beginning is someone you as an audience member wants to root for. He seems innocent, a good guy, who’s cat just died, who’s obviously lonely, depressed and unsatisfied with his life. It slowly becomes an example of the male loneliness epidemic. Where it simultaneously explains why he was lonely to begin with. 

A good juxtaposition is his friend and obvious a**hole Ian, who is revealed to have been secretly sleeping with Nikki, to be against Bear spilling his heart out to Nikki, recommends him to be mean, and to say an offensive name to Nikki in order to get her attention. 

It seems at the beginning of the film that Ian is obviously a worse person than Bear, as Bear is introspective, deep and loving while Ian is self-serving, and superficial.

By the end of the film, we realize that actually they are both bad, it’s just that Ian had the confidence, and charisma to express his true feelings plainly, while Bear had to use underhanded tactics to also express misogyny and superficial desires due to his crippling insecurities.

General Thoughts

• Okay just a few gripes…
  • How the f*ck did that damn cat get into a literally child locked pill bottle?
  • Also, why the f*ck did you keep those old ass expired pills from your Grandma in the first place?
    • Was that supposed to hint at us that you wanted to kys?
  • How can you afford a car and an apartment living by yourself working part-time at the damn music store like bro bffr
  • Does Bear have any family members? Why is he so f*cking lonely to begin with? Why are all your friends people you work with? Why is your apartment dirty asf? That’s animal cruelty making that cat live in that sh*thole.
  • Why did you even buy the one wish willow for Nikki? If she would think a good luck Tigers Eye stone necklace is corny you don’t think she would find this POS f*cking corny dude? Do you even know this girl?🙄
  • Also, Nikki gave you a chance to ask her out bro, she literally said, “Do you like me?” your dumbass should’ve said “YESSS!!!! THAT’S WHY I’M SO F*CKING AWKWARD AND NERVOUS DUHHH!” but no you went ahead and said yeah witchcraft is the answer.🙄🙄🙄
  • Ian you a horrible friend, f*ck you!
  • Also, Bear, Sarah’s death is your fault, she was gonna go to art school you asshole
  • The fact that Nikki is free but has to deal with all the consequences that a MAN left her with, is so sad and it even though he freed her by dying, it also feels like a cop out.

Overall, this film had me at the edge of my seat. I had to close my eyes to many of the scenes due to the gore, and blood but I give it 8.7/10 realistically, but I’ll round it to 9/10.

What did you think of the movie?

Let us know below!