The most unsettling thing about Curry Barker’s Obsession, the micro-budget supernatural film that has become a global blockbuster and Focus Features’ highest-grossing film of all time, is not the horror itself, but the question of who the real victim was. Was it Bear (Michael Johnston), a shy music store employee who buys a supernatural novelty toy called the ‘One Wish Willow,’ who wished for someone who had no feelings for him to love him more than anyone in the world? Or was it Nikki (Inde Navarrette) — the real Nikki — who was given no choice and was pulled into this game of obsession? 

For a while, the film lets us believe that Bear is the one in danger; afraid of Nikki’s unusual and eerie behaviour, he is shown to suffer. He is the nervous boy with a crush. He is soft-spoken, unsure, almost sweet in his helplessness. So when the horror begins, it is easy to watch the film through his fear. But what’s overlooked is Nikki’s own suffering; a perfectly normal girl, she did not ask for any of the misery inflicted upon her.

The clearest evidence of this appears when the real Nikki briefly breaks through. Instead of asking her if she is okay or where she is, Bear simply asks, “What’s so bad about being with me?” Even though he knows she is suffering inside, and suffering so much that she begs him to kill her, he does not fully grasp the horror of what he has done. Nikki tells him that it was not really her who had been with him all this time, but the entity that had possessed her. 

Even after knowing this, Bear seems less concerned about Nikki’s well-being than about his own need to be loved.Towards the end, he tries to reverse everything, but by then it is too late. It is too late for him, and it is too late for Nikki. This does not mean that Bear did not suffer. He did. But his suffering stemmed from his own actions. It was the consequence of his desire, the desire that killed him and ruined Nikki’s life. 

What makes Obsession a compelling watch is that it never allows the audience to completely detach itself from Bear. He is not shown as a villain or as an evil person. He is simply a lonely, awkward heart, who wants what most people want: to be loved back. Barker presents him as vulnerable and deeply human, which makes it easy to understand his longing for connection. But the film also shows how dangerous that longing becomes when it turns into possession.

The film succeeds in creating a sense of unease in the audience that stays even after it ends, the sense of unease that keeps people up at night. Barker’s direction allows tension to build gradually, relying more on psychological discomfort than conventional jump scares that one usually sees in a horror film. Nikki’s increasing unusual behaviour creates a sense of dread that grows stronger as the audience begins to understand the true cost of Bear’s wish. Despite its modest budget of $750k, Obsession manages to create an atmosphere of dread that rivals far larger productions.

Ultimately, Obsession is not simply a story about a cursed wish gone wrong. It is a story about choice, consent and the dangers of valuing one’s own desires above another person’s right to choose. While both Bear and Nikki suffer, the film’s tragedy begins with a choice that was never Nikki’s to make. That is what makes her the true victim in the story, a victim who was left all alone in the end to pick up the pieces of her own broken self, all because of Bear’s wish. In the end, that remains the film’s most haunting tragedy.