samantha

i was working at a little cafe where I could deny service over bad behavior, harassment etc. & mask mandates had just ended a week before & already people were being weird about me still wearing mine—an N95, the kind shaped kinda like a duckbill.

so this man walked in, looked at me sooo scathingly, laughed at me, and said “damn. never known a woman to choose…practicality over looks.”

And I just said, “oh. you can go, you’re not getting a drink.” And he said, “what???”

I said, “sir, you just walked in at 6 am & called women impractical and me ugly in one sentence.”

it must have been equally terrifying for her as it was for the real nikki to have someone else fight for control over what she perceived as her body. the scene where she's sobbing in the corner, terrified of her dreams is now more sad than terrifying to me. real nikki, who has just been raped by her once best friend hurting so badly that it seeps into entity!nikki's nightmares. entity!nikki who doesn't understand why the thing she wanted so badly is causing her so much pain. why she can't bring herself to lie in bed next to the man who is the center of her world.

and the worst part is bear doesn't even seem to like her. she's trying so so hard; she made a lovely memorial for his dead cat, she waited for him to come home all day without moving an inch, she made sure to be the most doting girlfriend at the party, and he's not pleased by any of it. he seems disturbed and angry and scared and she has no idea what to do to make it better. to make it worse, he keeps asking her to behave like the original nikki but he was the one who wished for her!! she can't be like nikki because nikki was simply not capable of loving bear even a fraction of how much she does!

she can't seem to reconcile it; he wanted her so badly he conjured her into reality and now he doesn't want her anymore. she doesn't know what to do. she tries everything. she obsesses over him, she threatens to hurt herself, she gets rid of that bitch sarah who keeps distracting him and trying to steal him away, and then dresses in her clothes for good measure and he still doesn't want her.

and then finally in a fit of desperation, she makes the wish and for one beautiful moment its all perfect. he's finally looking at her the way she looks at him. and then he's dead and she's lost everything.

I think the thing that is the most disturbing to me about Obsession is just how quickly it becomes totally clear that Bear not only never loved Nikki, but that he never even liked her.

She has a lot of facial muscle control which you usually don’t see often in women, it really added to the unease. Really good physical actress too

Oh boy, let’s have a look 🙄

These were the pictures btw

Obsession - Spoiler-Free

Caught this yesterday at a mystery sneak preview and it hit hard. It was already on my list, but that little sneak preview magic really made the night. That doesn’t happen much anymore.

I know what everyone is thinking: “Another wish-gone-wrong horror movie?” Yeah, fair. But Obsession still feels fresh. The concept is old school, but the execution is just on point. Michael Johnston plays Bear, who’s introverted and almost passive, with total credibility. But the movie belongs to Inde Navarrette as Nikki. What she delivers emotionally is insane. She goes from extremely vulnerable to absolutely disturbing. She was the clear highlight for me.

It gets bloody, so it’s definitely not for a relaxed first date, unless you want to put your date through a quick character stress test. What I found much more interesting was how the film dissects the theme of obsession. It’s obviously exaggerated for the genre, but some of that behavior feels scarily familiar. There were some laughs in the theater too, which comes down to that gloriously nasty dark humor. Overall, it’s intense, uncomfortable, and surprisingly clever.

Easily my favorite horror film of the year so far.

INDE NAVARRETTE "The fake answer that I love to give [for my childhood crush] is Channing Tatum in Step Up. But the real answer is Optimus Prime in Transformers. Specifically, obviously, the first one. There's a monologue that he has at the end of the movie that leads right into [a Linkin Park song]. I think that was my awakening."

Let’s not forget Bear also took advantage of Nikki because she was never able to give her consent when with him. She did tell him during the brief moment when she was able to speak as herself (when the obsessed version of Nikki was asleep) that she was never really with him.

I find it intriguing how once again the horror genre is reflecting on societal fears, particularly when we've been seeing this increase in blatant, unapologetic misogyny and young men seemingly refusing to accept women are actual autonomous human beings who by and large are increasingly unwilling to put up with the BS women are just kind of expected to accept will be the unavoidable reality of dating men.

Both the male leads in Companion and Obsession would never think they're a "bad person". They believe they deserve their perfect dream girls and it boils down to entitlement and not wanting to put in the effort and care to make a relationship work. Their idea of a "true love" is in the form of a beautiful young woman who can't object, won't argue, or ask anything of them. They don't have expectations to be met, standards to measure up to, or challenges to rise to. Boundaries? Respect? Partnership? Chemistry? Pfft, why would she need those things? He's a really nice guy! That should be enough, right?

And that was the moment I wanted to punch Bear’s teeth out.

“And then there’s nothing. It’s not darkness. No, sweetie. Darkness is a color. There’s just nothing.”

Yes, Fake-Nikki is saying she’d kill herself if he left, but she’s also explaining why. The movie extends so much empathy to the being possessing Nikki. Without Bear, Fake-Nikki has nothing. When she first approaches his car, she’s on training wheels, learning how to act like a person, like Nikki. She’s spent every moment of her possession tailoring that ‘personhood’ to what she thinks Bear desires, what he DOES desire until it disturbs him. She exists only to please Bear. She is unable to move or feel in his absence. When he leaves for a day without her, she can’t leave her place by the door, can’t control her bodily functions.

All her effort is spent repressing the real Nikki, redirecting her pushback, or trying to correct behaviors that will never be enough because they’ll never be real. She’s stuck in between desperate, blood curdling pain/frustration and the need to express endless and undying love, the need to be used, because Bear made her that way.

FREAKY NIKKI from OBSESSION drawn comic book style.