Obsession

Obsession came out of nowhere this summer battling multiple hundred million dollar juggernauts like Moana and Supergirl, this tiny, low budget Blumhouse horror flick somehow managed to set the box office on fire.

It's not a straightforward movie by any means. When the credits finally roll, you are left with a lingering feeling that there is something significantly darker bubbling under the surface. Is this a straightforward monkey's paw wish movie, a terrifying tale of demonic possession, or just a drug induced fever dream? Like Hereditary, it demands repeat viewings just to figure out what you actually watched.

First off, Inde Navarrette, what an absolute powerhouse performance. She possesses this incredibly natural, effortless charisma. She starts the movie as the ultimate cool girl. Then she slowly morphs into a weird, crazy stalker with subtle, twitching facial contortions before she devolves into a completely unhinged psycho. It all plays out seamlessly in a completely linear storyline that allows her to steal the show. A lesser actress would have completely killed the tension, but Navarrette proves she has the acting chops to carry an entire franchise on her back.

The plot intentionally muddies the waters as it plays out. Boy likes girl, boy works with girl, boys friend convinces boy to ask out girl, boy is too scared to ask out girl. Boy's....cat dies from a pill overdose?? Ok maybe this isn't going to be a tale as old as time.

When our protagonist Bear fails to conquer his nerve and ask out Nikki, he resorts to buying a "One Wish Willow" stick. It is a cheap novelty item purchased from one of those local positive energy crystal shops. He uses it to wish she would fall madly in love with him. Naturally, the universe operates on monkey's paw logic. She becomes aggressively, violently obsessive. Things go entirely south and people get hurt.

But here is where the things get a tad fascinating. The rules of the willow stick are never actually made clear. In fact, Bear might have just been an idiot who did it wrong. The box clearly says to make the wish and then break the stick. Bear breaks the stick first. Did this chronological screw up bring about the horrific results? A "Threddit" post being nearly 50/50 split on the positives and negatives seem to support that. Later on, Bear calls a customer support number for the magic stick, but he dials the wrong number. Is that a continuity error or is it a deliberate, is Bear completely inept?

There are some massive and baffling questions left totally unanswered in the film. First, why would Bear's best friend Ian aggressively push this romance when we learn later that Ian and Nikki were secretly hooking up the entire time? What is the end game there? To disgust her and rip the bandaid off?

Second, why are there four employees working at a local, independent music shop? In what booming economic reality does a small town instrument store have the payroll of a medium sized tech startup?

Also, when Nikki gets out of the car after getting a ride home, why does she say "nows the time" to tell her if Bear likes her. Was she going to squash it and friendzone him, was she going to reciprocate? Well never know because he didn't have the courage to ask her, instead relying on the wish to enslave her personality.

Now we jump into theory time. Throughout the movie, we get subtle hints that maybe this is not a magical wish at all. It might just be straight up demonic possession. Nikki zones out periodically, almost as if the demon momentarily loses control of the steering wheel and she comes to completely startled by her surroundings. She leaves odd notes for Bear saying "you" and "not me." She talks in her sleep, begging him to end it before it comes back. It remindeds me of Tak, the demon from Stephen King's The Regulators. Tak would briefly leave its host body for unsavory things like using the bathroom, giving Seth a horrifying, fleeting moment of sanity. You can also see strong shades of Get Out in Navarrette's vacant, painted expressions.

The movie sprinkles several weird, demonic threads throughout the runtime. Sequential numbers, a voodoo doll in the store, a f'ing cat sandwich, loads of vomit, and a brutal incident with a brick. The movie does not shy away from the gore.

Spoilers: At the end, Bear dies. Nikki is about to Juliet herself right next to her Romeo when the wish is suddenly broken, because Bear is now dead. Nikki snaps back into her own body, instantly faced with the stark, blood soaked reality of what just happened around her. Her friend group totally decimated. It is a depressing ending that pulls no punches.

This is essentially one giant, R-rated episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark and I absolutely loved it. Oddly enough, it strongly mirrors the dynamic of Charlie and the Waitress from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Bear (Charlie) is head over heels for the fantasy of Nikki (The Waitress). But when he finally gets exactly what he wants, he is revoltedby her. He likes the chase, not the reality.

Honestly, Bear sucks. He is a self centered wet blanket who stole a woman's autonomy, and even when he realizes it, he still refuses to attempt to set things right.

Circling back, I personally did not enjoy Hereditary, yet this movie follows the exact same style and pacing. I honestly cannot explain why I enjoyed Obsession so much more. It is not shot exceptionally well. The cinematography relies way too heavily on that dark, muted, muddy modern lighting, with the exception of a handful of brilliant shots like the one involving the lighting of Nikki's eyes and necklace at the door. The sound work is fantastic. It uses audio incredibly well for the jump scares. The practical makeup and effects are brilliantly simple. It is a slow burn, but the characters make the pacing work.

I do not fully understand how a movie this weird became a massive summer hit, but I will not fight it. The world desperately needs more low budget, original ideas taking massive swings. If this is the catalyst for studios taking more risks, that is a massive win in my book. Just please, do not mine it into oblivion by making six terribleknockoffs.