At The Movies with James Phelan: Obsession
Inde Navarrette stars as Nikki and Michael Johnston as Bear in Obsession, a Focus Features release.
Be careful what you wish for is a premise in storytelling familiar from as far back as the Grimm fairytales. That timeless concept gets a fresh spin in this imaginative horror film where a shy character Bear harbours a secret crush on his close friend Nikki.
Deeply unsure of whether to declare his interest, Bear (Micheal Johnston) decides a romantic gift might help break the ice. On a visit to a hippy store specialising in crystals, Bear spots a novelty item – a ‘One Wish Willow’. The packaged simple wooden stick promises to grant one wish to its owner.
On a whim, Bear buys it, intending to give it to Nikki (Inde Navarrette). All set to open his heart, Bear organises the perfect late-night chat in his car. But in the moment of truth, he can’t muster the courage to tell the truth. With ample opportunity and even some encouragement from Nikki, Bear is tongue-tied and awkward. He loses his nerve. And loses the girl. Or her attention at the very least.
With a confused Nikki heading into her house, Bear belatedly finds the forgotten present and he opts to try the ‘One Wish Willow’ himself. He breaks the stick in half while asking the universe that he wants ‘Nikki to love him more than anything in the world’. The phrasing of his wish turns out to be very important. And sows the seed of destruction for all that follows. For a beat, Bear believes the whole mystic wish is just hokum.
But Nikki is suddenly back at his car showing an interest in Bear that was entirely absent previously. Bear is shocked to his core but also pleased at some lustful level.
Still, the film is at pains to paint Bear as a good guy. So even as Nikki begs to spend the night with him, he is so thrown by her radical change of heart that he won’t go any further than a platonic cuddle.
Next day though the desire from Nikki to be in a relationship with Bear is even stronger. Matters are complicated by the fact that Bear and Nikki work together at a music store too. When the still reeling Bear and romantically enraptured Nikki show up, their best friends and coworkers Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) and Sara (Megan Lawless) are highly dubious about how the two are so quickly an intense, mutually dependent couple.
For the briefest window, Bear and Nikki enjoy a honeymoon period of bliss but the dream sours into a nightmare in a blink. All because of the way Bear worded his wish. Nikki does love him more than anything else in the world! Things get increasingly darker as Nikki’s rapidly escalating devotion to Bear becomes disturbingly evident.
The film ratchets up the tension as it riffs on lots of cliches that are commonly associated with the glow of new love. So, for instance, Nikki takes the notion of loving watching Bear sleep to a very creepy extreme. Equally at the prospect of spending a rare day apart, Nikki proves that she will wait for her man like a statue, regardless of human dignity and even hygiene.
If you are grasping this concept at all, you can only imagine how Nikki responds to Bear spending any time with other women. Indeed, Nikki’s love is so suffocating that she clearly wants Bear all to herself.
As Bear struggles to reverse his wish, the main male character remains consistently cowardly and dishonest about how his actions have caused all the chaos.
The entire film works to an ending that is bleak but fitting. There is no happy ending here. To be clear though, there is plenty of dark comedy throughout this movie.
Filmed for very little money and without star names, ‘Obsession’ is proof positive that high-concept low-budget horror is alive and well. It's a dead cert to be a breakout hit powered by a stellar cast of unknowns who won't be unknown for long after this!
