Obsession (2025)

Plot of Obsession: Bear Bailey, Nikki, Ian and Sarah work in a music store. Bear fancies Nikki but is too shy to tell her, despite her encouragement. His cat dies of oxycodone excess and while depressed Bear buys a novelty, “One Wish Willow”, intending to give it to Nikki. He drops Nikki at her house and breaks the one wish willow, wishing that Nikki will love him more than anyone else in the world. Nikki immediately returns to his car and persuaded him to take her to his home where they become intimate. Her behaviour is strange but she tells him she has been taking drugs and in their work environment their friends Sarah and Ian become aware that things have changed but don’t really believe it. They think they know how Nikki feels about Bear. Nikki’s behaviour to Bear becomes more and more sinister as she starts to control his every move, eventually causing Bear to call the One Wish Willow help line, where he is told that the wish cannot be changed. It will only cease on his death. Oh dear!

Content: Some sex with, as the IMDb guide says ‘thrusting’, but no nudity. Once the wish is being fulfilled it is obvious that Nikki is no longer in control. There seems to be a third party in the relationship, which becomes hysterical if Bear does not do exactly what she, or it, wants. When Bear goes to work leaving her at home on a day off she does not move for the whole day, but urinates and defecates where she stands. She has also made him a sandwich using the cat.  Once in the night the real Nikki asks Bear to kill her while her alternate persona is asleep. Later Sarah asks Bear to meet her outside the house where they discuss the relationship, and she implies that she would be interested in him. But too late. Nikki appears, breaks the window of the car and kills Sarah.

A View: As the strap line says ‘you should be careful what you wish for’. Well, this film broke my unofficial measure of success in spades. Even though it cost less than a million dollars to make, it grossed seven million on its first day, and up to now had made more than $330 million. It has also joined the IMBb Top 250 at No 247.  It is an alarming and engrossing film which in a way echoes what must happen to people who inadvertently become involved in obsessive relationships, in the end being prepared to do almost anything to avoid angering their partner. Well worth the price of a cinema ticket if you have a strong stomach.

Fun Fact: In its fourth weekend it surpassed Focus Features previous most successful film ever, Downton Abbey, at $194 million.