there’s something so gutwrenching about the fact that the female characters in obsession have real dreams and wishes but never get the chance to see them realized, while both male characters waste their wishes on short-term selfish satisfaction. they were complex, free-spirited young women who just wanted to create art, and they were destroyed by a man determined to confine them to his superficial perception of them. nikki wanted to be a writer, sarah wanted to be a tattoo artist and now neither of them will get to be anything at all
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oh and another thing that devastates me about Obsession is how much nikki is judged and blamed by those around her. sarah and ian repeatedly telling bear that he shouldn’t have to deal with her, that she’s not his responsibility, that they’re worried she’s taking advantage of him. as if they aren’t also her friends, as if they shouldn’t know her well enough to notice something is off. there’s no concern for why nikki is behaving the way she is, there’s just distain towards it. she starts acting out of character and so it must all be intentional. but bear doesn’t get questioned. bear isn’t gossiped about. nikki loses all her agency and autonomy, and all she gets for it is judgment
i dislike the whole “horror is so back” narrative people are throwing around recently with obsession and backrooms. both are great movies, but horror was also so back with the long walk. and sinners. and the substance. and nosferatu. and literally anything directed by jordan peele. horror as a genre will always have its flops. but there will always be those few that revive the hype.
i feel like people are overlooking the moment at the beginning of obsession where nikki straight up asks "do you like me?" and once bear lies and says no she replies "ok, good." for starters, it was a chilling moment to me because this is such a classic experience of having a close guy friend, only to realize that he wants more from you. girls aren't dumb! nikki isn't dumb! of course she knows that bear is into her, she has eyes! she can see his stuttering and sheepishness and she's just dreading the moment she has to turn him down, to tell him that he's like a brother to her. just before she had told him that she doesn't feel real love in her life, and i don't think it would be a leap to attribute a small part of that feeling to her fear that her friendship with bear isn't as simple as she wants it to be.
it's also a chilling question from nikki because once she walks away bear knows that she doesn't feel the same way about him, and he makes the wish anyway. he is incapable or unwilling to take a hint and see that she doesn't feel the same way. and that question is the last thing she says to him before he ruins her life forever. it's unfair.
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this is a moment in the original script that I wish they'd kept in the final version of obsession. the absolute disgusting way that real nikki appearing just becomes routine for bear and he completely ignores her in order to keep her. it's so horrifying the way her torment turns into something he hardly acknowledges
So I did go see Obsession again last night and made sure to pay extra attention to Bear’s little opening monologue when he’s practicing his love confession to Nikki.
Bear doesn’t say a single thing about Nikki as a person in his speech. He doesn’t say that he loves her kindness and how she cares for others, he doesn’t talk about how he loves her creativity or care-free spirit, he doesn’t talk about what he likes about her.
He talks about nice things she’s done for him. He talks about what she means to him. He talks about her being there for him, and how he likes how she’s treated him.
And while I won’t pretend that those things aren’t important, they are the only things Bear mentions in his big vulnerable romantic speech.
Bear’s “confession” tells us literally nothing about Nikki other than that she’s been nice to Bear in the past.
But in a subtle way, his “love confession” tells us a LOT about Bear and his actual feelings for Nikki.
He likes that she’s been nice to him. That’s it.
He likes that she’s been nice to him, and whether it was an unconscious process or not, Bear has responded to Nikki’s being nice to him by becoming obsessed and infatuated with her.
To the point that, once he’s (albeit initially unwittingly) in a position of power over her, he completely disregards her personhood and begins to feel entitled to her and her body.
That’s another layer to Obsession that I find absolutely chilling. That so often just being nice or polite to someone won’t lead to them showing you that same kindness in return, but will instead lead them to feeling entitled to you.