Be careful what you wish for.
This idea, often explored in fiction, lies at the center of “Obsession,” Focus Features‘ new horror film from writer/director/editor Curry Barker. The movie follows Bear (Michael Johnston), a man who wishes that his crush, Nikki (Inde Navarrette), would love him “more than anyone in the whole f–king world.”
Unfortunately for Bear, that wish comes true.
Inspiration struck for Barker when he watched a “Treehouse of Horror” episode of “The Simpsons” that saw the iconic animated family come into possession of a monkey’s paw (riffing on W. W. Jacobs’ short story “The Monkey’s Paw”). Rather than a primate appendage, “Obsession” sees Bear recite his desire to a “One Wish Willow,” a fictional toy that promises to grant users (as the name implies) a single wish.
So how does that wish work, and how do things get resolved? Read on to find out. Spoiler warning if you haven’t had the chance to get obsessed yet.
How does the wish work?
“Obsession” follows your typical monkey’s paw formula: You make a wish, it comes true, but it brings some unexpected and horrible twist. When Bear wishes for Nikki to love him more than anyone, it works in a very literal sense.
Soon after the wish is made, Nikki begins expressing interest in Bear, coming up with excuses to stay the night with him. Several times, however, she suddenly snaps back to reality, questioning what’s happening and how she got where she is.
These snaps become fewer and further apart as Nikki’s obsession grows throughout the movie. After a brief montage of Bear and Nikki happily in love, she begins behaving strangely toward Bear. She freaks out the moment it seems their date isn’t going well. She stares at him while he sleeps. She duct-tapes their front door shut in an attempt to keep Bear from going to work, and stands locked in place for hours when he eventually leaves.
By the third act, Nikki’s love grows violent, driving her to kill their mutual friends Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) and Sarah (Megan Lawless). She also carves up Bear’s cat, feeding it to him in a homemade lunch for work. Creepy stuff!
Is Nikki really Nikki?
Several times throughout “Obsession,” Bear sees Nikki suddenly interrupt herself (often screaming in terror) before snapping back to her lovey-dovey persona. In one scene at a party, Nikki starts screaming, “It’s not me!” before repeatedly smashing herself in the face. As the film goes on, it becomes increasingly clear that Bear’s wish has in some way displaced Nikki, leaving a monstrous and violent entity in her place.
The audience never gets a clear answer as to what happened to Nikki or where she went, though some revelations throughout the film help paint a picture. At one point, Bear calls a customer service number on the One Wish Willow, asking a representative if there’s a way to undo the wish (as seen in the film’s initial teaser).
“Is her love real?” Bear asks.
“Just because you chose this for her doesn’t make it less real,” a voice responds. Bear is then asked if he wants to talk to the real Nikki before hearing screams on the other end of the call.
Later on, Bear attempts to sneak out of the house while Nikki sleeps before he is confronted with a squeaking voice that claims to be the real Nikki, communicating with him quietly as the entity that’s taken over her body rests. Nikki begs Bear to kill her and set her free. He refuses.
These two scenes, as well as a moment at the end of the film, imply that Nikki’s true self exists on some other plane of reality. It’s unclear how the mechanics of this displacement work. Is Nikki screaming because she’s being tortured or simply because she knows what her body is doing? Is she fully in another realm or just subconsciously suppressed? How aware is she of what transpires in her body?
Like a lot of great horror, the specifics of the situation are less important than the eeriness and overall theme. We may not know what exactly is happening to Nikki, but we know it’s a nightmare — one with chilling real-world parallels.
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Can Bear reverse the wish?
As Nikki’s obsession gets out of hand, Bear searches for ways to reverse the wish. He eventually returns to the store where he bought the One Wish Willow, where he is told for a second time (after getting pranked by the cashier) that many customers end up unsatisfied with their wishes.
Bear is essentially given two options to undo the wish and set Nikki free: He can either use a second wish to undo the effects or die to end Nikki’s curse. The first option certainly sounds easier in the moment.
He soon learns, however, that making a second wish isn’t as simple as buying another One Wish Willow. Bear takes a handful of the magic-imbued objects home with him before discovering that they are impossible for him to break — no doubt a supernatural safeguard against the same patrons making second wishes.
Bear brings the One Wish Willows to his close friend Ian, explaining the situation and begging him to use his wish to set Nikki free. Not believing what Bear says is true, Ian derisively snaps a One Wish Willow as he asks for $1 billion. Heaps of money then rain from the ceiling, instantly proving the magic is real.
We don’t see Ian’s wish directly backfire, though he soon meets his own tragic fate. After collecting his money, Ian goes to Bear’s house, where he is instantly shot dead by Nikki. Whether that death is the direct influence of the One Wish Willow punishing one of its users or simply a case of Ian stepping into Nikki’s already destructive path is unclear.
Bear makes a final effort by imploring Nikki to use her wish to undo his own, saying that if she really loved him she would do anything for him. Nikki refuses.
That leaves Plan B.
How does “Obsession” end?
“Obsession” starts out as “The Simpsons” and ends as “Romeo and Juliet.”
With no other option, Bear swallows a bottle of pills (the same pills that killed his cat and pushed him over the edge to make the wish in the first place), hoping that they will kill him. Bear soon tries to make himself through up, backing out of the scheme, before he stops as the One Wish Willow jingle is heard in the background.
He walks out to his living room to discover that Nikki seemingly made a similar wish on him: That Bear would love her more than anyone in the world (or, at least as much as she loves him). The two embrace before the pills take effect, killing Bear.
Nikki screams before a look of realization washes over her. Bear’s death has indeed canceled out his wish, freeing them both of the curse. As Nikki (the real Nikki) looks on in horror at all that’s occurred — with her three best friends all dead in the room — she begins screaming again.
“Treehouse of Horror” never got that grim.
