Who is the REAL Villain in Obsession?

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]I'm kind of shocked that this is even a debate, but let's debate it.

[00:00:13]What is up, guys, and welcome to a spoilerfilled discussion on the brand new horror film Obsession. If you haven't gotten the hint from the thumbnail and from what I just said, I'm going to get into all of the nitty-gritty details of the plot and some of the more shocking moments of Obsession. And so if you have not seen this film, please do not watch this video. Get your ass out of the theater as soon as possible and check out one of the best horror films to come out in the last decade. Now, with that being said, typically when I do a spoiler review for a film, I just kind of go beat forbeat through the plot of the movie and add some extra context, some extra details, and some extra commentary as we go along through the movie's plot. But with this film specifically, I was actually only inspired to do a follow-up spoiler review because of a massive amount of people that I have seen online debating one of the more core elements of this movie that I'm quite honestly surprised has turned into such a huge debate. I mean, when you pull up Twitter, there's literally a trending news story that says, "Obsession horror film divides fans on protagonists villain." So, this is not just a couple of people. This is not just a couple of rage baiters in the comments section or a couple of people that were on their phone scrolling Facebook when they should have been watching the movie. This is a substantial enough amount of people that are either ambiguous on whether or not they're willing to consider the main character Bear the villain of the movie or 100% against it and think that he is just an innocent person and there's way more nuance to it than what people are portraying. Now granted, I have seen this film twice. And the first time that I watched it was all the way back in September, like eight plus months ago.

[00:01:50]So I've had a lot more time to sit and think and unpack this film than most people that saw it just this opening weekend. But even with that said, even when I saw it the first time, this was not something that was ambiguous to me.

[00:02:03]To me, this was very clearly the point of the narrative of Obsession. And so how do I come to that conclusion? Well, let's just start at the beginning of the film. So, we're introduced to the main character, Bear, who is talking with his friend Ian as well as Sarah. And they are basically coaching him and trying to give him like a way to play out and dramatize how he is going to convey his feelings that he has clearly had for a very long time for their their mutual friend Nikki, a girl that he has been friends with presumably most of his life and is also a co-orker of his. And you can tell from the tone of the language and the body language and just the way that they are interacting with him that this is something that has been very obvious to them and has been almost to a frustrating degree something that they wish that he would just [ __ ] or get off the pot with for a very long time. It is not at all like he just suddenly within the last month developed feelings for Nikki. It has been a long gestating obsession. Now, in the first act of the film, I will throw everybody that is on the opposite side of this argument of me a bone. The movie very clearly wants you to sympathize with Bear as a character, especially if you are somebody that in any way, shape, or form was Bear at one time. And I'm here to tell you definitively at one point in my life, I was actually bare. Actually, multiple points in my life. I was a very shy, timid kid. Some of that was just me being down on how I looked, whether it was weight, whether it was muscle tone, whatever you want to call it. All of us have insecurities, especially as a teenager, all the way up into our 20s, and hopefully we grow out of it eventually. But I was definitely one of those people that at multiple points throughout my adolescence and my early adulthood had an affinity for a girl that I very much struggled with the confidence to convey my feelings and had a success rate that was damn near zero.

[00:03:55]And so for as agonizing as it is to watch as a grownass adult who has grown out of that stage of life, to to watch a character like Bear sit there and be stuck in his own insecurities and his own lack of confidence to that degree, I know what that felt like and I know the mental gymnastics that that person goes through where it should be something very easy and yet it is the most difficult thing on the face of the [ __ ] earth. And so we're given this main character who is a very seemingly innocent, unassuming, harmless looking character where his only goal is just to have a romantic relationship and hopefully have his feelings returned to this girl that he very much cares for.

[00:04:40]Up to this point, there's no reason not to like the guy or to suspect anything negative about him. And that is 100% intended to disarm you. you were supposed to feel that way about this character throughout pretty much the first act of the film. And there's some very deliberate choices in the dialogue and the storytelling with Nikki's character in the first act that only reinforces this that I've actually seen a lot of people debating these moments.

[00:05:04]So, in the time where you have Bear and Nikki together after they have their little friend get together at the bar and they're driving home, and you can clearly tell that Bear is still looking for the right moment, looking for the right words to finally say all the things that he has on his heart to Nikki. And she seems like maybe she's going to be a little bit receptive because she seems a little down. She seems like there's something going on in her life. She's getting ready to quit the job that they work at together.

[00:05:31]She's put in her two weeks notice, so their time of spending a lot of time together is going to come to an end, which only hastens his need to try to hook up with her so that they don't lose contact completely. And I'm going to jump forward quite a bit into the film because this is something that is not revealed until the third act of the movie. But my read on why she has put in her two weeks notice at this job is because of this on andoff sexual relationship that she has with their mutual friend Ian. the same one that was coaching Bear in the opening scene and is fully encouraging him to lay his feelings out there and hopefully succeed at securing a relationship with Nikki.

[00:06:10]And what leads me down that belief is the moment where she is getting ready to go back into the house and he nervously asks for her to wait and she comes back and she leans into the open window of the car and he's yet again stammering over himself. He's struggling to find words and she just point blank tells him, "Bear, do you like me? Because if you do, this is the moment to tell me."

[00:06:34]And I hear that and that does not at all tell me that Nikki has feelings for him and she's been waiting for him to finally have the balls to say it to me.

[00:06:44]I hear that and I recognize that she is in such a emotional tumultuous point in her life where she's not really sure what's going to happen with the Ian relationship or something has happened that makes it clear that that is never going to be anything but physical or maybe they had a falling out off of screen and now she's vulnerable and it really would feel good to have somebody that she knows is not going to hurt her the way that Ian clearly has to say, "Hey, I like you. Give me a shot." I don't believe for a second that if Bear had had the balls to say it in that moment and even if she was reciprocating of those feelings in that moment that their whatever version of their relationship that came out of that would have succeeded. It very clearly would have been a short-lived rebound and maybe even destroyed their friendship altogether because anything from a rebound stage which is a point of vulnerability where you just want to be comforted extreme rarity for that to actually work out in anything long term. Well, why would Ian, if he's having this on and off again relationship with Nikki, why would he encourage Bear to come in and possibly interject into that? Why would he want Nikki to get dumped off on to him when clear clearly he likes her, has something of an intention with her? And I've seen a couple of people really call this whole situation into question, mostly women, for understandable reasons, because it is having a block of an understanding of some guy's psychology. So, I totally get that. But I'm here to tell you from experience, I don't endorse this. I think it's gross, but I have experienced this on Bear's End numerous times as a teenager all the way up into my 20s that there are absolutely guys out there that even with their best friend will absolutely do things to stroke their own ego and get some sort of a satisfaction out of watching somebody fail where they have succeeded. In other words, Ian has been [ __ ] Nikki for an indeterminate amount of time. And so, he fully encourages Bear to go and shoot his shot, knowing good and well that he has almost no chance in hell of succeeding.

[00:08:54]One, because he absolutely wants Bear to shut the [ __ ] up about Nikki and move on. As I said earlier, [ __ ] or get off the pot. But two, and possibly more importantly to him, wants to see Bear fail where he has succeeded numerous times. I've been [ __ ] this girl for two plus years and you can't even get one date with her. He's not gonna tell him that, but he's gonna know it up here and it's going to be of some sort of value to him. It's [ __ ] weird and it's gross. I don't get it. But it is absolutely something that I've seen numerous guys do. Or he actually does have some intentions or some sort of desire of a longer relationship with Nikki. And so he's hoping that Bear can go and hook up with her or have a couple of dates with her and both. He will understand that it never is going to go into anything further than that. and she will understand how much more boring and lifeless a relationship with a guy like Bear will be versus a relationship with him who's a little bit more rough around the edges and she'll come back to him with open arms. That's possible, too.

[00:09:50]All of this is speculation since none of this is spelled out directly in the movie. But regardless, the ultimate point that I'm coming to is that the movie deliberately puts a lot of information in front of you about why Nikki would be in a vulnerable enough spot to try to encourage him to open up and finally say what he has needed to say. And none of that information is meant to convey to you that she actually does have feelings for him and would have been in love with him had he just opened his mouth. All of this leading up to the inciting incident that kicks off the plot of the film, which is where as she goes inside and Bear is yet again just so disappointed and frustrated with himself that he had an opportunity right there. She literally teed it up for him and did everything but speak the words for him and he [ __ ] choked. And so he breaks the one wish Willow and wishes that Nikki loved him more than anybody else in the world with absolutely no intention and no knowledge that this little [ __ ] gag gift actually was a real thing and that this wish was going to come true. Everything up to this point, yes, Bear is innocent. Bear is not a villain and Bear is completely unknowing of the things that he is kicking off. But that is very short-lived because not too long after this, the movie does many deliberate things to show you that there is something much more sinister, much more tarnished about this guy than they are willing to let you know in the first act. And all throughout the film, all they do is reinforce the fact that Nikki is the victim and Bear is the aggressor.

[00:11:24]And I understand that for some people that maybe just watched the film one time or didn't pay as much attention to it that they are just so locked in on Indie Never Readyy's performance and they are just so locked in and engaged with all of the wild and horrific [ __ ] that the character Nikki is doing on screen that maybe they were so preoccupied that they didn't even notice all of the quieter moments that they develop out all the [ __ ] that Bear is doing. And I like to think that a lot of people that had that type of experience with the film will have a very different experience and will notice so much more on their second viewing. But regardless, make no mistake, Bear is the villain of this movie. And the moment that that becomes definitive is still pretty early on in the movie where after this wish, they start to get together. You know, she did something weird with this cat that kind of threw him for a bit of a loop and everybody around them is a little bit put off about suddenly her change of heart and her very extreme change in personality, but they're having their little loveydovey montage where it's this meat cute and they're starting to cook breakfast with each other and everything. And eventually you get to this scene in a restaurant where they're sitting across from each other and they're having a little bit of a back and forth and she's just so head over heels in love with him and Bayer is showing confidence and actually some personality for the first time where he's not just this nervous stammering [ __ ] He's actually like cracking some jokes and being a little bit sly and talking about food critic and all this other stuff. They're having a good little time. And then you get a phone call from Ian where he says, "Hey, I have found out that everything she told you about her father dying of cancer is [ __ ] The dude is 100% healthy, living his best life somewhere else.

[00:13:10]Something is going on. I don't know if she's trying to manipulate you. I don't know if she's lying to get something from you, but there's some [ __ ] about Oh, and to add insult to injury, I have it on very good authority that not too long before you guys started suddenly becoming a couple, Nikki expressed pretty definitively that she had no romantic interest in you whatsoever. So, take that for what you will. Bye. And Bear has a moment to react to this information that is intended to make him think, "Holy [ __ ] maybe this one wish Willow actually did work." Because if us being together is so contradictory to who Nikki was as a person just moments before I broke that [ __ ] thing, then maybe there's some validity to this little gag gift. He has a moment to come to that realization. And especially when she starts acting like a [ __ ] loon in the middle of this restaurant. But rather than actually react to that with any sort of seriousness, it just hard cuts to a sex scene, which when you're first watching it just feels like a sex scene. But when you actually are paying attention to what is going on and by the performance of India in that scene especially, it's a rape scene. I mean, they're having sex. I'm sure the words that came out of whatever version of Nikki he's with was probably consensual and encouraging towards it. But in the actual act while it's happening, she's practically catatonic. I mean, it looks like Bill Cosby came by and was the waiter at the [ __ ] restaurant. I mean, she's just laying there like a tool that he is using. For most people, that's the tipping point. That is the point where suddenly Bear is no longer sympathetic. Bear is no longer innocent.

[00:14:46]Bear is no longer harmless. Now, he is somebody who is absolutely in the know that something is off and yet fully taken advantage of it despite one person in this exchange being completely unable to give consent or do anything willingly. And immediately after this happens, you have one of the most terrifying sequences in the entire film where Bear is asleep and is woken up to find that Nikki is not next to him. And she is standing off in the darkness in the corner watching him sleep and starts to freak out and scream erratically and accuse him of not loving her as much as she loves him and moving very unnaturally and bringing a [ __ ] flower pot in like doing all of these things. That is absolute nightmare fuel as I described it in my initial review.

[00:15:32]And yet at this point, it's not enough for Bear to say, you know, maybe I should call that customer service line because holy [ __ ] this is not Nikki.

[00:15:41]And I think it's very deliberate that the very next scene has Bear going off to do his shift at the music store, to which now it's been enough time where that two weeks notice that Nikki has put in has lapsed and she clearly no longer has the obligation of going to work. And when he goes to leave, the front door is completely duct taped shut with like six rolls of duct tape. On its surface, this is going to convey to you how possessive Nikki is becoming, that she does not even want him to leave the house now.

[00:16:10]She wants him to spend every waking moment of his life with her in her company. But in light of the things that just happened in the previous two scenes, you can also look at this as a little bit of a metaphor for how Nikki herself is trapped. About how Nikki herself has had the door slammed shut and taped over to which she cannot escape. She is stuck where she is inside of this other version of herself, inside the sunken place, possessed by a demon.

[00:16:40]Whatever the actual lore of this OneWish Willow is, she is the one trapped. And only after going to work and realizing that Nikki has served him his dead cat as lunch does he finally decide to look into this OneWish Willow a little bit further. And so he sits in his car after his shift and calls the customer service line, which a very cool little cameo if you didn't catch. Curry Barker, the writer and director and editor, is the voice of the person who is the customer service representative. And then in this moment, if you even if you want to really really stretch things and give Bear somewhat of a rope where it's like h I don't know. I still feel like he doesn't quite understand what he's into.

[00:17:20]I'm still not completely willing to say that he's a villain. I'm still not completely willing to say that he is in the wrong here and isn't just completely oblivious to the crazy [ __ ] that he is doing. Even if you want to take that stance in this moment when he calls this customer service line, that stance is immediately cut off from having any ties to logic whatsoever. Because he calls this customer service line and instead of trying to stop the wish, initially all he wants to do is alter the wish. He just wants to change it. He just wants to make the wish even more serving of what he wants out of Nikki. you know, the fact that she loves me more than anybody else and she's totally dedicated and just fixated on me. All that shit's great. All that stuff is exactly what I wanted, but all that crazy [ __ ] can we like can we get rid of that? Can we make her more like Nikki? You know, it's almost like she's a live-in sex bot, and it's like, can you make her more real?

[00:18:17]Can you can you get rid of some of that uncanny valley there? And the customer service guy says, yeah, well, you know, we can't really alter the wish. You know, the the wish is the wish. And so only when he has nothing left available to him, no more options, is he willing to cancel the wish. To which he is yet again told, "Well, we don't exactly do that." So you're up shit's creek. You You have now caused this situation. You have made your bed and you are forced to lie in it. It is not going to be as easy as, uh, well, I [ __ ] up. Just, you know, put in a cancel request and we'll go back to normal. And if that scene's intention doesn't hit you hard enough with the implications, then they definitely hammer it home by having the customer service guy ask if he wants to speak to Nikki. Puts presumably the real Nikki on the phone where she is just giving the most horrific guttural scream imaginable. This is somebody that is trapped inside of her own body, watching and experiencing everything that has been happening to her for presumably weeks with no ability to move or control herself whatsoever. As I keep saying, quite literally like the sunken place in Get Out, which I'm sure was a massive inspiration for Curry Barker in writing this movie. Just just imagine that. Take away a sexual relationship and everything else. Just imagine that you are suddenly on autopilot. You are looking at everything through your eyes as you normally do, but you are not controlling your body. Everywhere that it goes, everything that it says, everyone that it interacts with, everything that it decides to do, you have no control over it. You are just there experiencing it completely locked out. Yeah, I would scream like a [ __ ] too on the customer service line. So, at this point, like that's where it's no longer a debate. And yet the movie still gives us plenty more reason to understand that Bear is the [ __ ] villain of this movie. So now that Bear knows that definitively he is not going to have an easy way out of this. He can't just flip the switch and go back to start. He goes home and finds Nikki covered in piss and [ __ ] and vomit and sweat or what other bodily fluid she's covered in because she's been standing in the same [ __ ] spot for 10 plus hours. And then you have yet another terrifying scene where she's just in the shower and all you do is hear things and yet it just absolutely makes you tense up and she forces her way basically into being brought to this little guys to get get together which is absolutely not a get together. And I you know this is the moment too where you really start to hone in on the type of person that Bayer is really intended to embody here. the the type of person that he is supposed to be portraying. Now, one of the scenes that preceded this was him having a little heart-to-heart with Ian, where Ian is no longer the supportive friend, even though he's the the dick version of the supportive friend, as I talked about earlier. He's no longer cool with them having this relationship. Basically, everybody around him, all their mutual friends, co-workers, they're all so put off by this relationship that it feels like there's some kind of predatory behavior going on or there's some kind of, you know, locking somebody away. There's something off. They all know it, but they won't [ __ ] do anything about it, but they'll just mention it to him. And this is where you start to see Bear's entitlement really start to flare up.

[00:21:40]followed by the party where yet again he's at the party with all the mutual friends. Everybody knows Bear. Everybody knows Nikki. You can presume that pretty much everybody there has known for a very long time that Bear has been in love with Nikki or at least what he perceives as love. And now he's there.

[00:21:57]He gets to show off the fact that, hey, we hooked up. We're finally a couple. I got what I wanted. [ __ ] all of you who didn't believe in me. And nobody there is happy for him. Nobody there is like, "Oh man, it's so cool you guys are finally, you know, hooking up. You you two kids. I always knew that you had a future together." Nobody's that way.

[00:22:14]Everybody is either just ignoring it or even slightly flirting with Nikki. Like the guy that wants to switch seats with him. He's like, "I'm going to sit next to Nikki, [ __ ] You get over here, Bear." Very clearly trying to get snuggled up to her. Or friends like Ian and Sarah that are just totally put off by the relationship. Nobody is supporting him, congratulating him, validating him in this relationship, which only brews his entitlement even more. She goes off on this really [ __ ] creepy monologue where she's given like this almost incestuous like retelling of Hanzel and Gretle and Bear seemingly is just like I mean that that's what she does now and everybody else is like what the [ __ ] Bear pulls the Jenga block that says, "Kiss the person to your left." And she has this horrifying [ __ ] reaction that is so long and drawn out and uncomfortable.

[00:23:07]And yet Bear seems the least bothered by it of anybody in the room. Everyone else is ready to [ __ ] duck for cover. And he's just like, "Oh."

[00:23:16]All of this conveys to me that like he knows something is wrong. He knows this is not Nikki. He knows this is not real.

[00:23:25]He knows that this is a product of a supernatural wish or curse or whatever you want to interpret it as. And yet he is so stubborn in the fact that he feels entitled to Nikki that he is willing to treat that as if that is the new normal.

[00:23:41]And yet the hits keep coming immediately after she freaks out where the real Nikki presumably suddenly gets control of her body again for a moment and she breaks a bottle and starts stabbing her [ __ ] face. That level of desperation to end her own life or do something as a cry out for help that nobody could [ __ ] ignore.

[00:24:04]And yet he takes her home, tries to take her to the hospital, you know, takes her home, hangs out, like starting to get over the point where he feels like, how the [ __ ] do I make this some tolerable version of what is going on? Because this can't go on much longer without me getting in a lot of trouble. And he's laying in bed with her. He's starting to get texts from Sarah, the mutual friend, who very clearly is not in approval of this relationship and is completely perturbed by the fact that Nikki had such a stark change of heart with him.

[00:24:37]She's texting him trying to get him to come outside. And only after she threatens to come and knock on the door and he knows, "Holy [ __ ] that will not go well." does he decide to sneak away and go see what exactly is up with Sarah. and he gets to the door and yet again if you're still all the way up to this point not in belief that he is a villain and he is a [ __ ] up dude that has some massive problems he goes to the door and again the real Nikki decides to come out and speak and asks him to end her life says bear please kill me she's asleep don't wake her up just end this let me out of this kill me.

[00:25:22]And Bayer is not in disbelief of the fact that that's the real Nikki and just writes it off as like this is just more weird [ __ ] And it's not that Bear is like mortified at the thought of killing Nikki and that's why he has inaction in this moment. None of that. He's just offended at the notion that the real Nikki would rather die than remain in this wish. the real Nikki would rather die than be a passenger in her own body.

[00:25:51]After hearing all this, Bear looks down and I might be paraphrasing, but I'm pretty sure the exact line is, "What is so bad about being with me?"

[00:26:03]He is not worried at all about the fact that she is in a point where she would rather end her life than continue on with what is going. He is just absolutely offended at the fact that he feels like he is the perfect person for her and he is entitled to her love and the fact that she yet again rejects that. That is what he is bothered by.

[00:26:24]That is what horrifies him. And I'm here to tell you like that entitlement is real. Like nowhere near the psycho horrific level that this movie is portraying it. But go back to what I said at the beginning about how once upon a time I was the type of guy that Bear was. very shy, very timid, very low confidence, and had friends, had, you know, mutual friends, whatever that I had romantic feelings for. And, you know, especially ones where you're close with them, and all the things that they say are like, "Oh, I just need a guy who's this and this and this. I'm so tired of these jerks. I'm so tired of these guys that don't value me and don't want to be around me." And you hear stuff like that and you're like, "Me?

[00:27:04]I'm the guy. I I'm the perfect [ __ ] candidate." all the things that you just said, check, check, check, baby. That's me. And anytime that I felt that way, guess what? It didn't work out. Because as much as I felt like I was the right guy, clearly for whatever reason, whether they were right in feeling that way or wrong in feeling that way, they didn't agree. And you move on. You you you find somebody else. You you try yet again or you mature as a person or you grow as a person or whatever has to happen for you eventually to find the relationship that you end up with that makes you happy. But that entitlement is real and I'm sure it's real on the guy and the girl side where you feel like I am the person that you should be with.

[00:27:45]And if you don't have that person agree or reciprocate those thoughts, sometimes it can be a little offensive. Sometimes it can be a little bit disheartening and and can chip away at your self-confidence a bit where you're just like, "What about me is not good enough?

[00:27:57]Like I'm I'm insulted at the fact that I'm not good enough." We've all had that moment. And so that emotion is only sympathetic in that way. But in the context of this situation, in the context of the film and all the [ __ ] that has preceded it, it's not sympathetic anymore. This is no longer somebody just struggling with the realization that they're not right for each other. This is somebody who is saying, "I am going to have this relationship whether you are a willing participant in it or not." And make no mistake, if the next scene did not happen, that is where this story would end. Would be him completely willingly sticking with this relationship, letting the real Nikki remain in her sunken place and continuing on whatever version of normal he can try to convince himself that he's in with this version of Nikki.

[00:28:47]But then it comes to its ultimate head when he is sitting in the car with Sarah and he gets the revelation that Ian and the real Nikki had been hooking up sexually for years with this on and off again relationship which I'm sure was a gigantic dagger to his [ __ ] ego.

[00:29:05]And only in that moment does he suddenly open himself up to Sarah possibly being the next one. All this crazy shit's getting a little bit too much. like maybe it's time to move on to to to Sarah. But nonetheless, as soon as that emotion starts to come up, you get the [ __ ] brick in the face moment where uh literally where Nikki comes up, ends that [ __ ] prospect immediately and basically comes around to to tell Bear who is just absolutely in shock almost to a catatonic point of like this is what you wished for. that this is what you wished for. Only after his prospects of moving on to something else beyond Nikki are taken away from him yet again, just like the customer service call where his easy way out is slammed shut in his face.

[00:29:57]Does he decide to out of desperation go and try to get another one wish Willow?

[00:30:02]And this is yet another point where I feel like the movie very deliberately tries to reinforce the wrongdoing of the main character where he's talking to the clerk who is in this little gag gift store and they're having a conversation about the one wish willow and bear's like how can you sell this man like acting as if these things only come with doom and the clerk very clearly gives an indication that he's already used his wish and doesn't seem horrified about it. And the fact that they've sold so many of them and it's not all over the news like a [ __ ] one wish willow epidemic that's ending the world and crazy shit's happening and [ __ ] money's falling out of the sky and skyscrapers are just kind of going up left and right of people wishing for riches. Like clearly most people using these one wish willows for more moral wishes or or at least not quite as sinister wishes to where you don't have quite the monkeykey's paw lesson going on. Somebody might wish for a bigger dick or somebody might wish for a shiny new car or somebody might wish for a loved one to be back to life. I don't know. That would probably be a [ __ ] up one. That that's a good sequel right there. But uh I think in that moment it is intended to convey to the audience that the one wish willow is not like this cursed object where anybody that uses it is going to have the fate of what is going on with Bear and Nikki.

[00:31:30]Bear just used it for the wrong reasons.

[00:31:32]He used it for nefarious reasons. Maybe ignorantly in the moment, but nefarious reasons nonetheless.

[00:31:40]And now you lie in it. Now you get your wish. Be careful what you wish for. And then the movie puts the ultimate exclamation point on the fact that Bear is a character that you are not supposed to ultimately like or ultimately sympathize with or ultimately root for or even have any sort of dismissal of whatsoever by him going home. And you have just all of the carnage that occurs in this final sequence to where he is left saying, "There is nothing left to do but to take myself out of this equation." The guy in the customer service line said, "The wish is in effect as long as you're alive." Well, I guess the writing's on the wall with that. Goes into the room, the bedroom, or excuse me, the bathroom.

[00:32:23]Contemplates using the gun, decides not to go that way, and very much in a call back to the way that the film opens, decides to use the the pills, the oxycodone or whatever that killed his cat to just have an overdose and kind of go out quietly and painlessly.

[00:32:41]And if the movie had ended with that of him taking himself out of the equation, the movie ends exactly the same way, maybe there would be a small glimmer of like somewhat of an attempt at redeeming him even.1%.

[00:32:56]And initially that was the written and intended ending of this film. But luckily the lead actor Michael Johnston got with director and writer Curry Barker and said, "You know what? if we do that, but at the very last second he decides not to go through with it. You could say he pushes out or you could say in the last moment he's like, "Oh, no, wait, wait. I can I can try to make this work." Whatever it is, he decides not to go through with it and start sticking his fingers in his mouth to try to regurgitate the pills back up.

[00:33:27]that subtle little change there. It's actually not so subtle at all because it completely puts the exclamation point on the fact that this guy is off the rails.

[00:33:37]There's no saving him. There's no redeeming him. Like he is completely obsessed about not only this relationship, but obsessed with his own entitlement of what he feels like he deserves. And it's only because Nikki breaks the one wish Willow in the moment that she does that stops him from getting those pills up. And so suddenly now he has the wish cast on him to be completely in love with her. And they share a couple of moments of being the most perfect infatuated with each other codependent couple before he succumbs to his overdose. And just as Nikki is about to follow him, the real Nikki snaps back in. The wish has been broken. The curse has been broken. Whatever you want to say. And she just absolutely wales in shock with what she is surrounded by, which is nothing but death and carnage.

[00:34:28]Like all of her friends just dead and mangled around her. Her body completely mangled, probably permanently. And even if you want to follow up with that, like probably going to be the one legally found at fault for all the [ __ ] going on since she is the one that killed two of the people in the room. And then you have your movie. How you can experience all of that and not come to the definitive conclusion. Not just that Nikki's the victim. I think most people with half a brain cell can tell you that. But also that Bear is the villain.

[00:34:59]That he is the aggressor. He is the one that is wrong in this story. And as the movie goes on, all they do is present you with more and more information and opportunities for him to change or to redeem himself. And he always chooses not to. Ignorance only gets you so far.

[00:35:20]Ignorance can only get you sympathy up to the point of you knowing definitively what is going on. And I'm sorry, there is no ambiguity in it whatsoever. about 30 or so minutes into this movie, he knows without a shadow of a doubt that that wish has come true. And rather than acknowledge it or legitimately try to stop it before the point where people are [ __ ] dying or even recognize it for what it is and try to explain to his friends before the point of ultimate desperation what is going on. Rather than any of that, all he does throughout the movie is try to keep his wish, tries to keep whatever version of Nikki he is with to himself. It's part of the brilliance of this movie and with such a simple premise and a simple title of obsession that you have a scenario here where all of the most horrific [ __ ] visually and auditorially. All of that is coming from the character of Nikki.

[00:36:18]She is the one that is embodying the horror on screen. And especially for a lot of guys who have had some kind of a psycho girlfriend or some kind of a a traumatic past relationship like that, she's tapping into something where some dudes have like versions of PTSD with which is why it is so effective. And even women are looking at this going, "Oh my god." It's a testament to the movie's brilliance that everything in your face that is obsessive and horrific on screen is through the character of Nikki, but the true nature and point and intention of the actual story is all of the horror and the obsession and the nastiness being because of the main character. Like I said in my first review, my my my full review, Indie Navarretti is the one that is in command of all the loud moments in the movie.

[00:37:09]She's the one that has to go for broke, that has to push the levels up to 11, that has to absolutely just command the screen at every opportunity that she is given. And she does a phenomenal job with that. But Michael Johnson is the one that has to command the quieter moments, the more subtle moments, the more sly moments and sneaky moments in the movie. And in those quiet, more subtle moments in the movie, the narrative is absolutely telling you that Bear is the one with the obsession. that Bear is the villain. Well, that's it for this one, guys. If you enjoyed that, please click over here for all of my 2026 new release reviews. And I'm also going to put my spoiler-free full review of Obsession up here for you to check out. Hopefully, you did not watch all of that and have not seen the movie, but if you have, I don't get it. But get your ass to the theater and go support Obsession cuz it's [ __ ] amazing.

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[00:38:01]And as always, remember, opinions are like [ __ ] but that doesn't mean you have to