*SPOILERS IN REVIEW*
There are plenty of horror stories about monsters, demons, slasher killers, vampires, zombies, and so many other “scary” things, and that’s what I love about horror. However, for a lot of us who are part of lesser-known groups, we sympathize with misunderstood characters. These creatures are often what Guillermo del Toro calls “patron saints of the outsiders.”
Because in this story, the scariest thing imaginable is not one of those monsters but rather another nice guy who thinks he deserves a woman’s love just because he wants it bad enough.
And to be honest? That’s far scarier than any horror movie I’ve ever seen.
The movie starts, of course, like a normal romantic comedy trope-style film. Bear is a quiet and insecure guy who is hopelessly in love with one of his best friends, Nikki. We know what happens next as he makes this wish, and normally we’d basically expect there to be a certain way this movie would go. She would be the “crazy girl” that symbolizes how women supposedly act sometimes, and then eventually we’d find out that she did in fact like him all along and he’d grow into a bold stand-up guy who gets the girl in the end after some horrifying murders and cool music scenes.
And a lesser movie may have done just that, but we don’t get that here.
After using the One Wish Willow so that Nikki would love him “more than anyone else in the world,” Bear gets a version of what he wants. The movie makes it clear almost immediately that this is a love story, but not a romantic one, as Nikki herself frames it early on. Nikki’s affection doesn’t feel natural or of her own volition because it isn’t. There are several moments in the film where she is clearly trapped inside her own body, and it’s not really Nikki who is “loving” Bear. This wish turns coercion on its head to show how truly gross and evil it is rather than treating the subject lightly.
The real horror in all of this is that Bear seems to grasp this almost right away and several times throughout the movie.
He is an effective horror protagonist in the absolute worst possible way. While the setup initially presents him as a victim of a wish gone wrong born from pure intentions, we slowly realize he is actually a monster who is willing to let Nikki suffer as long as he gets what he wants from her.
Then, in a sequence where the real Nikki speaks to him while she sleeps, begging to be freed from this life and killed, we hear the line that sums up the entirety of his character:
“What’s so bad about being with me?”
This line is so important because Bear views Nikki’s lack of consent as a personal insult against himself. Rather than asking if she actually wants this and prioritizing her well-being, he selfishly centers his own insecurity and allows her to continue being violated in a way that feels all too real. This movie understands something that a lot of us men still struggle with: entitlement combined with insecurity can become destructive and even deadly to women.
This is where we can see who the truly “obsessed” person is. It is not the person subjected to the demands imposed upon them, but rather the person willing to let someone they claim to care about suffer in service of their own feelings.
For many of us as Indigenous people, this is also why conversations around MMIP awareness are so important. Of course, this movie is not directly discussing MMIP issues, but the same underlying theme appears in both: the idea that access is more important than consent. That wanting something justifies control. That affection and what looks like “good intent” somehow overrides a human being’s autonomy.
Native women in the United States continue to face disproportionate levels of violence. According to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, more than 4 in 5 Native women experience violence in their lifetime, while homicide remains one of the leading causes of death for Native women and girls in certain age groups. The U.S. Department of the Interior Missing and Murdered Unit also notes that jurisdictional gaps, underreporting, and inconsistent investigations continue to leave many Native families without answers for years.
That is why themes involving consent, autonomy, and control hit differently for many of us Indigenous viewers. These are not abstract concepts for us. These are realities that Native women, families, and communities are still actively dealing with.
In this movie, it’s important because Bear doesn’t physically chain Nikki up or lock her in a basement. It appears less sinister on the surface, but he strips away her entire self and reshapes her existence just to serve him. That is absolutely violence. His view of women is so warped that he becomes comfortable allowing this to continue even while she is clearly suffering.
In an interview with TIME, director Curry Barker stated:
“Everyone thinks the One Wish Willow is cursed, but it’s not. Like if you worded it very, very carefully and wished for something you knew couldn’t possibly be bad for anybody, you’re probably fine. But if you’re forcing someone to feel a certain way about you, it doesn’t really matter how you word it.”
So it’s not the power itself that is inherently evil, but rather the desires of Bear. This becomes even clearer when we see the owner of the store as a relatively regular guy who already used his wish and seemingly turned out fine.
So what does it look like when someone values being loved more than they value another person’s freedom?
In Obsession, it looks like destruction, death, and harm inflicted not just on Nikki but on everyone around them. All because Bear could not bring himself to do the right thing, even until the very end of the film when he still chickens out of freeing her.
And honestly, by the end of the movie, the question somehow gets answered once again: yeah, everyone would be safer with an actual bear than with Bear.
If you would like to support Indigenous women and MMIP advocacy efforts, consider donating to Not Our Native Daughters, an organization dedicated to awareness, prevention, and support surrounding Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and relatives.
