There’s a brilliant graphic novel, Eight Billion Genies, where the premise is that aliens grant every human on Earth (and I mean everyone, even folks residing in wombs) a single wish. Unsurprisingly, the world flies off the rails very, very quickly, in a manner that runs the gamut from comic to horror.
Guess who emerges as valuable entities in this nightmare setting? Lawyers. Their mastery of legalese allows them to craft wishes that grant the wishers exactly what they desired — no more, no less — without venturing into the dreaded realm of Unintended Consequences.
[In typical lawyerly fashion, these Briefcase Warriors generally required additional wishes (they could be bequeathed from one person or group to another) as payment for their services. And they were also rather savvy in setting up those additional wishes as “wish-nullification shields” that triggered if some unhappy soul decided to target them with their wishes. These guys thought of everything!]
__________
Enter Obsession, where sad-sack twentysomething Bear (Michael Johnston) toils away at a dead-end job in a music store, silently pining after co-worker Nikki (Indy Navarrette), who clearly likes him… but Not In That Way. Unrequited love, a tale as old as the hills.
Bear has a golden opportunity to pour out his heart to her one evening after driving her home from a group outing. But as always… he chickens out. Frustrated with himself while still parked outside her home, he unwraps a trinket he had picked up earlier, a novelty toy called “One Wish Willow.” There’s no way this piece of wood can actually work. But we all want to believe.
I wish Nikki Freeman loved me more than anyone else in the entire world.
SNAP.
All of a sudden, from outside his car, Nikki’s demeanor abruptly shifts. Perhaps Bear would like to come inside? Like, right now? Yes. Yes, he would. And so they’re off.
To the amazement of their co-workers Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) and Sarah (Megan Lawless), Bear and Nikki instantly become a gooey-eyed, inseparable couple. Joined at the hip, they are happy as clams, save for the momentary lapses when Original Nikki seems to flash to the fore, and is rather horrified to find herself in Bear’s bed. But pfft… those flickers of recognition soon evaporate. What’s lurking in New Nikki’s noggin?
It gradually becomes apparent that there’s no upper boundary on the “love” that Nikki is now compelled to feel for Bear. It may have begun at a hair above “more than anyone else in the entire world,” but in the days and weeks that transpire, her adoration ratchets up and up and up. Bear wakes up one morning to find his front door duct-taped. If you felt a crippling all-consuming love for something, you’d never want it to leave the house, right?
If that isn’t the canary in the coal mine for Bear, the coup de grâce comes later that day, after he’s managed to untangle the door and leave for work. Nikki tells him from the foyer, “I’ll be right here when you get home.” And she is. She’s rooted herself to that spot for over eight hours, bodily functions be damned. Red Alert. Red Alert.
Conveniently enough, there’s a customer-support phone number on the One Wish Willow wrapper. Can Bear cancel his wish? Nope. Can he make another wish to undo his original wish? Nope. Only one wish per customer. The wish only ends when he dies… or if someone else uses their wish to terminate his.
You'd like to file a cancel request?
— Yeah, a cancel request.
We don’t really do that.
The implacable nature of the customer-support representative seems lifted from the recent Demi Moore horror film The Substance, another tale about wish-fulfillment gone awry. Even the font used by the mysterious company in that yarn gave one the distinct impression that “bargaining” was NOT an option.
Bear ends his call by asking where Original Nikki is while New Nikki is in charge of her body. The rep puts her on the line.
Screaming. Just screaming.
Does this end well for anyone? What fate awaits anyone who gets in between Nikki and Bear? You probably can guess the answers to those questions. What makes Obsession a bit unusual is that it cuts against the horror grain which presents most villains as intimidatingly powerful. Michael Myers. Hannibal Lecter. Aunt Gladys from Weapons.
Bear is a villain founded on weakness, not strength. He’s too weak to be honest with Nikki about his feelings from the start. And even after he knows something is seriously wrong with the idea of a partner who’s artificially coerced into being his lover, he’s willing to keep using Nikki until her growing mania makes their relationship untenable.
So in that sense, perhaps Obsession isn’t quite a Frankenstein’s Monster, but instead an allegory for AI run amok? An entity is programmed to behave a certain way, and those directives are followed to the nth degree no matter what. All impediments are strictly treated as collateral damage.
Waitaminute… we actually did see this in 2022’s M3GAN, where an android “companion” used lethal means to protect its owner! But I’d argue that Obsession is more chilling for three reasons:
— The unexplainable is always far scarier than anything dreamt up in a research lab. There’s no logical reason why the One Wish Willows work. They just do. And we have no idea what Original Nikki is exactly experiencing while her will is subjugated. We just know that it’s bad.
— The aforementioned Ms. Navarrette, who’s clearly the engine for this macabre tale. Edward Norton received a zillion accolades for his alter-ego in his cinematic debut, Primal Fear, but even there, the man still only needed two speeds. Navarrette? Mischievous, endearing, frightened, playful, paranoid, creepy, desperate… she unveils the entire spectrum. Full stop.
— Most horror films don’t feature much in the way of moral quandaries. It’s worth noting that while Bear is selfish and spineless, he’s not a psychopath, and belatedly tries to return Nikki to normal in the final act. Because of this, the audience is primed to root for Bear, even though he’s a sneakily despicable person.
Would a fair number of filmgoers relate to his shyness? How many folks in his shoes would make the same sort of rash wish without thinking things through? A bunch, I bet. However, the crucial distinction is that Bear is an adult! It’s more forgivable when you’re 13 and wish to be “big,” like Josh Baskin does in the film Big (a pantheon-quality Tom Hanks performance) in order to win the heart of a crush. At least the wish didn’t warp the mind of a young lady, though it did lead to the trauma of parents who thought their son was kidnapped.
Also, when I say “tries to return Nikki to normal,” well… there was only one surefire way to do that, and Bear wimps out again there as well. Does he receive appropriate retribution? Most would argue no, even though nobody wins at the end of this tale. (Well, except the person who happens upon Ian’s home and finds the results of his wish…)
Here’s the thing about horror, though – it’s OK to roll the credits after a swath of misery! Damien survives The Omen. Earth bites the dust after a brutal rampage in Cabin in the Woods. The Pod People are victorious in the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Unpredictability is one of the strengths of the genre.
What was predictable is the fact that after $400+ million at the box office, there would be a sequel in development. Ha!