‘Obsession’ turns entitlement and desire into horror
The horror film uses a supernatural wish to explore male entitlement, stolen agency and the consequences of love without consent.
By M.J. Cameron
After sitting through a horror movie double feature in theaters of “The Backrooms” and “Obsession,” the latter stood out as a tense, anxiety-inducing film that may be too unsettling to watch more than once compared to the former.
The film works as a cautionary tale about male entitlement and the cost of taking away a woman’s agency. Through the relationship between Bear, played by Michael Johnston, and Nikki, played by Inde Navarrette, “Obsession” turns a supernatural wish into a disturbing story about control, desire and consent.
The One Wish Willow grants each person one wish. Bear, who has a crush on Nikki, uses his wish to make her love him more than anyone else in the world. At first, the wish may seem harmless because of Bear’s inability to tell her his feelings. However, the film quickly shows that forcing someone to love you is a violation of a person’s autonomy and displays the consequences of doing so.
The wish transforms Nikki into a possessed version of herself. She becomes obsessed with Bear, almost as if she is trapped in a trance. Her behavior frightens him, but the film makes it clear that Bear fears the consequences of the wish more than he regrets taking away her free will.
The film shows Bear’s entitlement clearly in two major scenes: his customer service call to One Wish Willow and Nikki’s sleep-talking scene.
During the customer service call, the representative asks Bear if he wants to cancel his wish. Bear immediately says no. Instead, he asks if he can alter it. The moment passes quickly, but it reveals how Bear still feels entitled to Nikki’s affection, even after seeing how the wish has changed her. He does not want to free Nikki. He wants to make the situation easier for himself.
The sleep-talking scene makes Bear’s selfishness and entitlement clearer. When Bear gets up, Nikki appears to speak to him. However, this is not the obsessed version of Nikki created by the wish. It is the real Nikki, trapped inside her own body. She begs Bear to kill her because the wish cannot end unless one of them dies. Instead of recognizing her pain, Bear asks, “Is it really so bad to be with me?” The line shows how he turns Nikki’s suffering into a question about his own feelings.
This is where Nikki becomes the heart of the film’s horror. Bear represents entitlement, but Nikki represents the loss of choice, identity and control. Bear’s wish to make Nikki love him was a magical shortcut to force her feelings and replace her authentic personality with dangerous devotion to ensure he is never with anyone else but her.
The film uses lighting to show Nikki’s identity loss. In one scene, Nikki watches Bear sleep from the corner of his room. The shadows hide her at first, and the audience does not fully see her until she steps forward. This visual choice turns Nikki into a symbol of stolen agency while creating a tense and scary moment. Bear does not love the real Nikki. He loves the empty shell and idea created by his wish.
As the film continues, darkness follows Nikki and shows how the wish slowly takes over her. She becomes more violent and dangerous, but the real tragedy is that she never chose any of it.
“Obsession” does not rely entirely on music to create fear. Instead, the film depends on Navarrette’s performance. When Nikki briefly returns to her true self throughout the film, she screams and backs away in terror. At first, the moment works as a jump scare, but it also reveals that Nikki’s real self remains trapped inside her body, frightened by what is happening to her and by the loss of her autonomy.
By the end, “Obsession” uses fear to show that love without consent is not love at all. Even after the wish on Nikki breaks at the end, she is left to suffer the consequences of Bear’s selfish choice.
