Content & Spoiler Warning: This article discusses sexual violence, manipulation, and suicide. It does not go into graphic detail. This article contains spoilers for Obsession.
Bear is a lonely, awkward guy in love with his friend Nikki, who does not love him back. One night, after failing to confess his feelings, he makes an impulsive wish on a novelty toy, “I wish Nikki Freeman loved me more than anyone in the fucking world.” The wish works, but more like a curse. Nikki is overtaken. Controlled by the wish, she brutally kills anyone perceived as a threat to her love of Bear. The real Nikki occasionally resurfaces, terrified and begging for help. Bear is rightfully horrified but unwilling to give up what he wished for. He does nothing until he finally ends his own life, which breaks the spell. Nikki wakes up covered in blood, having lost weeks of her life and without any say in what “she” did during that time.
The genius of Obsession is that it turns a familiar romance plot, the persistent guy who just wants his crush to notice him, into something monstrous. Bear doesn’t ask Nikki if she likes him. He almost tells her how he feels but chickens out, instead, making a wish that overrides her will entirely. The film treats this as exactly what it is: a violation, not a romance. When Wish Nikki has sex with Bear, her eyes are dead. When Real Nikki briefly resurfaces, she begs Bear to kill her rather than let this continue. Bear’s response, “what’s so bad about being with me,” is the most terrifying line in the movie. It shows he never cared about her consent. If Wish Nikki wasn’t so violent, it is safe to assume he would have happily stayed with Wish Nikki forever, violating Real Nikki’s consent and bodily autonomy.
Despite this, Bear is not a cartoon villain. That’s the point. He’s shy and nervous. His friends tease him for being too soft. But being shy and soft is not the same as being empathetic and respectful. Obsession shows how ‘nice guys’ curdle into something dangerous the moment they don’t get what they want. Especially, the moment their love and affection is unrequited by someone they feel entitled to.
Here’s where Obsession runs into trouble. The entire movie is shot from Bear’s point of view. We watch his sadness, his panic, his slow realization of what his wish has become. His suicide is framed almost heroically, a sacrifice that frees Nikki. Meanwhile, he got to go out on his own terms, giving himself more agency than he ever gave her.
Nikki spends most of the film as Wish Nikki, a puppet, not a person. Real Nikki has far less screentime. Even when we do see her, the movie doesn’t dwell on her thoughts, feelings, family, or life. We mostly see Bear’s fantasy of her. The character built to critique objectification spends most of her screen time being exactly that.
The imbalance shows up in the violence too. Sarah dies agonizingly slowly and graphically. Ian is shot dead in under 30 seconds. Further, Nikki spends the film’s climax in progressively less clothing while her body is used to commit violence she has no control over. Attempts to justify these choices claim they are necessary for the film’s purpose- demonstrating what men’s entitlement costs women. However that explanation is doing a lot of work to excuse choices that look, on screen, a lot like the very objectification the film claims to be criticizing.
Since release, Nikki’s face has become a meme template, mostly used by men joking about their “crazy” girlfriends. “Her sending another text while I’m out with the boys,” says one. “My gf when the waitress is hot,” says another. It’s bleak irony, but we can’t entirely blame the audience. Since the film spends so much time inside Bear’s perspective and so little time inside Nikki’s, it’s easy for viewers to walk away sympathizing with the wrong person.
The film wants to critique the ‘nice guy’ and ‘crazy girlfriend’ tropes but it accidentally reinforces them. The death of Bear’s cat and the curse of the wish are situations he caused but we spend most of the film wallowing in his victimhood. Meanwhile, Nikki spends most of the time being truly “crazy” with her body overtaken by Wish Nikki. The audience is given little insight into her emotions beyond pure suffering and even that is barely shown.
Obsession is a good film. It takes male entitlement seriously as a horror premise, and it does not let Bear off the hook… at least not entirely. But a movie about a woman being denied her humanity should not spend most of its runtime denying her the same thing. We need more of these stories, especially from women, queer folks, and people of color. We need filmmakers willing to sit inside the victim’s perspective instead of just the perpetrator’s guilt. Barker built a monster out of male entitlement and then, without quite meaning to, treated his own leading lady the same way his monster did.