they’re literally best friends who love each other and they get to walk around in their matching outfits and go to work and mash their enormous muscles together and pretend to fuck. btw. if you even care.
I find Nikki as a person distinct from the wish genuinely very compelling, just as a character. She apparently isn’t into sappy romantic gestures, and would find the idea of citrine being “sunshine in a rock” lame. At the same time, she’s not cold hearted. In fact, she’s openly very affectionate: she calls everyone she meets babe, jokes around with Ian, tells Sarah she loves her, gives money to the homeless, pays for her friend’s drinks, and thanks Bear for being someone she can talk to. She calls up Bear to talk about both their days and convince him to come to trivia night, then checks in to make sure he’s okay when she finds out why he didn’t want to come. Even though she’s not into sappy stuff, the book she’s writing is a love story. She’s straight up with Bear about the fact that Sarah’s into him and tells him in no uncertain terms when he’s crossed a boundary by calling her “freaky Nikki”. On the whole, the fifteen minutes we spend with her paint the picture of someone who is wholly genuine, and, it seems, someone who really values honesty. Which is why Bear messed up so badly by lying to her. All she asks is for him to be honest about if he has feelings for her, even says “now is the time to tell me” and he still can’t tell her the truth. And, she can clearly tell that’s the case. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether she would’ve said yes to a date because he didn’t ask. She might’ve gone. She might not have. But instead of risking her declining, Bear chose that he’d rather her be with him no matter the cost.
What's really grating when people discuss Obsession is how much weight people put on Bear's wish. Like the wish is what made him the bad guy. No one can sit and say they've never wished upon a star or thrown a coin into a well for something to happen. You're not expecting it because logically you know magic isn't real. Same thing with Bear. There was no reason for him to think he needed to choose his words wisely while he was making a wish over a $7 toy he got from a novelty shop alone in his car. There was even less reason for him to think magic was real and the wish would work. Nothing that happened there made Bear the bad guy.
What did make Bear the bad guy was everything he did once he realized the wish was real. Once he realized that his action was causing suffering, then the onus is on him to stop immediately. That's why the dinner scene was so important because it wasn't the phone call to the customer service representative that made Bear realize the wish was real. It was the dinner scene where Bear is told that 1) Nikki sees him as a brother and 2) she lied about her dad being sick. Bear then asks Nikki if she loves him more than anyone else in the world and she says yes. Without a shadow of doubt, Bear knew the wish was real right at the moment. Yet in the very next scene he has sex with her knowing that she could not say no. This moment is what makes Bear the bad guy for the rest of the film, not the wish he had no reason to think would work.
i think the thing about sarah obsession that i haven’t seen anyone bring up so far is how male-centered women are often malicious in ways that just aren’t as obvious as men can be
Nikki being the victim in this movie is literally not up for debate btw.
Bear f*cked up big time. He paid the price, sure, but not before causing a lot of damage and trauma around him. Especially to Nikki.
There are two key moments for me that clearly highlight how Bear is truly not a good guy and never was. At all.
Firstly, and most importantly, when Nikki asks him to kill her as her possessed self is sleeping and unaware of their interaction. This is Bear’s first very straightforward opportunity to fix his mess. If he truly cared about her and her wellbeing, he would take immediate action. Like kill himself. Sucks, but gotta do what you gotta do, man. But no, of course. Bear takes personal offence into the idea that she’d rather die than forcefully be with him. It’s pathetic and enraging. Let’s remind ourselves here that Bear is regularly r*ping her (and forcing other forms of intimacy on her as well), enslaving her mind and quite literally stealing her entire life from her. The notion of consent is simply nonexistent and he’s actively okay with that. Before everything spirals into total chaos, he just wants to alter his wish, not erase it fully. He still wants that control over her, whether she is happy or not. She pleads for liberation from this curse and Bear decides to victimize himself, be selfish again and then he walks away. Ruining his ultimate chance.
Secondly, the suicide scene. Here’s the thing… It’s too late at this point. He missed out on several opportunities to make things better and he kept on prioritizing his power over Nikki. It led him to a point of no return where his life is irreparably turned upside down, his two closest friends were killed (because of him) and Nikki’s possessed self represents a very real danger for him (all his fault, once again). There is only one way out of this: He needs to die. Even with this unavoidable truth, Bear manages to fail again. He swallows all the pills and a few seconds later, he cowardly tries to undo his actions. The storyline leads to him overdosing and dying regardless, but this moment is decisive to represent his true character. It still wasn’t enough, somehow, for him to end it all. Truth be, it was unfortunately too late for Nikki one way or the other. The trauma was just too massive with the murders and the self-harm. He ruined her entirely.
If you ask me, the title is about him being horrendously obsessed with her, not the other way around. His obsession led him there. He refused to take a risk and potentially get in the friendzone. This was unthinkable and impossible to accept for him.
And also, that sickening story she presents at the party… It’s not just to generate a deeply uncomfortable and eerie atmosphere, it’s not just to shock the audience with its content. It’s about them. It’s literally them. She mentioned feeling a sibling-like connection with him. Nikki is being abused and tortured by someone she considered a brother. This is a tale about his cruelty. This is her cry for help. And it breaks my heart.
"Bear is the villain, okay. There's some, like, grabby headlines out there where it's like "Michael Johnston doesn't agree that Bear's the villain." And I'm, like, NO WAY! Hold on a second, Bear is the vil-lain. He made his choice. Maybe he didn't know [the wish] would work but the choices he made after that, he clearly shows that he was incapable of thinking about anyone other than himself." — Michael Johnston (Bear) talking about Bear's character on The Brandon Davis Show!
OBSESSION (2026) Dir. Curry Barker
I think the thing that is the most disturbing to me about Obsession is just how quickly it becomes totally clear that Bear not only never loved Nikki, but that he never even liked her.
In the little time we spend with Nikki before she becomes possessed “freaky” Nikki, Obsession goes to great lengths to establish Nikki as a person.
In just the first 15 minutes of the film, we learn that Nikki loves writing, she’s laid back, and that she cares very deeply for others. We see that she’s funny, she likes to gently tease her friends and joke around. She has ambition and wants to pursue her writing seriously. She has her own goals and thoughts and opinions.
She’s also characterized very well by her wardrobe, how she talks, her body language and expressions (courtesy of Inde Navarrette’s absolutely STUNNING and brilliant performance).
In a VERY short amount of time, the audience is given a VERY clear picture of Nikki’s personality and usual behavior.
Which makes her “transition” into “Freaky” Nikki all the more horrific when Bear makes his wish.
Because even if we give Bear some grace, and acknowledge that he couldn’t have known that the One Wish Willow would do what it did, and even if we treat his kissing her on the first night she comes over as morally grey (although in my opinion he absolutely did take advantage of the fragile mental state he believed her to be in), there is no way to excuse Bear blatantly ignoring that Nikki changes so drastically from the person Bear claims to be in love with.
After the wish, Nikki starts speaking differently and using a higher pitched voice, she starts dressing completely differently and wearing more traditionally “feminine” clothing. She suddenly drops her plan to quit working at the music store and pursue writing, she stops showing any care towards her other friends and the people in her life. She defers to Bear in every situation, with the only exception being any time Bear shows any sign of moving away from her emotionally (or physically).
After the wish, Nikki becomes a completely different person.
And Bear does not care or show any concern regarding this at all.
Everything that makes Nikki who she is, everything that makes Nikki, Nikki, is just gone after Bear uses the One Wish Willow.
And Bear couldn’t be happier.
We get a whole montage of Bear and “Nikki” as a “happy couple” hanging out together and ignoring everyone around them.
It’s not until Bear starts seeing actual consequences to his wish, such as “Nikki” causing a scene on their date or feeding his dead cat to him, that he begins to worry about her behavior.
And even then—EVEN THEN!!!!—Bear STILL adamantly refuses to accept that Nikki is not behaving rationally or how she used to in any way. While he eventually acquiesces to canceling his wish, he first tries to just “alter” it to make it so Nikki still loves him, but is just less intense.
He would rather use “Nikki” to satisfy his own desires and ego.
If Bear loved Nikki, hell, if he even just LIKED her for who she is, he would be horrified by “freaky” Nikki. He would have recognized and acknowledge extremely early on in their relationship, that something was deeply wrong. He would know that the woman he was with was not Nikki.
But Bear would rather have a bootleg version of Nikki that he can feel validated by, than have an actual relationship of any kind with the real Nikki.
He does not love Nikki. He does not even like her.
He likes the idea of Nikki. He likes the image of Nikki that he’s constructed of her, the image of her that only exists in his head.
He likes the fantasy of what Nikki would provide to him emotionally and physically.
From the beginning of the film, Obsession shows us exactly who its villain is. Nothing that “Freaky” Nikki does horrifies me as much as Bear’s treatment of Nikki and his refusal to see her as an actual person with autonomy.
For me that’s the most disturbing element of Obsession. That the people you trust the most and care about may be so obsessed with the version of you they’ve created in their mind that they’ll actively ignore your personhood and autonomy.
God. Obsession is so fucking good. I love film. I love cinema. Thank you Inde Navarrette. Thank you Curry Barker. Film of the year, if god hates horror fans why do we keep winning.
the fact bear only tried to cancel his wish after being told he couldn’t alter it (and, seemingly, because he was uncertain about how real nikki’s love actually was) - instead of wanting to do that from the start, as soon as it was clear that something was wrong with nikki - makes me so, so devastated for her. it’s clear he was more concerned with what he was getting out of the wish, rather than the detrimental effect it was having. and like, everyone could tell something was up with nikki, it’s not as if it wasn’t clear. him hanging up the phone as soon as nikki is out on the line (screaming) is so symbolic of how he is completely ignoring how he is ruining her life throughout the film
i absolutely love how nikki is nearly always bathed in shadow (whether it’s fully in the dark or with a single light behind her with her as the faceless darkness). she’s quite literally become a shadow of her former self. no autonomy, no personal thoughts or emotions, just a carved image of what bear desired.
I genuinely appreciate how obsession doesn't try to frame bear as morally grey but just fully leans into how deplorable he is. a lesser movie would have tried to give him redeeming moments along the way but no, at every single crossroads bear makes the wrong choice. when the customer service rep asks him if he wants to cancel his wish, he says no, and asks to alter it. when nikki, the real one, begs him to kill her, he asks her "if it would be so bad to love him", and right at the end, backs out of killing himself and tries to throw the pills up. he is the villain, not another victim, not a confused, cowardly boy, the villain.
I get sick when I think about Bear's "what would be so bad about being with me". She just articulated how trapped she is and asked him to kill her so she can be free but he just thinks about himself, what he wants, what he needs. He's supposed to love her yet he just uses her and ignores what he does to her. He's so selfish, so egoistical. It's sickening and so well done
on my second viewing of obsession, i had the realization that nikki’s story at the party wasn’t the movie using incest as an easy shorthand for making the audience uncomfortable or creating a general “things are off” vibe but was another way the real nikki was crying out—a metaphor for the fact that nikki, like gretel, is being made to fuck her “little brother” (bear) under duress, at the behest of an external magic (the witch’s spell in her story; obviously, bear’s wish)
germansingergirl
turnnoffyourmind
vaporwave
stormborns
theartofmadeline
