The more I learn about Obsession, the more I want to call it one of the best horror movies I’ve ever seen! Not only is it very, very scary, but the more I think about it, and read about it, the more I feel like I’m descending a rabbit hole of secrets about the world of this movie. I want to talk about some theories the internet has about it that have me especially looking at it differently.
These Explanations Of Nikki Are Giving Me Chills
Something I noticed right away while watching Obsession was the use of low lighting for Nikki once the One Wish Willow was used on her, and I’m not alone in that. I found this aspect of the movie to be very helpful in creating tension and making me unsettled over Nikki, but when looking around on Threads, I noticed a couple of people reading a lot more into it than I did. Check out what they had to say:
- "A friend was commenting on the excellent use of low light and shadow in Obsession, and it suddenly hit me what a perfect symbol that lighting is for Bear loving the *idea* of Nikki rather than the actual person. What he loves is Nikki-shaped, but none of the individual details and specifics that actually make a person who they are can be properly seen. Nikki herself is obscured in shadow, leaving only a body, an outline that moves in fits and starts" @the.rebrandoning
- "Nikki at key points in the film is cast in shadow, which is unnerving. But it also reflects how she is a shadow of her former self. Nikki, post-wish, is not herself. She becomes a heightened, cursed, and perverted manifestation of 'Nikki' that Bear obsessed over and this is essentially the film signaling that Bear didn’t really know her at all." @steelchaircinema
Whoa. Talk about finding the perfect visual language to put across the messaging of the film! Suffice to say, the rave reviews from critics for Obsession are warranted.
Nikki’s Poem Has A Deeper Meaning Than I Thought
I have to admit, as Obsession went on, I think my fear over what was going to happen next meant that I missed quite a few elements of the movie on my first watch. But thankfully, other people noticed it for me. One big scene in the movie is when Nikki reads a poem she wrote at a party. I just found it creepy and disturbing, but people online are straight-up analyzing it. Take a look:
- "my interpretation is that Bear perverted the relationship she thought they had, she saw him as a sibling but it’s being forced into a sexual relationship with Bear. I think she expressed her being assaulted through art because that’s the only way Nikki could speak to the outside world is through her writing" @crackdpropane
- "Also, the line about 'a love that only the branch of a willow could bring' seems like she’s straight-up saying that the only way she would have ever been with him was the wish." @robmatsushita
- "I am pretty sure it represents how the real Nikki saw him as a brother (we get this info from Sarah). And how the love she had for him before has become perverted an corrupted by the wish. So her previous siblings love has now turned incestuous, whick the poem directly references through the Hansel and Gretel story where those two are siblings. And for why the poem in itself is a poem, that directly correlates to the original Nikki being a writer, and that she expressed her feelings through it." @_.veoma._
This is a huge revelation to me, because I kept thinking throughout the movie whether Nikki would have shared mutual feelings toward Bear if he had just asked her rather than making the wish. Per these comments, there’s a pretty big clue in the movie that Nikki saw Bear more as a brother, and because he made a wish that was perhaps outside of her nature, things got extra unsettling because of it.
I should also point out that Inde Navarrette (who plays Nikki) told CinemaBlend that Obsession is not a demonic possession movie, so it’s not like Nikki was possessed by another evil – it was directly the wish that made her that way.
There Also Seems To Be More To Why Bear Curses Nikki
One more theory about Obsession that has me thinking differently about the whole movie has to do with Bear and the details around him that fans have noticed. Check out these comments:
- "Regarding Obsession and Bear, there was some arrested development going on. Notice the house? He barely changed a thing from when his grandmother was alive. Her furniture is there. His baby photos are still up. Her pills are in the medicine cabinet. I see people complaining that he didn’t man up but he’s been stuck somewhere in his younger age for a long time." @drjenniferscott
- "Bear doesn't have a family. I think he says that his parents moved into the house when he was a teenager and THEY didn't change anything. Thinking about where his extreme fear of being turned down has come from. As an actor, that's where I'd go. That's where I'd draw from. He loses his shit over the cat and that's why. It's probably all he had left. I think this is also why you can't say Bear was a bad guy from the get go. He was just broken, in ways that closed him off and made it safer for him to not engage" @phillipcreates
I definitely knew Bear was living in his grandma’s house and noticed it didn’t look like “his,” but they make really good points about what the house says about him. As you can imagine, a lot of discourse around Obsession has to do with if and why Bear is the villain of the story, but I think this analysis of him really adds to the storytelling, being very three-dimensional. If Bear had abandonment and rejection issues, it would make a lot more sense for him to make the wish rather than tell Nikki how he felt about her.
While you’re here, you can check out what the writer/director told us about his inspirations for the Obsession and what he and the cast think happens after the final shot. You can also see what other upcoming horror movies are on the way if Obsession has you on a terror kick.
