For many couples, watching a movie together is the ultimate date night in. Research shows that scary movies, in particular, can help increase romantic attraction between two people, and foster intimacy. But one horror film seems to be doing the opposite for some couples.
A woman has shared how her relationship of two years quickly disintegrated, after her boyfriend watched the movie ‘Obsession’ without her. She says the fact that he watched it alone was bad enough. But to make matters worse, he then went on to side with the toxic main character: a socially awkward music store worker who uses a magical wish-granting toy to force his coworker to fall in love with him.
She loves dissecting a good horror movie, and he thinks they’re just for entertainment
mego-studio / Magnific (not the actual photo)
So when her BF had a hot take on the movie ‘Obsession,’ this woman saw right through him
Drazen Zigic / Magnific (not the actual photo)
magnific / Magnific (not the actual photo)
faststocklv / Magnific (not the actual photo)
What’s the obsession with Obsession?
If you’ve not watched it yet, “Obsession” follows Bear, a socially awkward young man who is hopelessly in love with his longtime friend Nikki. Instead of confessing his feelings to her, Bear wishes their romantic relationship into existence. Quite literally. He stumbles upon something called the One Wish Willow. It’s an ancient, cursed artifact that allows him a single wish.
“And instead of wishing for money, happiness, world peace, or literally anything sensible, Bear wishes for Nikki to love him more than anything else in the world,” writes Varun Sajeni Mohandas, who says the movie blew him away. As it turns out, Bear gets exactly what he wanted, and for a while, it seems that Nikki is obsessed with him. An obsession that soon turns creepy.
“But the film slowly reveals a horrifying truth. The real Nikki is still there. The curse hasn’t changed her feelings. It hasn’t made her fall in love,” explains Mohandas. “Instead, it has trapped her consciousness while forcing her body and mind to act out Bear’s fantasy.”
The movie speaks to consent, entitlement, objectification, limerence, and, like the woman in this post discovered, the difference between loving a person for who they are and loving the idea of who you think they are.
Script magazine’s critics liken the movie to “a spiraling nightmare about coercion, emotional cowardice, and the horrifying consequences of forcing intimacy into existence.”
“Obsession understands the manipulative entitlement hiding underneath the so-called “nice guy” fantasy,” says Writer Rahul Menon, “and it drags that fantasy into the ugliest corners imaginable.”
Emotionally wrecked, deeply unsettled, and a little haunted is how Menon describes feeling after watching the film.
“Obsession” has been a catalyst for more than a few break-ups recently. Several people have shared how their relationships crumbled after watching the movie. Some because they recognised the parallels, others because a partner’s true colors quickly became clear.
“The movie has done its job”: Many people applauded the woman for leaving
