As of now, Obsession, the new supernatural psychological horror, boasts a $444 million box office record and a 7.9 IMDb rating. These are all signs of a masterpiece, and I wasn’t in for any nasty surprises. Instead, I was bombarded by its stale narrative and 100% predictable twists.
We live in a very strange era. AI has been taking over everything in the past couple of years, and people act like good things never existed prior to AI. Apparently, good books, films, paintings, or songs hadn’t shaped our history. Consequently, they are willing to accept anything remotely good as a tour de force. Plus, horror is such a nuanced and difficult genre to nail that mediocre horror flicks are susceptible to getting overhyped. This is exactly what happened with Obsession, and let me break it down for you.
Obsession movie Synopsis
Baron, a depressed man living with his cat, is obsessed with his co-worker Nikki. One day he comes across a supernatural trinket that makes any wish come true. On a whim, he buys a One Wish Willow and snaps it in half, wishing for Nikki’s everlasting love. Soon, the wish turns into a curse.
Obsession’s characters are shallow
Characters are the backbone of any story. If they are shallow and two-dimensional, you'll easily get tired of them. Obsession’s characters are the textbook example of this.
Sure, when you’re depressed and morally paralyzed, you won’t be Superman. You’ll be a Baron. But getting cut off every time you’re about to express your feelings must rile up anyone. Even the most innocent human being. This especially happens when you have a douchebag friend like Ian. It’s your friend. You sure can say, “Let me speak for once.”
Even after finally getting the chance to talk to the potential love of his life, Baron is weak enough to tell Nikki that they are only good friends. Don’t forget that Nikki literally gives him a shot and asks him whether he likes her. How can you be that weak? I’m sorry, it’s beyond me.
Ian’s or Sarah’s characters aren’t even worth talking about because they are just bland. They are just supporting characters that add nothing to the story.
Nikki’s character is the only good thing about this whole movie; she acts as a normal human being.
Obsession’s narrative is too predictable
Baron "Bear" is obviously obsessed with Nikki and is mentally unstable. Given that his cat died recently (a former cat owner myself), I get what he's going through. Then, when he finds the magical trinket, the cashier is spilling a great deal of beans. Mind you, this is very early in the movie. She practically gives away the fact that the One Wish Willow is real and they won’t take any complaints if the wish were granted. Like why? Why would you need to spoon-feed the audience to this degree? It’s literally saying, “You’re gonna see this happen next. The wish is about to come true, and Baron is gonna return to the store to get it reversed.” Plus, complaints about wishes coming true are a guarantee that the wish is going to go south, and guess what happens?
If the cashier were written a tiny bit less talkative, perhaps there would have been a lot to be imagined.
On the other hand, Ian, Bear’s friend, was clearly, VERY clearly infatuated with Nikki, and his reluctance to let his friend take the chance with her says it all. He was always hellbent on stopping Bear from telling Nikki how he feels about her. Later in the movie, bam! Sarah, their other friend, says that Ian and Nikki have been “hooking up” from time to time.
When the story progresses, Baron realizes that it wasn’t Nikki at all. Her love wasn’t true, and he tries to reverse it by buying another One Wish Willow. Okay, cool, as predicted, as any sane human would do, he buys the trinket and tries to make another wish upon it to overwrite the current wish. But, no, he gets one wish. Well, again, it was sort of a given.
Now, let’s think about the fates of the other friends: Ian and Sarah. After Baron shows up at Ian’s boys’ night with Nikki, she prevents Baron from kissing Sarah by pulling her out of the way. She makes a big scene about how sacred their love is in front of everybody. Here, it’s crystal clear that Nikki, or the entity that controls Nikki, doesn’t like Sarah that much. Baron is aware that Nikki is bat shit crazy and quite dangerous. Still, he goes to meet Sarah and flirts with her. This scene provides a calmness from all the chaos that is happening in Baron’s life. It is too serene that we can easily guess that Nikki is going to come and ruin it. Well, wasn’t I right on the money on that one? Sure enough, Nikki shows up and brutally murders Sarah. This doesn’t make us empathize with Baron any more, because it was a pretty stupid move to meet Sarah while a killer is on the loose. Ian, on the other hand, was killed in a humorous way, which I believe he had it coming. Then again, we could predict this scenario from the very beginning that everyone around was going to die. There was no surprise there.
Next, the lunch box scene. When Nikki says that she packed a lunch for Baron, I swear I told my husband, “Yeah, she cooked the cat. That’s gotta be the cat,” to which my husband laughed. Subsequently, in the next scene, Sarah explicitly says that Bear’s lunch smells funny. Could you be more spoonfeeding? Also, after someone literally digs up your pet, would you even stand a hundred yards from that person, let alone eat something they make?
After Baron gets the information that, in order to reverse the wish or the curse at this point, he has to end his own life, he swallows a bunch of pills. Guess what? He dies, and Nikki is set free in the end. Finito. No surprises there as well. The ending is questionable too, but I’ll discuss it in a second.
Obsession’s story isn’t fresh
If you’re a Supernatural (TV series) fan, you might already know what I’m getting at. Do you remember the episode “Wishful Thinking,” aired in 2008? When I started watching Obsession, and when the protagonist is conveniently set up with a “One Wish Willow”, right then I knew what was going to happen. Of course, Baron is obsessed with Nikki, and he’s going to wish for her eternal love. I’m not accusing the writers of stealing the story from Supernatural point blank, but I saw a lot of similarities.
One, when he wished for Nikki’s love, she acts as if she loves him more than anyone. He even asks whether she loves him more than anyone in the world. See what I’m doing here? In the Supernatural episode, the girl acts the same way, saying, “I love you more than anything”. Then she proceeds to make a feast for him, like in Obsession, where it’s shown that Nikki had made a meal for him.
I’m not going to say that every story nowadays has to be a hundred percent original. Besides, those who aren’t familiar with Supernatural probably won’t even get it. But I doubt that this idea itself is remotely unique. I feel like it’s been done one too many times. Frankly, it’s not that special.
Obsession’s ending doesn’t make sense
In the end, it shows the One Wish Willow Baron bought before has snapped in half. This insinuates that Nikki, the only one who was alive at that point, snapped it, wishing that Baron would reciprocate her love. Hence, Baron’s sudden change in mood after swallowing the pills. He then comes out of the bathroom and kisses Nikki. Unfortunately, the pills kick in, and Baron dies, despite Nikki’s wish.
Okay, but let’s rewind for a little bit. Isn’t the wish itself powerful enough to counteract reality? The movie shows us that any wish can be true. It even has the strength to make millions of dollars shower through roofs. So, isn’t it capable of burning a couple of pills that Baron JUST swallowed? Why all of a sudden is the wish too weak to keep Baron alive?
I have so many questions, and it doesn’t make any sense to me. Honestly, if Nikki’s wish came true and if they lived happily ever after, this movie’s ending could’ve been more meaningful and regarded as a film with a nice twist. A missed opportunity, I say.
But it’s not ALL bad
All in all, we should bestow credit where it’s due. As I mentioned in the first section, one thing that I admired was Inde Navarrette’s acting. Her character has more depth than everyone else in the movie combined. I am not exactly sure if any CGI is involved or if Inde could contour her face in such a creepy way. Either way, I felt that she has brought her A game to this movie.
Another thing I loved was Nikki’s unnatural movements. For example, how she moves when Bear is in bed, and how she makes incredibly disturbing movements in the latter part of the movie when Bear comes home and sees Sarah’s body in a chair are specific moments that gave me chills. Moreover, the particular lighting choices they have made when showing Nikki’s obscure face with a glint in her eyes are extremely unsettling and a spectacular call, I might add.
Speaking of Sarah, her death was gruesome, and later how her naked corpse was positioned in a lewd way in a chair was not a great picture to remember. This was a high point in the movie in terms of using body horror.
Verdict: Obsession is an okay movie
It almost feels like Obsession is just a horror movie that came out in a year when everybody was starving. Neither is it the best horror movie that we’ve seen in a decade, nor does it deserve a 7.9 rating.
However, I understand why some people might be obsessed with it. No pun intended. I’d like to underscore the fact that it is made by Curry Barker, a YouTuber, and creators are always close to our hearts. Perhaps they feel like mainstream horror isn’t doing it for them anymore. But I would like to argue that films like The Barbarian or Weapons exist. If you haven’t watched them, go and give them a try. They have phenomenal, non-linear, and fresh stories that’ll boggle your minds a little bit, and some will be insomniac for a couple of days.
Obsession, on the other hand, is just a below-average horror movie that is hands down an overhyped piece that generated a lot of dollars, which it certainly didn’t deserve. In other words, it’s like giving a drop of water to someone who’s been walking through the desert for days, and them calling it the thing that saved them.
