Obsessed with Obsession (2026)

Would you rather be alone in the woods with a man or a bear?

Would you rather be alone in the woods with a man or a bear?

Imagine you’re a young woman named Nikki. You work in a music store, a normal-enough job for a twenty-something year old. You have dreams of being a writer. You have a small, tight-knit group of friends. One of which is a guy who has a huge crush on you.

You and everyone in your friend group are just waiting for him to shoot his shot so you can let him down and put an end to the awkwardness.

But he doesn’t do that. Instead, he makes a wish that you will love him more than anyone else in the world.

And you are plunged into a -

Well, unfortunately we don’t know what kind of hell you’re plunged into, because this movie is not concerned with you or your experience or what you want. And that’s the point. Nikki might as well be a puppet, and in many respects she is.

This movie is told from the POV of Barron, aka Bear, a nickname that is not accidental. Men the world over have still not recovered from the Internet trend asking women if they’d rather encounter a man or a bear while walking alone in the woods, and women almost unanimously choose the bear.

And this movie illustrates why.

The premise of Obsession is this: Bear has a huge crush on his friend Nikki, but is too nervous to actually directly tell her his feelings. Instead, he makes a wish on a One Wish Willow, which is one of those gimmicky toys you might buy for your kid at a gas station after you neglect to get them a real souvenir, a la rattlesnake eggs or Mexican jumping beans.

But lo and behold it ends up working. Nikki immediately begins behaving differently, really putting the manic in manic pixie dream girl.

What’s interesting about the One Wish Willow macguffin is that it seemingly works for everyone in-universe–true to the name, everyone gets a wish. Later on in the movie Bear’s friend Ian sarcastically wishes for a billion dollars and gets it, and the cashier at the magic store claims that they also had a wish granted. Both of those wishes seemed to have turned out fine, so why does Bear’s wish go so awry?

Obviously, it’s because he must be punished. But why? What is Bear’s sin besides being a pathetic dweeb?

Bear is punished because he does not see Nikki as a real person. Even worse, he does not want to see her as a real person. His reticence to actually express his feelings to her is because he does not want to risk the conversation going a different way due to her pesky wants and desires.

This extends even to their relationship after his wish comes true. Despite the first night being undeniably crazy, he still goes along with it. We get a lovey-dovey montage of them cuddling on the couch and having breakfast and bed. Everything is seemingly perfect, and Bear is happy to let this go on because his wants are being fulfilled.

It isn’t until Nikki starts acting undeniably off in ways that affect Bear that he even cares. What does “undeniably off” look like? Glad you asked.

It looks like Nikki hiding in the corner of the room as he sleeps. It looks like her randomly freaking out (A+ jump scares) and moving in really unnatural ways. It looks like her standing in one place all day when he has to go to work without her, literally peeing and defecating on herself. It looks like her using his dead cat as deli meat in a packed lunch, complete with a cringey love note.

And that brings me to Inde Navarette, who delivers an absolutely masterfully unhinged performance. The way she switches between chipper and sinister is chilling and impressive. Her facial expressions are even more remarkable. There’s one scene where she literally morphs her face into this expression ☹️

This girl is going places.

Inde Navarette is rightly getting a lot of attention for her performance, but Michael Johnston gives an equally masterful effort. It’s heavy work to play such an utter fucker.

I think it would be easy to let Bear off the hook, treat him like some well-meaning-but-inept 90s sitcom buffoon who just made a mistake in a moment of weakness. I mean, he didn’t mean for this to happen, right? except the movie gives us countless clues that he really is just that awful.

The first clue (trigger for sexual assault and coercion) comes shortly after the romcom montage: Bear and Nikki are having sex. Bear is pounding away, and Nikki is just… lying there. Blank. Expressionless. Taking it.

People. If you’re partner is like this while having sex, that is a bad thing. You should not be okay with them not enjoying themselves.

Bear does not notice or care. And isn’t that the thing with so many “nice” guys? They don’t car whether their actions affect you until it starts to affect them. He doesn’t care that Nikki isn’t having a good time because his fantasy never took into account her experience of their relationship. She is no more than a doll he can pose.

There is a point in the movie where Bear knows that the “Nikki” he has been with since he made the wish isn’t actually Nikki. Even worse, he knows that she is suffering. And he asks the thing that he knows is not Nikki to “be more Nikki.” He knows it’s fake, and knows what that means for the real Nikki. But he is willing to go along with it as long as she stops all the “crazy shit.”

When women say they would rather encounter a bear in the woods than a man, it’s not just the aggro, proudly misogynistic rapists and serial killers they’re afraid of. It’s men like Bear, who act nice but are totally okay with letting their partner suffer as long as they’re quiet about it.

And make no mistake: Bear 100% still considers himself a nice guy. He feels no guilt for what he’s done, or even has the inkling that he should feel guilt at all.

Some of the most terrifying and feel-bad moments of the film are the few where we get a glimpse of Nikki’s experience. Once, when Bear is trying to sneak out in the middle of the night, the “real” Nikki begins to speak from her motionless body, begging Bear to kill her before *she* (presumably whatever entity or force has possessed her body) wakes up.

And you know what this douche canoe says?

“Is it so bad to be with me that you’d rather die?”

WTF, asshole?? What kind of self-centering, narcissistic response is that?

In addition to the commentary on toxic masculinity, this movie is genuinely, truly scary. And so tense! It’s uncomfortable and cringey in a way that reminded me of Creep, and there are strong Hereditary and It Follows vibes. The movie is laced with all the futility of the Smile franchise. There are a fair number of jump scares, none of which are cheap, but there are also some very fresh, very effective scares.

My favorite comes early in the film, before we see the extent of Nikki’s obsession: Bear and his friend are talking, and Nikki is in the background, her out-of-focus face turned towards them, unmoving, for their entire conversation. That was the moment I knew I was in for something special.

The fact that Obsession was made on a sub-million dollar budget is mind-boggling. I wish I could go through all the little touches that make this movie chef’s kiss, but I’ll just leave you with a bit of wisdom:

Remember:

The bear will never gaslight you.

The bear will never make a wish that turns you into a living puppet.

The bear doesn’t want what’s best for you, but at least it doesn’t pretend like it does.

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H. H. Duke is a writer, author, and podcaster. Most importantly, she loves horror! Currently, she’s working on a book about a weird cave. OoooOOoo! For scary book recommendations, horror movie reviews, and other spooky things, subscribe to H. is for Horror now - If you dare!

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