I finally watched Obsession and Bear frustrated me right away but I though his character was going to be a sick one, drown in pills and having visions like too high he was out of reality, but from the first shots you hear him saying all these sweet things, then the camera pulls back and turns out he is just practicing his confession on some random waitress, not even talking to Nikki yet, like this shit cant be real but I guess people do that. He is so wrapped up in her that all he does is cry over his dead cat and scroll through her photos online, and it sets him up as pathetic right from the start. Later on she loses her crystal necklace and calls him up about trivia night at Barkers pub, so he goes running to a crystal shop trying to find a replacement, so the movie starts to put you on this emotional mood and honestly thats great because thats what a movie suppose to do, no matter if its love or hate but damn this one is depresing. While he is in there he finds this vintage novelty thing called the One Wish Willow and the cashier flat out tells him people usually regret whatever they wish for, I NEVER THOUGH that was going to be the apex that once you take that curve it was a no return point. He buys the thing anyway, snaps it in half sitting in his car and wishes for Nikki to love him more than anyone else on earth. He looks over and sees Nikki on her porch with a dead look, begging him to take her home because her dad is supposedly dying. The switch from Bear insisting they are just friends and her friends saying she only saw him like a little brother, to her forcing herself into his car is unsettling, you realize there is something weird and wrong going on. I was locked on how uncomfortable it felt from the start, this is not a love story at all, it is just a guy taking away a choice from a woman who never actually chose him back, or well until that point.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt37287335/
- Platform: PRIME VIDEO
Rottentomatoes Rating
Inde Navarrette as Nikki is terrifying, she is so damn good and hot too that I can not understand how after the making of the movie she had to do streaming to small jobs here and there to put food on the table, at least thats what the internet says so it must be true, cant lie on the internet. She does a great job at balancing robotic obedience with tiny flashes of the real person trapped inside, the Not Me!! note. One disturbing moment is Bear finding she dug his dead cat out of the garbage and set up a candlelit memorial for it. Most normal people would see a dead pet shrine and run, but Bear accepts it because she puts on a red dress and acts like the perfect girlfriend at work. They kiss in the office and make breakfast together, while their friends Ian and Sarah watch confused, knowing Nikki only saw him as a little brother. Then it gets even worse one night when Bear wakes up and she is just standing still in a dark corner of the bedroom watching him "sleep", this scene was money because she was so well damn hidden within the shadow. She starts wailing like a baby, crying about how he does not love her as much as she loves him and her whole body is moving in this janky, wrong way. I felt so bad for her watching this, you can tell she has zero control over her body and someone trying to reach and tell this is not her, she is basically trapped inside herself and stupid Bear doesn't seem to get it or does he?. The camera keeps landing on her creepy smiles and reverse walking, uncomfortable to watch. Navarrette straight up nails it, every interaction feels like watching a car crash happen in slow motion and you cannot look away, I have read comments about how Bear is so starved for affection he ignores every red flag waving in his face, but the movie does this great job at still make you wonder if he is doing it on purpose or is he just afraid of her or loosing her, its damn confusing thats what makes it so dman good, but towards the end he makes the right desicion to end it all so is he the villian on this story?.
Basically this movie takes the old monkey paw idea and twists it into this messed up fairy tale about toxic dating culture and obsession. Things kick in high gear during the party game where everyone is pulling these giant wooden blocks with dares written on them and Nikki starts telling a warped version of Hansel and Gretel. She uses creepy character voices to describe the brother and sister getting married, a nod to seeing Bear as a sibling before the magic forced her into a romantic role. In the middle of it Nikki drops a chilling line, calling their romance a love that only the branch of a willow tree could conjure and it just confirm what the rest of the movie has been telling already to how this whole nightmare started. Bear pulls a block that says kiss the person on your left, Sarah happens to be sitting right there, and Nikki gets up and physically drags Sarah backward so she can take her spot, Nikki has turn into an eternal meme with so many faces. Right after that she has a full on mental break down, she grabs a glass bottle and smashes it into her own face while screaming, it made me think of that kind of psychological torture where you are somewhere trapped and just watching through a tv or window, stuck in the passenger seat of their own body while somebody else drives. These party scenes show how the magic does not just mess with the couple, it spreads out and infects everyone around them.
What bothered me most was how long the movie drags out Bear denying his fault while the consequences scream in his face so this is where its a bit confusing if he really knows what is going on or just doesnt want to let his dream come true end. In one scene he opens his sandwich container to find polaroid pictures inside, one of him saying you, one of her saying not me, that was the first clear clue and I was like wtf. He takes a bite anyway, flips a sticky note and realizes she cooked his dead cat and fed it to him, that right there is HUGE red flag he never mention or say anything about, second wtf moment. Its like he refuses to end the nightmare, calling the customer service number on the willow box to fix things was the moment where he start to look for options to end this. The call was frustrating too becuse he gets a bored guy and asks if he can alter the wish so she loves him normally, ignoring that she is losing her mind. The voice tells him wishes cannot be altered or canceled unless he dies, asks if he wants to talk to her and the real Nikki starts screaming, that right there could have been the perfect moment to let real Nikki cry and beg or even tell Bear how much she hates him because she is watching everything going on, it just gives me shills of just saying it putting that conversation in my head. That scream got under my skin and it pissed me off that Bear just hangs up the phone and goes right back to acting like the victim, as when he gets back to the house she is standing in the exact same spot he left her in, covered in urine and vomit because she physically could not move without him there, its a reference to a pet that can not take care of herself unless he is there, like there is no reason for it. The writing makes him so hard to be on Bear side ever since the movie starts as he is so pathetic and there is a point when it gets exhausting watching him hunt for loopholes instead of just owning what he did to her. It works as horror for sure, but watching a coward refuse to do the right thing for that long tested my patience and on top of that it really felt rushed even when it was not because he does try alternatives but there was only one way out.
Overall Obsession does a great job making you fear the consequences of forced affection, even with its frustrating main character. Bear trying to leave and seeing the front door covered in rolls of silver duct tape was hilarious and terrifying when Nikki was like "I hope I can come with you...." and he was like nah its fine I got this, openning the door. It shows how suffocating the situation gets and the panic on his face realizing he cannot leave the house without her having a total meltdown. He goes back to the crystal shop and buys more One Wish Willows, hoping to force his buddy Ian into a counter wish to fix everything but he was too pissed off at him because of what went down during the party. Ian laughs in his face and wishes for a billion dollars instead, causing literal cash to rain down from the ceiling in a hilarious and depressing scene where they both lost it, Ian couldnt believe it and Bear realize how fucked up he is now. This leaves Bear with no option but to go home, find the sleeping pills his late grandmother left behind and realize the only way to break the magic is removing himself entirely, at least he did the right thing to do but the remaining question is why? is it because he couldnt take it anymore because he could have found ways to role with Nikki, turn her into his slave or is it because he was too pathetic to take the master role? there are so many posibilities that makes this movie so damn good. The movies takes a fear a lot of people actually have, ruining a friendship and pushes it all the way to the extreme, making you sit there and watch a man slowly destroy the person he says he cares about. I am giving this one a solid valyrian steel 8 out of 10, because of how incredible the acting all around from the main to the support actors and how the disturbing atmosphere just never lets go, the movie is depresing from start to finish. Proves you do not need some massive budget to make people feel completely disgusted and terrified.
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