All opinions are my own, and my opinions are trash. I do have actual criteria, though…

1. Their removal would affect the plot
2. They undergo some change/character development, good or bad
3. We see different sides of their personality
4. They have a plot of their own that doesn’t revolve entirely around a male character. OR
5. They are well-developed within the confines of the role they are written to play 
6. They don’t toss away every traditionally feminine trait in an attempt to be a strong, independent womyn.

*spoilers*

Sandy the Cat

• gray
• dies at the start of the movie
  • got into Bear’s (grandmother’s?) drugs and RIP
  • foreshadowing
  • Bear can’t even tell Nikki the reason he doesn’t want to hang out is because his cat died
• Nikki!
  • my cat died – uh i mean your cat died
  • dead cat shrine
  • cat sandwich

Bear blaming a cat for acting like a cat instead of blaming himself for leaving drugs out where a cat can get them tells us all we need to know about him.

RIP Sandy, queen of cats and presumed slayer of mice. We hardly knew ye.

Sandy Rating: Nikki Staring at Bear While He Sleeps/10

Viola

• works at a witchy crystal shop that sells One Wish Willows
• nice hair
• crystals

Viola Rating: 5/10

Sarah

• has a crush on Bear
  • why tho???
  • claims Nikki & Ian have been hooking up for the past 2 years
  • thinks Nikki is taking advantage of Bear
  • usually on Bear’s left
  • heartwarming albeit tense car scene
• great style
  • Not Nikki steals her dress and attempts to replicate her tattoos…
• artsy
• RIP
• friends with Nikki (?)
• works at the music shop
• didn’t take school seriously and is struggling to get into college
  • she does get an acceptance letter but RIP

Respectfully, Sarah was kinda stupid and shady even though I liked her. Girly literally witnesses Nikki crash out expeditiously while playing Jenga and still asks Bear to meet up with her during booty-call hours.

To be fair, the gap between jealous girlfriend and smashing someone’s face into a steering wheel until they die is a pretty big leap that Not Nikki nevertheless takes.

And Bear deserves all the fault here, seeing as he’s in a committed relationship. But GIRL, why are you thirsting so hard after a mid dude with a dead-end job who’s willing to cheat on his “crazy” girlfriend in the middle of the night?

Sarah Rating: 6.2/10

Waitress

• Bear’s confession of love
• waitress
• nice hair
• HEADBAND

Waitress Lady Rating: Ian Wishing for A Billion Dollars Only To Get Shot 1 minute Later/10

Not Nikki

• exists only to love Bear
  • watches him sleep
  • cooks him food
  • loves him so so so so so so so so sososososososo much
  • at one point, was having a nice date but Bear ruined it by asking if her dad really has cancer
• can kinda act normal but mostly does not
  • crashes out at the thought of Bear kissing Sarah
  • random bouts of weird walking and violence
  • stands in one place and defecates all over itself while Bear is at work
  • cooks Bear’s dead cat
  • makes a shrine with the corpse of a cat
  • lies a lot (?)
• Kill count: two (3 if you count Bear)
• doesn’t get why Bear doesn’t love her back
  • she does use a willow wish on him
• BRICK

Not Nikki isn’t benevolent or malevolent. Rather, its sole purpose is to be in love with Bear. However, Bear’s wish can only manifest in a malevolent way because the nature of it strips away Nikki’s autonomy regardless of whether or not the real Nikki actually likes Bear.

Most of Not Nikki’s actions can be likened to a child learning to regulate their emotions, which makes sense if you believe Not Nikki was born when Bear made his wish. The pouting, reading upside down, screaming, random dancing/walking, random outbursts of violence – this is stuff kids do before they learn to regulate themselves.

Not Nikki will give up anything for Bear, do anything for Bear, and get rid of anything it perceives as interfering with her love for Bear, because his wish ensures it can’t act in any other way.

Not Nikki Rating: 10/10

Nikki

• actually kind and bubbly (maybe)
  • gives a homeless dude some money
  • pays for her friends’ drinks
  • always treated Bear kindly
• DRUGS
  • her flirty behavior initially is blamed on a relapse
  • her previous drug use suggests Nikki may not be as plucky and happy as Bear perceives her to be
• works at the music store
• “none of my crushes ever know I like them”
• estranged from her parents/dad (maybe)
  • her dad maybe has cancer
• crystal girly
  • she loses her crystal necklace. Given that magic is real in this world, it’s possible losing the necklace made her vulnerable to the wish
  • gives Bear a tiger rock for protection
• likes to write
  • Hansel and Gretel story
• aware of what’s happening to her
  • Bear hears the real Nikki screaming when he calls the Willow Wish number
  • when “she” falls asleep, the real Nikki asks Bear to kill her
  • gives Bear a picture of her that says NOT Nikki
  • says she has never been with Bear

We barely know the real Nikki, but from what we do see of her, I do not for one second believe Ian pulled her.

Anyway, the real Nikki has goals of becoming a writer and is planning to leave her bum job to move onto something bigger and better. She’s also blunt, friendly, and generous from the little we see of her.

Bear strips her entire future and identity away with a flippant wish, leaving her a tortured shell watching some entity inhabit her body and kill her loved ones. In fact, his wish takes away everything that made Nikki Nikki, which is why once Bear’s honeymoon phase wore off, he found Not Nikki annoying and clingy.

The irony of Obsession is that the opening scenes strongly suggest Nikki does like Bear, and he could’ve had his fairytale love if he’d simply asked her out.

Nikki Rating: 7.5/10

Obsession is an indie romance horror film about Bear, a passive, anxious coward who is obsessed with Nikki, his coworker. His grandmother has died seemingly recently, his cat also dies, and he seems to have no family. But he has a solid group of friends.

Somehow, Bear drops the silver platter Nikki superglues to his hands when she asks if he likes her by saying no, you’re like a sister to me.

Instead of being like, “hey, actually I do like you and would like to take you out for drinks,” he makes a wish using a One Wish Willow, asking that she would love him more than anyone else.

In his defense, Bear has no reason to think this wish will work. And he does resist, albeit weakly, Nikki’s initial attempts to be with him because he recognizes her behavior is out of character.

After it becomes clear that Not Nikki isn’t Nikki and the real Nikki is miserable, any sympathy for him is gone. He ignores Nikki’s desires, needs, and physical/mental health for his own pleasure only tiring of her presence when it starts to interfere with his desires.

Long story short, Bear isn’t even man enough to off himself to save Nikki. Instead, Nikki inadvertently frees herself after wishing Bear would love her as much as she loves him. #queenbehavior. Bear ODs and dies, and the real Nikki wakes up to the horror that Bear has unleashed.

Obsession does have a lot of issues with its plot. Honestly, the main characters aren’t written very well (other than Bear).

But the strength of the cast paired with an interesting approach to the psycho-girlfriend trope makes this one of my favorite horror movies. And with it being so low budget, the director/writer/whoever did a great job working with what little they had.

Plus, Obsession explores a variety of themes quite well. The myth of the “nice guy,” the erosion of women’s agency/bodily autonomy in society, the anxiety many men feel about dating, toxic masculinity…

Overall, the movie does an above-average job telling the story it wants to tell. And I can’t really complain about that.

Obsession Rating: 9/10