Dr. Wife and I took a trip to the theater on Saturday to see the horror/psychological thriller/black comedy Obsession (2025-2026). Dr. Wife had seen it on social media, and Critical Drinker’s positive review clinched it.

The film is based on a familiar premise: be careful what you wish for. It’s essentially a “The Monkey’s Paw” with one wish instead of three. Naturally, the one wish goes horribly awry.

The protagonist, Bear, is deeply in love—obsessed—with his friend and co-worker Nikki. After a night out with their fellow co-workers Ian and Sandy, Bear drives Nikki home, and she pointedly asks Bear if he likes her, saying, “now’s the time to tell me.” Bear, who is a rather cowardly young man, sheepishly denies it.

Frustrated with his own spinelessness, he uses a “One-Wish Willow”—a novelty toy he purchased at a New Age shop as a gag—to wish that Nikki love him more than anything else in the world.

Well, it wouldn’t be a movie if the wish didn’t come true; it does, and what starts as a giddy romance quickly devolves into an obsessive, dangerously co-dependent relationship, amid which the “real” Nikki briefly “breaks through.” These episodes of lucidity show a woman desperately fighting to reassert herself against Bear’s wish, which has robbed her of her free will.

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