#skulltalks

In the little time we spend with Nikki before she becomes possessed “freaky” Nikki, Obsession goes to great lengths to establish Nikki as a person.

In just the first 15 minutes of the film, we learn that Nikki loves writing, she’s laid back, and that she cares very deeply for others. We see that she’s funny, she likes to gently tease her friends and joke around. She has ambition and wants to pursue her writing seriously. She has her own goals and thoughts and opinions.

She’s also characterized very well by her wardrobe, how she talks, her body language and expressions (courtesy of Inde Navarrette’s absolutely STUNNING and brilliant performance).

In a VERY short amount of time, the audience is given a VERY clear picture of Nikki’s personality and usual behavior.

Which makes her “transition” into “Freaky” Nikki all the more horrific when Bear makes his wish.

Because even if we give Bear some grace, and acknowledge that he couldn’t have known that the One Wish Willow would do what it did, and even if we treat his kissing her on the first night she comes over as morally grey (although in my opinion he absolutely did take advantage of the fragile mental state he believed her to be in), there is no way to excuse Bear blatantly ignoring that Nikki changes so drastically from the person Bear claims to be in love with.

After the wish, Nikki starts speaking differently and using a higher pitched voice, she starts dressing completely differently and wearing more traditionally “feminine” clothing. She suddenly drops her plan to quit working at the music store and pursue writing, she stops showing any care towards her other friends and the people in her life. She defers to Bear in every situation, with the only exception being any time Bear shows any sign of moving away from her emotionally (or physically).

After the wish, Nikki becomes a completely different person.

And Bear does not care or show any concern regarding this at all.

Everything that makes Nikki who she is, everything that makes Nikki, Nikki, is just gone after Bear uses the One Wish Willow.

And Bear couldn’t be happier.

We get a whole montage of Bear and “Nikki” as a “happy couple” hanging out together and ignoring everyone around them.

It’s not until Bear starts seeing actual consequences to his wish, such as “Nikki” causing a scene on their date or feeding his dead cat to him, that he begins to worry about her behavior.

And even then—EVEN THEN!!!!—Bear STILL adamantly refuses to accept that Nikki is not behaving rationally or how she used to in any way. While he eventually acquiesces to canceling his wish, he first tries to just “alter” it to make it so Nikki still loves him, but is just less intense.

He would rather use “Nikki” to satisfy his own desires and ego.

If Bear loved Nikki, hell, if he even just LIKED her for who she is, he would be horrified by “freaky” Nikki. He would have recognized and acknowledge extremely early on in their relationship, that something was deeply wrong. He would know that the woman he was with was not Nikki.

But Bear would rather have a bootleg version of Nikki that he can feel validated by, than have an actual relationship of any kind with the real Nikki.

He does not love Nikki. He does not even like her.

He likes the idea of Nikki. He likes the image of Nikki that he’s constructed of her, the image of her that only exists in his head.

He likes the fantasy of what Nikki would provide to him emotionally and physically.

From the beginning of the film, Obsession shows us exactly who its villain is. Nothing that “Freaky” Nikki does horrifies me as much as Bear’s treatment of Nikki and his refusal to see her as an actual person with autonomy.

For me that’s the most disturbing element of Obsession. That the people you trust the most and care about may be so obsessed with the version of you they’ve created in their mind that they’ll actively ignore your personhood and autonomy.

I’ve seen multiple people at this point, usually responding to someone else’s post emphasizing how insidious Bear’s behavior is, talking about how “actually Bear was set up to fail!”, or “he could never have known the wish would work so it’s not his fault!”, or that “he never intended to hurt Nikki so he’s just as much of a victim as she is!”

And I think these sorts of reactions are really indicative of how we are taught societally to value men’s feelings and image over the safety and wellbeing of women.

There are people who see how Bear behaves initially, and empathize with him so deeply that they either ignore, or apparently just literally choose not to acknowledge the harmful choices that Bear actively makes throughout the film.

They see Bear ignore that Nikki is *very*.**CLEARLY** behaving erratically and NOT acting anything like herself, they see him choose to continue his “relationship” with Nikki after it becomes literally undeniable that she is not in control of herself, that she has lost her autonomy, and they’re able to excuse his behavior because they’re more willing to believe in the initial image they are shown of Bear, than they are to believe in Bear’s capacity to do horrific things.

In a previous post I talked about how Bear is not in love with Nikki, but is obsessed with the image of her he’s created in his head. For some audience members, it seems that they have done the same thing with Bear as a character.

They’ve fallen for the image of Bear they have in their heads after seeing him at the beginning of the film, and believe so strongly in that image that they can just ignore ALL of his wrong-doings and the ways in which he hurts Nikki.

What disturbs me about this is how much of an art-imitates-life/life-imitates-art situation this is.

The biggest most recent example I can think of is the Depp v. Heard trial. That was a clear, real-life example of society valuing the reputation and the public image of a very beloved man over his alleged* mistreatment of a woman (regardless of her being an “imperfect victim”).

There are countless more examples. I think of the People v. Turner case, and how there were people lamenting over the “loss” of a rapist’s “bright future” and how he had “such a promising career in swimming” or whatever the fuck.

Both tragically and horrifically, I could go on.

Fuck, the movie itself also touches on this in-universe with the character of Sarah. Sarah is aware of how Bear is taking advantage of Nikki, but due to her perception of him as a “nice guy” and due to her feelings for him, she’s convinced herself that Bear is the one being victimized by Nikki. The nice image she has of Bear blinds her to the horrific nature of his behavior, and this ultimately costs her her life.

In interviews writer/director Curry Barker has been very explicit about how Bear is the antagonist of the film and his behavior is inexcusable, but there are still people who are trying to interpret Bear as being a “good guy”, who are grasping at whatever straws they can to absolve Bear as a character.

Like. Someone replied to a comment I made on a video about Bear not knowing or loving the real Nikki and they actually said that Bear was trying to break through to the real Nikki with his inaction:

(Never mind that when Bear first called the service line he did NOT want to cancel the wish, only to alter it to make Nikki love him on his terms**)

It’s shocking to me that there are people who see what happens to Nikki, who see how she is treated by Bear throughout the film, who see what his actions lead to for his ENTIRE friend group, and STILL think Bear deserves to be defended in some way.

Anyway, that’s my new “very disturbing and deeply horrific thing Obsession has given me to mull over” this week.

Obsession is definitely going to be a cultural phenomenon for a long time and I think it’s largely because of how intensely disturbing it is on so many different levels. There are layers to this movie that speak very deeply to people’s fears surrounding autonomy, sexual assault and rape, and relationships. It’s about the objectification of women and abusive relationships, it’s about how personal perception distorts reality, how people are willing to ignore red flags if a situation benefits them, it’s about desire, about taking responsibility for your actions, about how the people you trust the most may hurt and betray you. This movie has everything.

Thanks, Curry Barker!

*because of the ruling of the defamation case I am putting “allegedly”. I can’t claim to ever know what Depp and Heard’s relationship was like, but I can’t ignore the fact that there was an indisputable power-imbalance between them in Depp’s favor.

**A point that was made on the very fun “Too Scary Didn’t Watch” podcast episode for Obsession—the hosts mentioned specifically that Bear calling the help line was upsetting to them because even after making his wish for Nikki to love him MORE THAN ANYONE, he’s still not satisfied and wants her to love him on his own terms—granted yes, her behavior was frightening, but it speaks more to how Bear, after literally stripping away Nikki’s autonomy and making her choice for her regarding her feelings towards him, he’s still not satisfied.