(24-05-2026)
i love movies that make me afraid of the corners at home. i'm sure you've heard of obsession. it is a phenomenal horror movie, released recently, and i can't emphasize enough that this must be watched in a movie theater. the captivation the movie beckons for is only heightened by the setting of a theater. as many thinkpieces online say, this movie struck me immediately as a portrayal of a classic monkey's paw story depicting the traumatic and psychological destruction of the desire of an unrequited love. bear is clearly a guy who is void of interests, and opinions, for fear of being perceived and judged by others. he is a distillation of the nice guy who isn't exactly the loud incel or the brooding playboy, but the kind to stand by and watch things go to shit as long as what he thinks he wants happens - which happens to be nicky's obedience to his desires. so yes, bear has a crush on one of his friends from a mutual friend group, who is a hyper-independent, real human being outside of his rose-colored view of her. he never is able to build up the courage to ask her out, or tell her how he feels about her, and he happens to find a 'one wish willow', a tool that continues to itch his cowardice like a wound that further deepens, when he makes the wish for nicky to love him 'more than anyone in the world'. my interest in this movie is in a few well-thought through symbolic scenes, objects, and themes, particularly: the stone nicky gifts bear at one of their dinner dates, the hansel-and-gretel story nicky tells, and the big one - the ways in which we push modern, co-dependent relationships, until they break us (and how what we say to each other and how we develop our 'own' language really sounds nuts). 'just because you made it happen doesn't mean it's not real.' - i naively heard this line and thought, yeah, okay, this sales rep is selling bear the idea of this being a real obsession nicky has with him. leaving the theater, i realized it was a far darker truth. that the pain that nicky is facing is real.
Her fear-induction eyebrow move was beyond impressive.
