Obsession is a story about control, how possessive love can warp a victim, forcing them into a role they do not fit.
A thrilling horror film from YouTuber-turned-director Curry Barker, Obsession is a new take on a classic trope, “be careful what you wish for.”
Warning—Spoilers Ahead
What Is The Plot Of ‘Obsession’?
Bear (Michael Johnston) is suffering from unrequited love, harboring intense longing for his childhood friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette).
Nikki might be receptive to his feelings, but we never get to find out—Bear is too cowardly to tell her the truth, squandering every opportunity to confess his love.
After visiting a New Age store and picking up a throwaway gift called a “One-Wish-Willow,” Bear makes a fateful choice.
Instead of giving the gift to Nikki, he snaps the willow in half and wishes that Nikki would love him “more than anyone else in the world.”
The wish activates immediately, and from that moment on, Nikki is not herself—but she is madly in love with Bear. At first, Bear enjoys their new romance, but it quickly becomes clear that something is deeply wrong with Nikki.
Her behavior grows so erratic that their co-workers notice that something is up, chalking it up to some kind of personal trauma, to the point where it appears that Bear is taking advantage of Nikki.
For Nikki isn’t just obsessively jealous—she appears to have lost her mind, haunted by disturbing hallucinations, and at one point, cooks her boyfriend’s dead cat and serves it up as a packed lunch.
Bear quickly comes to regret his wish, and learns that he can’t undo the spell he’s put on Nikki—at least, not without killing himself.
Intriguingly, there is very little lore in Obsession, the mystery behind the One-Wish Willow never really explained (although, there are clues).
Amusingly, the immensely powerful, magical object is treated with nonchalance by the New Age store employees, the tone masterfully shifting from comedy sketch to disturbing horror.
How Does The One-Wish Willow Work?
Snap the willow, and you get one wish.
You can’t receive more than one, but you can wish for anything you like. As Bear’s friend Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) proves, you can literally wish for a billion dollars, and receive it (that being said, you apparently won’t get the chance to spend it).
After Bear makes his wish, Nikki doesn’t seem to be Nikki anymore.
It’s unclear if Nikki’s body is outright possessed by a demon, or if her brain has been overruled by poisonous love, but some kind of invisible entity is pursuing her, and she seems to have trouble mimicking normal human behavior.
One unsettling scene sees Bear call the number displayed on the One-Wish Willow packet, and he speaks to a bored, unprofessional representative on the other end.
The representative (who might possibly be a demon or other spiritual entity) offers him the chance to speak to Nikki, an offer followed by the sounds of hideous shrieking in the background, prompting Bear to hang up.
This scene, combined with another disturbing scene featuring Nikki talking in her sleep, suggests that she is possessed, or that her soul is trapped in a purgatory outside of her body.
Or perhaps a new, obsessive Nikki was created by the wish.
Whatever the truth, Nikki’s real self emerges as her body is sleeping, begging Bear to kill her.
In that moment, Bear exposes his selfishness—he responds by asking Nikki if it’s really so unbearable to be with him.
Clearly, Nikki’s true self is trapped in a nightmare, and Bear seems more concerned with the fact that she doesn’t really love him.
Did Nikki Ever Have Feelings For Bear?
Nikki’s erratic behavior escalates as it becomes obvious that Bear is growing distant from her, and she feels threatened by Sarah (Megan Lawless), who has a crush on Bear.
During a secret nighttime meeting, Sarah reveals some crucial information.
Sarah says that Nikki planned to “friend zone” Bear, and that Nikki and Ian had been casually hooking up for years. This implies that Ian might have been intentionally sabotaging Bear, but it also seems to dampen any hope of Nikki having romantic feelings for him.
That being said, this information is coming from Sarah, who might be motivated to exaggerate Nikki’s lack of interest.
There is some interesting ambiguity here, as Nikki seemed open to a conversation about romantic feelings with Bear before he made his wish.
Notably, Nikki says that when she has a crush on someone, she keeps it quiet.
After the wish takes hold of her, Nikki also assures Bear that she has been developing feelings for him for some time, claiming that it started around Christmas.
However, Nikki is highly motivated to lie at that point, so we don’t really have a straight answer.
Bear never hears Nikki’s true feelings—he didn’t have the courage to ask.
The Twist Ending Of ‘Obsession,’ Explained
As Bear and Sarah grow closer, Bear’s terrible wish turns lethal.
After realizing that he and Sarah might be a better match, Bear’s epiphany is rudely interrupted by Nikki shattering Sarah’s car window and bludgeoning her face with a brick.
After Sarah’s brutal murder, it’s a downward spiral into violence and death, with Ian shot in the head by Nikki after receiving his billion dollars, and Bear clutching a final One-Wish Willow, unable to use it himself.
At this point, Nikki has become deranged by jealousy and has made herself up to resemble Sarah, while keeping her mutilated corpse as a grisly prop.
Bear can barely keep up the act, and Nikki sees through it.
After witnessing so much destruction, Bear locks himself in the bathroom and tries to end the cursed wish by killing himself.
He can’t bring himself to fire a bullet into his own skull, but he swallows an entire bottle of sleeping pills, mirroring the accidental death of his cat at the beginning of the film.
Outside the bathroom, Nikki is growing more unhinged, trying every tactic she can think of to win Bear over.
Bear waits for the pills to kick in, before realizing that he doesn’t really want to die and tries to vomit the pills out into the garbage. At that moment, Nikki finds the One-Wish Willow and snaps it, wishing for Bear to love her just as much as she loves him.
Bear is overcome by the spell and emerges from the bathroom smiling—for one blissful moment, the two share the same deranged love. Then, the pills kick in and Bear overdoses.
As he dies, Bear’s wish dissolves, and Nikki is finally herself again.
Nikki screams in horror, surrounded by corpses—it’s unclear if she knows what happened, but she’s left to deal with the consequences.
There is no post-credit scene—the film ends cleanly, with Nikki the “final girl” remaining alive.
Will There Be A Sequel To ‘Obsession’?
Obsession boasts a self-contained story that is neatly wrapped up after the death of Bear, but Curry Barker has implied that he’d be open to some kind of follow up.
In an interview with Variety, Barker said, “I don’t think you’ll ever see a movie with these characters again, but it would be cool to expand this world with different characters.”
The world of Obsession and the plentiful supply of One-Wish Willows offers endless possibilities for another “be careful what you wish for” story.
For the time being, Barker is busy with new horror projects.
Barker is due to direct Anything but Ghosts, a story of two fraudulent ghost-hunters. Barker wrote the film with Cooper Tomlinson, his longtime creative partner—the two are also set to act in the project.
Barker is also tasked with writing and directing an upcoming reboot of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, so it might be some time before he returns to the world of Obsession.
