OBSESSION. The Real Horror Is Not The Gore

I went to watch Obsession and I almost wish I didn't. Straight after the film, I remember thinking I couldn't believe I actually sat through all of it. Yet, I would watch it again just to re-analyse ev-ery-thing.

Obsession is a new hit horror movie by American filmmaker and Youtuber Curry Barker. The small cast comprises of four main characters with Bear played by Johnston and Nikki played by Inde Navarratte as the leads.

The synopsis and trailer make the film seem like your typical poorly executed romantic horror like Heart Eyes (2025) by which it's focus is on gore and jump scares with elements of romance. In other words, a rom-com slasher. However, Obsession is a lot more sinister than that and the whole film is full of carefully crafted moments of irony and foreshadowing. No detail seems to be there just for the sake of it.

Barker has initiated a world of one wish willows which follows the "be careful what you wish for" trope. Bear is in love with one of his close friends, Nikki , but he can't seem to express his feelings for her. His frustration bubbles over the tipping point when he ends up offending Nikki instead of professing his intentions and he breaks the one wish willow stick which he had initially gotten as a gift for her. From there the situation spirals as Bear's wish finally comes true.

"I wish Nikki loved me more than anyone else in the world."

*Spoiler Alerts: Don't read on if you don't want it to be spoiled.*

I would probably need a two hour long podcast to discuss the whole film scene by scene but I will touch on the key themes and ideas that perturbed me the most.

Who is obsessed with whom?

Barker has said in many interviews that he was intrigued about the human nature revolving around obsessions and how he was fascinated about how it manifested within people. If you use the Cambridge dictionary's definition, the word "obsession" means;

- an extreme interest in someone or something, that you think about all the time.

Ironically, this therefore means that this cinematic universe wouldn't exist without Barker's own obsession coming to fruition in physical form as his first feature film to hit box offices.

From the opening scene of the film, it is clear that the obsession stems from Bear. It starts off relatively innocently with a shy young man asking his best friend for help to confess his feelings to the girl he claims to really loves. Some people may have watched that scene and may have felt pity, empathy and warmth for this character because he seemed really earnest and you wouldn't be able to recreate the cute sort of awkwardness without having been in that situation.

However, there is a heavy undercurrent of discomfort. This was a low medium close-up shot of a guy spilling everything he has felt for this person with no music and cold lighting, it just doesn't feel personal. In fact, it felt like an interview or an online casting scene that actors submit. Specifically when one is inexperienced because the reasons he was listing as to why he was in love with her were pretty superficial yet he had greatly exaggerated them in his own mind. What he describes is also not necessarily directed towards him but simply how people support each other within friendships or communities.

In some spookier scenes, Nikki is not seen, she is a mere shadow with glistening black eyes. This could be a representation of how Bear doesn't love Nikki for who she actually is whilst simultaneously showing that she is not her normal self. His love stemmed from his ideal imagery of what his dream partner would be like which was then projected on to Nikki and I would say that "love"that he was experiencing was probably most closely related to limerence.

Limerence is a term coined by Dorothy Tennov (1979) in her book "Love and Limerence" and it means the following:

- An involuntary state of intense romantic infatuation or obsession with another person. It is characterised by intrusive thoughts, deep emotional highs and lows, and an all-consuming desire for reciprocation.

Tennov also identifies three stages of Limerence:

1. Infatuation

   The individual begins to notice the other person and recognise their positive qualities.

2. Crystallization

   The individual experiences the obsessive, anxious, and ecstatic intensity of their feelings.

3. Deterioration

   The idealisation of the object of the individual’s limerence begins to wear off, as do the intensity of the feelings.

Source: Psychology Today

These three stages are so evidently portrayed within the film. In Nikki's case she doesn't experience the infatuation stage organically, that is something that is skipped as she is thrust into the throes of full throttle obsessive love. Nikki really amazingly embodies the extreme aspects of crystallization throughout the main bulk of the movie as we see her struggle between the person who she is and the person she has become as a consequence of the one wish willow.

When she feels greatly loved by Bear she is very happy and when she feels him pulling away she becomes anxious then eventually, completely deranged and unpredictable. Lastly, it can be argued that the deterioration stage is exceptionally fast within the seconds that Bear dies or non-existent as they were never her feelings in the first place.

On the flip side, for Bear the infatuation stage is quite short on screen but we are lead to believe he has had those feelings for a long time. The crystallization stage is the bulk of the film. Despite everything wrong and twisted that happens, Bear ignores it all because he is still on a high from the feeling of being reciprocally desired even when he knows that the real Nikki wouldn't be doing these actions if she had free will. He is constantly anxious for the wrong reasons.

She cooked his dead cat and gives it to him for lunch and Bear's main worry was how he could get her to be "normal" so they can stay together for goodness sake!

The deterioration stage within the movie comes in way too late. It is only within the last maybe 15-30 minutes of the movie which arguably doesn't even fully come to a close because Bear doesn't want to face the consequences of his actions. He could not come to terms with the events that transpired even when they meant that he would become an accomplice to the murder of his two closest friends.

Knowing that the only way to allow Nikki to live as herself and protect his best friend Ian from being another target, was to remove himself from the equation. He still couldn't do it. It was 'possessed' Nikki who, in her desperation to be equally as loved as Bear had forced her to be, that made that wish and stopped Bear from preventing his own overdose.

Consent and Rape

It would be easy to assume that Nikki is simply the obsessed one because of the increasingly extreme things she does after Bear makes his wish. However, the film repeatedly suggests that these actions belong to the distorted version of Nikki created by the One Wish Willow rather than the real woman herself. Outside of brief moments where the real Nikki resurfaces, there is little indication that what follows is consensual.

Barker establishes this dynamic early. During Bear's drive home with Nikki, she speaks about feeling disconnected from her life and uncertain about her future. Inde Navarrette's performance also solidifies that Nikki is not romantically interested in Bear before the wish. She avoids being alone with him, rolls her eyes at him, and frequently appears irritated by his actions or lack thereof. While the film never explicitly confirms her feelings, it consistently frames Bear's desire as something he projects onto her rather than something she reciprocates.

The clearest example of this comes in the film's sex scene, is more akin to a rape scene as you watch the film and new information is revealed. Viewers see a medium shot of Bear on top of Nikki thrusting into her with his face away from the camera while she lays below him motionless, empty eyed and expressionless. There is no music—only the sounds of breathing, grunting, and the percussion of their bodies. The scene is followed by a series of increasingly disturbing incidents that clearly demonstrate Nikki is no longer herself.

At this point, the climax of the film has not yet occurred. While Nikki's behaviour can definitely be seen as weird and out of the ordinary, the film quickly unravels in horrific ways. Next Nikki is seen in the shadows watching Bear sleep multiple times, freaking out when he's not with her, defecating on herself, taping his front door shut, cooking his cat and feeding it to him for lunch with polaroid that says "not me."

This brings similar revolting feelings comparable to being in court and being shown the evidence bit by bit except it happens all at once with little to no warning. Despite the mounting evidence of what his wish spirals into, he continues to pursue the fantasy of a woman who exists solely to satisfy his desires and ideals.

The horror lies not only in the supernatural premise but in Bear's willingness to ignore every sign that something is deeply wrong. The set of the party reinforces this theory. During a game of drink or dare, where Nikki is tasked to do something vulnerable, she recites a grotesque, incestuous variation of Hansel and Gretel:

"The air was charged by the distinct call of a nightmare. His face was obscured, but I knew he was looking at my chest. Each side stretching gracefully mature to different sizes. And so come lie with me like the old woman taught us when we were children. I said, we closed the door and leaned against it. 'You're not my wife, right?' He said."

" 'I'm more than your wife, I'm your sister.' He flinched and reached for the door handle. I knew he would not leave this place. He would relent and choose to be inside me like he had many nights before. If not, I would fillet his meaty forearm, roll it like a stick of licorice, and insert the flesh between my legs. He is my soul. The love only the branch of a willow tree could conjure. Brother, you will be inside me tonight."

Earlier, Ian reveals that Nikki once described Bear as being like a little brother. In that context, the poem functions less as a confession of love and more as a distorted indictment of the relationship forced upon her. This is in addition to when Bear finally speaks to the real Nikki through the willow helpline and she only lets out bloodcurdling screams.

The line, "The love only the branch of a willow tree could conjure," directly links the situation to Bear's wish and serves as one of the film's strongest acknowledgements that this relationship is fatally artificial rather than romantic.

This becomes explicit when Nikki briefly regains control and screams, "It's not me!" before smashing a bottle into her own face.

When she resurfaces again later in the film, she tells him that she has never truly been present and begs him to kill her to end the nightmare. Bear not only refuses, he quite literally turns his back on her after asking;

“What’s so bad about being with me?”

Even when confronted with undeniable proof of her suffering, his own perverse desires win. He chooses to preserve the fantasy, rather than restore her autonomy. He cannot override his predatory urge to manipulate her into the version that he wants.

Viewed through this lens, Obsession is less a story about obsessive love than one about ownership, entitlement, and the consequences of valuing desire over consent.

The occurrences within the film then move considerably fast and within around the last 30 minutes of the film Nikki viciously murders Sarah, makes Bear cover up her murder then while Bear is out trying to figure out what else he can do at this point, she scalps Sarah and wears her clothes and her hair. Nikki completely transforms Bear's house into a real horror movie scene and also ends up vomiting all over him in her ferocity to get him to scream that he loves her.

Obsession. Every Horror Film Has a Monster. This One Has Bear.

The stellar combination of deliberate pauses, perfectly timed cuts, stretches of silence, and relentless physical and psychological violence keeps viewers constantly on edge.

Bear chooses himself at every opportunity. He lies to his friends to prevent anyone from discovering his role in what is happening, all while maintaining the appearance of a harmless, well-meaning man. Apart from his interactions with Nikki, he rarely behaves in a way that would immediately mark him as a villain, which is precisely what makes him so unsettling. His desire was never simply to be loved; it was to be wanted on his terms. Even after learning the true extent of Nikki's suffering, he remains incapable of removing himself from the situation despite knowing it is the only real solution.

The film's final cruelty is that Nikki is left to shoulder the consequences of Bear's actions. Like many victims, she is forced to pick up the pieces alone, receiving neither justice nor understanding while carrying the blame for events she never chose. In private relationships there are rarely witnesses, and Obsession reflects that reality in its closing moments. As the camera pans back to reveal the devastation surrounding a distraught and grieving Nikki, the audience is left with the image of a survivor trapped amongst the ruins of someone else's selfishness.

Obsession is superb because its horror extends far beyond its supernatural premise. The One Wish Willow may be fictional, but the entitlement, manipulation, and disregard for consent at the heart of the story are not. Barker uses horror not to create distance from reality, but to expose it. What makes the film so disturbing is not the violence, the body horror, or even the murders—it is the recognition that the monster is not the wish.

It is the ordinary man who refuses to let go.