Obsession

I wanna start this off by saying I have not been this obsessed (say that again (4th time I've made this joke someone should just kill me)) with a movie in a looong time, it's been over a month and I am so fucking attached and infatuated with obsession, there is so much to unpack with this movie, there is so much to think about, I feel like If I start talking about it to someone I won't be able to stop, so I'll try to put down as much of my thoughts here as I can. Obsession is such a fucked up movie man, it's such a simple and generic plot when you think about it, but FUCK did Curry Barker execute every single aspect of this movie to perfection, it feels so fresh with a trope that's done a thousand times. The idea of having your autonomy and your free will being taken away by the whim of someone who didn't even understand what they did is a special kind of hell. Throughout the movie, second to shitting yourself to Nikki, all you can think about is how fucking stupid Bear is, how selfish, obsessed and oblivious he is to the consequences of his actions, all of his actions feel like such obvious wrongs but it all feels like it's in character for him, he can't let Nikki go, he can't come to terms with the fact that Nikki's love for him isn't real, and even when it comes to killing himself being the only option he couldn't do it. There's an ironic beauty to the fact that he died because Nikki wished for Bear to be obsessed with her the same way he did to her. Every single action of his is disgusting and wrong, he could never make the right decision, even from the very start you could see how out of touch Bear is in his mind, he chose to throw his cat in the trash in a trash bag (bro are you fr?) and then the same night instead of crying for Sandy he cries thinking about Nikki, him asking One Wish Willow to alter his wish first and only on knowing they can't, he asks to cancel his wish. If he got the chance again, he wouldn't have learned his lesson. He probably would've wished for Nikki to love him again, just with a few extra clauses attached. It’s so captivating to see him beg Nikki to “just be Nikki” and asking if “Nikki liked him” and even being confronted by the real Nikki for him to just ignore and to selfishly ask “what’s so bad about being with me?” and then to stay with her as if this is exactly what he wanted knowing full well he’s lying to himself. Every single fucking decision Bear makes, every thought he has, is craven and spineless, which is ironic because the tiger’s eye that Nikki gave him is supposed to give him courage. God the score and sound design in this movie is truly unparalleled by any horror movie in the last decade or longer. The intensity of the score crescendoing to any scene that has impact gives the scene sooo much more weight and really gets your blood pumping, while at the same time some moments have no music, no sound and are dead silent making you feel so fucking anxious on what's about to happen and suddenly you're hit with Nikki's ear piercing violent scream, the juxtaposition of the way scenes are edited makes it so incredibly jarring to sit through the movie without having a constant heartrate of 150. And oh my goodness the lighting in this movie is fucking incredible too. The way Obsession lights Nikki throughout the movie makes her feel wrong even when she isn't doing anything. There are so many shots where she's barely visible, reduced to this silhouette or shadow, and somehow those moments are just as terrifying as the actual scares. She could be standing completely still, saying something normal, but because of the way she's framed and lit you get this overwhelming feeling that the person you're looking at isn't really Nikki anymore. It feels like there's something wearing Nikki's skin, trying its best to imitate her but never quite getting it right. The scene where she’s standing at the corner of the room, the makeup they put on her to make her look uncanny genuinely fucked me up, it’s not some over the top disturbing face, it’s just simply uncanny and it’s so simple in execution, it's subtle enough that your brain immediately recognizes her as Nikki but at the same time every instinct is screaming that something is wrong with what you’re looking at. I’ve been conditioned now into being scared of the corners of my house and room in the night, it really fucked me up man my hair is like standing writing this and thinking about it. The acting in obsession by both Inde and Michael was phenomenal man. Inde for having only 2 minor roles prior to this to come into this movie and act her fucking ass off, holy fucking shit she killed it, I can’t imagine what mindset she had to get into to do all that creepy ass shit man but holy fuck she is so goated for killing this role. Every single one of her screams was so fucking visceral, no editing, no voice modulating, that was all her bro she's fucking terrifying. Her weird and uncanny inhuman movement genuinely has you creeped the fuck out. The way she’s able to play the veiled humanity underneath whatever or whoever is possessing Nikki while also being able to portray some of the most disturbing behaviour in the same character is nothing short of extraordinary. I cannot wait to see every movie you're in, Inde. it's actually such an exhilarating thing to have every single fucking jumpscare, every single scream get some reaction out of me, have me flinch or make me feel uncomfortable. Even on my fourth fucking watch, I couldn't help but flinch at every single scare, God how often can you say a movie does that to you? The sound mixing in this movie was edited in a way where Nikki's screams were soooo fucking loud too so every time you hear it, it hit so hard, maybe Inde actually screams that loud lmao. I have to say obsession is 100% best experienced in a theatre, digital release isn't out yet but I have a feeling that watching the digital version just won't have the same feel and intensity to it as watching this movie at a theatre. I wish I could write down all the little details I loved but if I did this review would end up being sooo fucking long, these minor details add so fucking much to the movie, every small detail every single thing is important if not immerses you more into the movie. A couple of details I really loved were that on a rewatch you can tell from the very first scene of the movie that Ian is very actively trying to sabotage Bear from asking out Nikki because him and Nikki had a thing going on, and another one is at the end Nikki takes Sarah’s body back to Bear’s place, wears her clothes, tries to mimic Sarah’s tattoos, starts smoking, scalps her hair and wears it, all because Bear was falling in love with Sarah, and the most insane detail is that she hit herself in the face with the same brick that she killed Sarah with to be more like her, THAT’S SO FUCKING COOL MAN I LOVE THAT DETAIL SO MUCH OMG. This being my 5th watch of obsession, I had become more or less numb to the jumpscares but I could still feel the intensity and the anxiety of the movie. This watch felt completely different to my others because instead of being afraid, I teared up at a couple scenes specifically the “why can’t you just be Nikki” “I can’t be Nikki” scene because I started to feel bad for evil Nikki too, it’s such a beautiful scene and probably my favourite sequence in the movie. Even at the end from when Nikki and Bear cuddled on the sofa up to the credits, I cried a little, it’s really crazy what this movie is bringing out of me man. I would use my One Wish Willow to wish to see obsession again for the first time.