I saw Obsession last month, and after rewatching it and consuming nearly every bit of reaction content available online about it, it’s become imperative that I talk about this movie. I’m not sure exactly what kind of neurodivergent I am, but I know that this movie is my new hyperfixation. You could say I’ve become OBSESSED. Do with that what you will.
Curry Barker’s debut feature-length film came to life with a budget of just $750,000 and ended up turning a profit of more than $400 million. Also, fun fact for those of you who, like me, enjoy watching horror shorts on YouTube: Curry Barker actually stars in Milk & Serial and directed The Chair, both of which I came across and rather enjoyed last year. Like his short films, Barker’s Obsession doesn’t just tell you a scary story; it presents you with a clear but nuanced message and pulls no punches in doing so.
The film begins by introducing us to Bear (Michael Johnston) and his childlike crush on his friend Nikki. As he practices his confession with a diner waitress and receives horrible advice from his “friend” Ian (Cooper Tomlinson), we immediately begin to feel empathy for this shy young man, whose sheepishness reads as endearing in 2026. One scene later, he is mourning his dead cat (or is he?), and shortly after that, he takes it upon himself to seek a replacement necklace for the one Nikki (Inde Navarrette) loses down the drain while on a call with him. His eyes glow with admiration when Nikki stoops to hand money to an unhoused person sitting outside the bar.
All of this is to say that this is a guy we’re supposed to root for. He’s sweet! He deserves to get the girl! And he agrees.
Curry Barker spends the next hour and twenty minutes subtly shifting our focus to the person Bear really is, except…the clues were there all along.
The first thing we need to understand about Bear is that he is indescribably selfish. We can see this as early as his very first monologue, when every point he lists about why he loves Nikki is centered around things she has done for him, rather than who she is as a person. While he does make the trip to the metaphysical shop to purchase Nikki a replacement crystal necklace, he doesn’t end up buying one. Instead, he is drawn to the mechanism of disaster for the entire film in the form of a vintage collectible toy called the One Wish Willow.
Bear tells Nikki he has a gift for her, but after receiving a negative reaction to the idea of being gifted something, he doesn’t actually give it to her. Instead, he uses the toy to wish that Nikki loved him more than “anyone in the whole fucking world.”
How could that go wrong?
What I think is really interesting here is Barker’s take on the “wish gone wrong” trope. In subsequent interviews, Barker has stated that the One Wish Willows are not evil by nature. This is evident in the fact that some wishes actually end up working out. Online reviews show some folks (assuming they’re telling the truth) whose wishes were successful, and the male cashier at the metaphysical shop even shares that he has already used his own wish, indicating that his life wasn’t ruined by it.
The wish turns out poorly for Bear simply because of how he worded it.
“I wish Nikki loved me more than anyone in the fucking world.”
Loving someone more than anyone else is a child’s idea of love. It’s immature, and therefore, when it comes to fruition, Nikki’s love is similarly immature. She follows Bear around like a hurt puppy, requiring his constant attention in the same way that a lovesick teenager pines for their first boyfriend.
When it comes to Nikki’s behavior throughout the rest of the film, we are not watching a woman in love with her friend. We’re watching Bear’s idea of what love is, on full display.
And it’s horrific.
In addition to his selfishness, Bear is also a gigantic coward, and I’m not just talking about how scared he is to express his feelings to Nikki. At every turn, Bear ignores his better judgment in favor of choices that will inevitably produce worse outcomes simply because he is terrified.
He knows that Ian’s suggestion to call her “freaky Nikki” is awful and will result in hurting Nikki’s feelings, yet he tries it anyway rather than admit how he feels. He knows, or at least feels, that purchasing the One Wish Willow is a mistake, even suggesting as much to the cashier as he jokes about people’s lives being ruined, and proceeds anyway instead of returning to the rack of crystal necklaces he initially came for.
Hell, even Bear’s final act of downing the remaining bottle of pills in an attempt to kill himself is not an attempt to save Nikki from the horror of the fate he created for her. Bear is well aware that if Nikki returns to herself, she will be surrounded by the bodies of two friends she’s responsible for killing and his own corpse.
He is not saving her.
He is escaping the mess that he created through his own cowardice, and I can’t think of a bigger bitch move than that.
Last, but certainly not least, Bear is a rapist.
Honestly, though, you wouldn’t be wrong if you labeled him a sociopath. There are several examples that truly highlight the depths of Bear’s depravity, and Barker expertly allows them to trickle out until the full measure of Bear is undeniable.
So, let’s work backward.
“What would be so wrong? What would be so wrong about being with me?”
It’s the line that sends a different sort of chill down the spine of everyone watching. It is the final nail in the coffin we would all like to hammer closed around Bear and bury six feet deep.
Undeniably, he knows.
Bear delivers this line after Nikki—the real Nikki—begs him to kill her to end her suffering and then he turns and walks out of the room. He is off to see Sarah in the middle of the night, not caring about Nikki or even the potential consequences for Sarah; another betrayal of them both.
However, audiences didn’t even require that chilling line delivery to know that Bear is aware of Nikki’s pain. We get the privileged position of seeing him on the phone with One Wish Willow customer service (AKA Curry Barker himself), and when he is asked if he wants to talk to Nikki, he is transferred to the sound of Nikki screaming uncontrollably.
Shaken, he snaps the phone off and proceeds into the house, knowing now that he must end his life to end her suffering, but unwilling to do so.
Once again, we get an over-the-top, in-your-face, impossible-to-ignore example of Nikki’s direct pain and Bear’s complete indifference. Earlier examples, like the sharp cut from Bear learning in the restaurant that Nikki lied to him about her father’s illness to him fucking her lethargic body, left theaters in shocked fits of uncomfortable laughter. We watched as Nikki—the new Nikki—had a complete and uncharacteristic public breakdown, which didn’t deter Bear’s intentions in the slightest.
In the interest of brevity, I’ll cap off the examples there. But we could wade through a hundred other little instances of Bear ignoring Nikki’s feelings and opportunities to consent. The bottom line is this:
Bear was a rapist the second he wished to change Nikki’s true feelings.
I’ve heard people (usually men) say that this is too harsh. Did Bear know that when he wished upon the willow branch that it would come true? Probably not. But it doesn’t matter. His intention was always the same: have Nikki by any means necessary.
Fellas, take a lesson here. I beg you.
If a woman’s love, affection, or physical intimacy is only possible if you wish that her feelings were different, MOVE ALONG.
Maybe take a second look at the cute, artsy girl who cozies up to you at lunch.
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