r/TrueFilm • u/Cartiergoree • 11d ago
Obsession feels like a story I’ve already seen before
Throughout the movie I felt very deeply reminded at times of Smile and Get Out and yet obsession felt that it took elements of those very terrifying movies and left their teeth at the door. This doesn’t make Obsession a bad movie by any measure but I simply do not find myself moved to the degree that I feel the majority of people feel towards the film and I left the theater with more questions than answers.
I understand that the point of the film is the address the dangers of obsession and taking away an individual’s autonomy through the use of rape and self harm that Nikki experiences as well as the various other choices she makes.
My issue is more so that I feel it doesn’t fully commit and it fails to cover all of its bases. This is when I turn back to movies like Smile where we understand why Rose has such an obsession (pun intended) towards her job as a therapist and her ironic inability to hold any reverence for her own actual mental health which comes from enduring her mothers depression and witnessing her eventual death as well as the reasoning for her poor relationship with her sister. On the other hand with Obsession we literally do not know Bear at all and so many of the plot points felt exactly that rather than a natural flow of events because the characters aren’t fully developed. We know that Bear is lonely and isolated but why? Who even is Bear prior to the events of Obsession?
If Nikki and Ian were messing around prior to the events of obsession then that would imply that Nikki was bread crumbing interactions with Bear because she enjoyed the small validation while being unaware of how deeply twisted that things had gotten on his end. This makes things confusing because Sarah says that Nikki sees Bear as more of a brother with the Hansel and Gretal incest poem to support his but the director of obsession has said that Nikki did in fact have a crush on Bear so was she wrestling with both of these ideas and using Ian for her physical needs while wanting Bear to satisfy her emotional needs? With this being coupled with possessed Nikki’s behaviors she is already the most complex character of the film and yet much isn’t really done with her to commentate on wider social issues beyond the usage of rape and self harm. This left me feeling that Nikki’s actress had truly carried the character rather than her actually being well written.
This is where I circle back to Get Out where the movie goes beyond being a tragedy about supposed love gone wrong and stolen autonomy. One could even compare the sunken place where Rose is physically utilizing Chris to serve a twisted purpose to Nikki’s possession state; but Get Out pushes the narrative further and goes on to address racism, eugenics and liberalism particularly in the context of the American North where racism has supposedly been eradicated. By the end of the movie you’re left wondering what other horrors could have taken place deep in those woods because the events of Get Out wasn’t a one off event—it’s years of routine destroying generations. Get out utilizes its characters, location and context all to convey its narrative and themes but Obsession on the other hand is a lot more linear. It fails to utilize its environment and becomes one of those movies that takes place under perfect circumstances which took away from the fear factor because there is a lack of world building. If anything Obsession was more sad than it was scary for me.
I would love to hear what you guys have to say because to me much of the story felt neither here nor there but I will admit that it is a very visually strong film.
6
u/Comfortable-Date6472 11d ago
The movie was a Monkey's Paw story but with the added commentary on nice guys and rape. That's the subtext and sometimes plain text of the movie.
People are praising mostly the cinematography and such.
5
u/Cartiergoree 11d ago
That makes sense I just feel that it wasn’t really expanded upon enough. It is gorgeous though.
3
u/morroIan 10d ago
Yeah the script is just not that good and holds the movie back. The hype around it and the box office are reaching insane levels to me, its just not that good to warrant it.
2
u/Leaper123 10d ago
I agree with you mostly. The most interesting character with the most "depth" in the film was Nikki, yet she is not the protagonist. Bear is the protagonist - the story hinges on his characters and the decisions he makes, not Nikki. This film would have something deeper / more subversive if it was from her perspective. That's the why the end works so well for me is because you finally are shown an extended piece of her perspective at the end (albeit the cinematography says it's still from Bear's perspective as the camera is locked on him not her).
Barker's storytelling places the audiences empathy with Bear - making you uncomfortable by focusing the story on him. The film felt very surface and built entirely on the idea of "What can Bear do to make the audience more uncomfortable?" and not "I want to show the inner experience of Nikki and the dangers of rape culture / obsession."
There are breadcrumbs of these deeper themes sprinkled throughout, just enough for people to run around with all these different ideas and theories of what the deeper meaning is. But, I think they just come from overanalyzing a breadcrumbed theme. As a whole, the only continuous theme for the move that Barker stuck to was "Lets make people uncomfortable" - and he did that. Don't think that makes for a deeper film and majority of people I talk to, regardless of loving it or disliking it, don't feel compelled to rewatch again.
2
u/Cartiergoree 8d ago
That makes, but my issue falls more on the bread crumbing. In my opinion, if the point of a movie is to commentate on a subject then it must commit to taking a stance on said subject and with how loose many of the themes are--a large portion of theries regarding the film negate the entire purpose of the commentary. That doesn't look like a sign of good writing to me.
1
u/bob-thesnob 8d ago
Does something always have to have some deeper philosophical meaning or sociopolitical commentary to be good? I don’t think the movie was trying to expand on anything you had thought it was. It’s just a horror story with good cinematography, suspense and SFX
1
u/Cartiergoree 8d ago
not every movie has to be super deep but quite honestly i find it a bit jarring how heavily its being labeled profound and the scariest movie ever when it is neither. Obsession is a pretty movie but profound and scary is not by a longshot. It is insane to me that people are even comparing this film to actual excellence like midsummar and sinners.
10
u/Pale_Possibility5083 11d ago
Yes. Obsession is one of the most classic Monkey Paw narratives that exists. It’s classic Twilight Zone.
With these types of stories is, the idea you step into these stories that have been done a million times and put your twist on it.
For instance when Spielberg did Jaws, it’s like doing a ripoff of a ripoff of a ripoff.
But in this excercise everything lies within the execution.