Two carillon writers share their thoughts and feelings on Obsession
YouTube star Curry Barker’s directorial debut Obsession has people proclaiming their praise. The horror film is a monkey-paw-inspired tale about a record store employee who wishes the friend he has a crush on would fall in love with him.
The wish comes true but in a twisted way. Carnage ensues.
Two of us went to the theater to see what the fuss was about. Here’s what we had to say.
Warning: tons of spoilers.
First Thoughts
Chanchal: See, I thought [Obsession] was going to be a lot scarier. But I just found myself laughing the whole time. I think there were very few instances that I felt like I was scared.
Anya: Really? I was definitely freaked out. The jump scares totally got me.
My initial thoughts were really about how much I was annoyed by Bear [the character making the wish]. He was just so selfish and cowardly.
Chanchal: No, I felt the same. I feel like for the longest part of the movie I was like, ‘dude, you could have avoided all of this if you just asked her out’. I’m not sure if this is what the movie was trying to get at with its moral perspective, but I thought a lot of it showed that ego, you know. The ego in a relationship. Like, you feel like this person owes you something.
Anya: Yeah, totally. He feels like she owes him.
The Friends
Anya: What did you think about Sarah and Ian?
Chanchal: Okay, 10 minutes into the movie, I could tell that Ian also liked Nikki. He kept trying to sabotage Bear.
Anya: Yeah, the first scene, when Bear is doing his practice speech on the waitress,
Ian is like, ‘ew gross’. That set up such an immediate reaction I had towards him… like ‘eh, why is he giving this terrible advice?
Chanchal: Right, he was saying ‘oh, Nikki doesn’t like that stuff, Nikki isn’t into the sappy stuff’, so I knew there was something else going on. I think [Sarah] was jealous of Nikki when she got into a relationship with Bear, where she almost tried to sabotage it. Asking someone to come over late at night, alone; that raises some flags.
Anya: Yeah, but I don’t totally blame her. Nikki was her friend and she knew Sarah liked Bear, so I can see that betrayal.
Chanchal: Yeah, and [Nikki] told her that she viewed Bear as a brotherly figure, and now she is dating someone she viewed brotherly.
The Boys Night
Chanchal: That reminds me of the party scene where she starts talking about Hansel and Gretel. She keeps making so many references to sex, and I was just like, is this real?
Anya: Yeah, that was so gross. I almost wonder if that was the real Nikki seeping through. It’s this sexual excerpt from her book, but then it has these references to a brother-sister relationship. I wonder if that was her trying to be the real Nikki. The real Nikki saw Bear as a brother, and if she’s now dating him, then that’s the sort of relationship she would imagine.
Chanchal: That’s what I was thinking too. The fact that you know Nikki talks about him being a brotherly figure, and then she talks about incest… it really shows that change in dynamic.
Anya: And such a dramatic change too.
Sandy The Sandwich
Chanchal: I think we should talk about the cat.
Anya: That was so nasty. When she was all, ‘I packed you lunch,’ I was like, oh, there is something wrong with the lunch. Then he started eating the sandwich, and I’m like, there’s something wrong with that sandwich. I don’t even know what I thought she would have done.
Chanchal: Definitely not the cat!
Anya: That was such a good reveal, “for my food critic, how’s cat?”. The gasps in the theater when that happened.
Chanchal: I was like, ‘huh.. she really cooked the cat.’ It was really funny because, after he came home after the cooked cat scene, he was like, ‘Nikki, you can’t cook the cat.’
Anya: He was rehearsing like he did in the beginning of the movie. And it was sort of like, okay, so he hasn’t changed. He still can’t confront her.
Chanchal: Exactly, it was just funny. It doesn’t end up being as much of a big deal as it was supposed to be.
Final Thoughts
Chanchal: I saw that a lot of people were saying there was a post-credit scene, but I think I missed it because I left.
Anya: Oh, I didn’t see a post-credit scene.
Chanchal: Okay, so maybe people are lying online.
Anya: Also, what more could there be to the story? What else is left to be told except for just such a sad tale of this tortured woman?
Chanchal: Yeah, I just don’t know what they could bring back.
Anya: I feel like it’s sort of a one-and-done type movie.
Chanchal: Yeah, I mean they could bring the idea of a Wish Willow back. But not Nikki.
Anya: No. I can’t imagine her life after this.
Chanchal: I would not want to be Nikki in that situation.
Anya: No, because you have this house full of dead people, you’re the only one alive, and you were essentially the killer. I think it was pretty obvious how her story ends, unfortunately.
Nikki being the final girl to a bunch of deaths that she essentially caused was so sad. It was such a sad ending.
And In Conclusion
There you go, our conversation and thoughts on Obsession. If you haven’t seen the movie (and ignored our previous warnings), you should definitely check it out. We had a good time watching it and an even better time talking about it. We both agree that Obsession creates an atmosphere that only the branch of a willow tree could conjure.
