Send Help vs Obsession
Spoiler Alert for both movies!!!
A couple of days ago I ended up watching Obsession in theatres for the first time and it was an amazing movie I highly recommend it. So, while I was ruminating about it and watching reactions to it, a sudden thought came into my head. This movie just like Send Help, another horror movie I highly recommend also released this year, does a good job of getting the viewers root for the protagonists. Baron, Bear, with his unrequited love for a friend and Linda an unappreciated hard worker with a horrible boss.
In both movies, you feel sympathy for these characters and do want them to succeed in their pursuits. However, as each movie goes on you slowly start to go from supporting the protagonists to questioning them and in Bear's case, hating them.
With Linda, I never outright hated her character even though she does end up killing two characters who were innocent. I did however feel that disconnect of not wanting to actively root for her. I was still invested in the story and character but not on an intimate level that I had before.
So I asked myself, why? Why didn't I dislike Linda? Linda actively killed three people. Hid the truth from Bradley that they could've been rescued. And when she threatened him with castration one could make the argument for sexual assault when she stripped him (somebody else pointed this out for me). However, I never did. Even towards the end of the film with her big confrontation with Bradley when he finds about everything that she has done and understandably wants revenge I was still invested in her story and wondering how this was going to end for Linda.
And then it hit me. I was never fully on Bradley's side. There were moments where I pitied him such as when he had that heart to heart with Linda, but I was never invested in his story. The first time we see Bradley he is a bully to Linda up until he realizes that he needs Linda's help to survive the island. She killed his fiancƩe. but I felt sorry for her, not Bradley. She stripped him and threatened to castrate him, but this was after he had poisoned her. (I'll admit that maybe Bradley felt threatened by Linda when she drunkenly says that they should never leave the island. But even he admitted that poisoning her was a stupid thing to do. He could've left when she wasn't around, he also didn't need to say "F*** you Linda!" when trying to leave the island.) Even towards the end when he and Linda were fighting, I was never truly on his side.
In Obsession, I felt sorry for Nikki, Sara, and even Ian. I pitied Nikki's situation that she was put into because a "friend" made a wish that took away her autonomy. We see Nikki desperately try to ask for help from said "friend" and when she finally is able to have a conversation with Bear to put her out of her misery that he caused, he makes it about his pain. Both Sara and Ian show genuine concern for their friends when things are weird and try to help or at least get to the bottom of what was going on and they both tragically lose their lives because Bear was too much of a coward. Even when he finally decides to make things right, he was too much a coward and tried to bail.
Make no mistake, these are two evil people who will do just about anything to get what they want. With Bear, it was getting Nikki even if it meant taking away her autonomy. With Linda, it was crafting a perfect story to climb the social ladder even if that meant murdering people once she was in a situation to do so.
I just wanted to explore why I didn't have such a huge level of animosity for Linda the same way that I had for Bear. I may do a follow up but as of right now I think this is where my thoughts are landing for now.
