Synopsis:
After breaking the mysterious “One Wish Willow” to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic gets exactly what he asked for. However, he soon discovers that some desires come at a dark and sinister price.
My Edition:
DVD rental from the public library
My Thoughts:
I hope you like screaming at your tv. Because I promise you this: Obsession is going to have you screaming non-stop. Not in fear (probably), but in pure, unbridled rage. It is a very good, very well-made movie, but Bear is the single worst character I have ever encountered in a movie. He has zero redeeming qualities. He is an incel through and through. And the story plays out like he’s just a regular guy (because he seems to honestly believe that he is) – meanwhile, he is literally the worst humanity has to offer. And the worst part about it? We’ve all met a Bear analog. We may be lucky enough to not know it, but we all have. Bear is not a “hopeless romantic,” he is an un-redeemable monster.
I’m going to veer into spoiler territory here. You’ve been warned. But, because I’m nice, I’ll hide it behind tags that say “Click to reveal spoiler-y discussion.” And I’ll keep it brief. Just know that if you see that tag, and you click on it, I don’t want to hear about how I spoiled something for you, okay?
But basically, Obsession is a story about agency. And about a certain subset of men who don’t seem to believe that women should have it. Bear is a deeply disturbed individual who has been trained to believe that he’s not disturbed at all. He needs Nikki to like him, because he is obsessed with her. And because he has built an entire false friendship with her – based entirely off of his obsessive fixation on her. I think that Nikki is less a person to Bear than she is a symbol – a symbol that he is worth something. And he is willing to literally destroy everything to feel worthy.
Click to reveal spoiler-y discussion
Look, all this weak-brained jackass had to do was kill himself. But he couldn’t even really do that. Bear was a coward. A weak, pathetic little coward. He is also a reminder that our society allows weak men get away with way too much.
Obsession serves as a brutal reminder that the Manosphere has made far too many weak-ass men believe that their weak-assery entitles them to certain things, or even people. It has made them believe that women are there “for the taking,” and that women somehow bear the responsibility for every horrific act that men might perpetrate on them (see every single word that Andrew Tate has ever spewed if you don’t believe me). And I think the worst thing about Bear is that he subscribes to the ideology while simultaneously believing he’s above it. The way Michael Johnston plays him, you can just tell Bear thinks he’s very sensitive. Hell, I bet he’d describe himself as a feminist. All while actively removing agency from a woman he claims to love.
And Inde Navarette is an absolute shining star in this – her Nikki contains multitudes. She’s by turns terrifying and heart-breaking, and a lot of that rests in the power of Navarette’s knack for nuanced facial expressions. At one point, I’m pretty sure I remarked on the amount of heavy lifting her expressions and micro-expressions were doing. In a movie filled with fairly strong performances, hers was definitely the strongest. Followed closely by Michael Johnston, who played Bear so convincingly that I think I’ll probably have to work pretty hard to not hate him forever – he was that convincing.
I will say that you should probably avoid Obsession if you only like movies that hold your hand while they explain absolutely everything that is happening and why. It is going to ask you to just accept that certain aspects of the story are reality. The One Wish Willow just is what it is. It’s a thing that exists in that universe, and you need to accept that. I will also say that you probably want to skip it if you think stories need a happy ending. I see you people out there on the internet whining about unhappy endings, so I know you exist! The ending of Obsession is rough.
Click to reveal spoiler-y discussion
But it’s also evergreen, because boy do violent men LOVE to leave women to pick up the shattered pieces of their broken lives after committing their violent acts.
I also think that Obsession encourages deeper thought about its themes. At least it did for me. While the way that Bear is willing to rob another human being of their autonomy for his own fulfillment is right there on top, there is a lot of directions that thought can move you in. For example, have you ever truly thought about the consequences of a single selfish action? Like no matter the “size” of the action, or how inconsequential it may seem at the time, every action does have consequences. Things ripple. Bear removing Nikki’s agency didn’t just impact him and Nikki. It had consequences that reached far beyond the little world he wished up for them. And those consequences just grew and grew the longer he kept it going.
Rating:
I am going to be thinking about this one for a while. Obsession is for sure worth a watch.
Obsession
Written and Directed by: Curry Barker
Blumhouse
US Release Date: May 15, 2026
Rated: R
1 hour 49 minutes
