Editorials: Was Bear in OBSESSION Really A Villain?
I finally got around to watching OBSESSION, one of the highest-grossing horror movies in 2026 so far.
It's also the most discussed horror movie on social media, with many dissecting every character motive and plot detail, and therefore revealing spoilers much before everyone got a chance to watch it.
The spoilers will not ruin your fun. The commentary on characters will minimize your enjoyment.
Consent is a highly debated topic in recent times. What it means and where it applies has become important when integrating it into societal and social norms.
But it is often also misused to gain advantage over those who have been conned into believing they were in a reliable, trusting relationship.
OBSESSION may be a horror movie on the surface, but it aggressively pushes the theme until that is all you can think of as the movie ends.
Was Nikki really taken advantage of?
Does that mean Bear was the actual villain in the movie?
There is no prominent, guaranteed answer.
Bear is a young man who is crushing hard on his coworker. Does he love her? Most of us will see right through his infatuation, but at that moment, in the first half at least, he is in love. He has fantasized about Nikki, and rehearsed the exact words he wants to say to her to show his intent.
But he's awkward and clearly not doing a great job with articulating his feelings, which is why when he sets his sights on the One Wish Willow, which was supposed to be a gift to Nikki, he instead uses it himself.
An impulsive wish was made. It is clear that he doesn't put much thought into it.
He doesn't even give the phrasing much thought. Just that he wants Nikki to love him more than anything in the world.
He didn't think that would also mean she would not love herself anymore and put herself in danger or harm herself.
He didn't think that his exact phrasing was a desire to be obsessed over.
Someone like Bear, who has a small group of friends, possibly not close to his family or orphaned, wants this one person to love him more than anything in the world, which he naively thought meant material things.
Imagine if he had said, "I want Nikki to love me to the moon and back."
We would have probably experienced some astronautical adventures.
But that's what Bear says, not caring what he had said. In that one moment of pining and desperation and loneliness, he made a wish that backfired on him.
Bear loved Nikki because he thought she was nice. She was giving money to the homeless. Did it matter that she was not giving her own money to the homeless? Not to Bear.
Did it matter that when he lost his pet cat, Nikki asked about him much later compared to Sarah, who comforted him?
Not to Bear. He wanted to confess his feelings and hope Nikki felt the same. Nikki wasn't completely unaware of his feelings. She had talked to Sarah that she saw Bear as a little brother, which meant she had her suspicions. On the way to her house, she had asked Bear upfront if he liked her, and this was his chance to say so.
Bear, who had just lost his cat because his pet got into his pills, is already facing loss. He doesn't want to lose Nikki too. So he stays quiet, afraid of rejection, only for him to make that wish which would make it easier for him. Having Nikki love him instead of him confessing his feelings is easier.
The minute Nikki shows interest, you can see Bear freak out a bit. He wanted this for a long time. He wanted Nikki to be interested in him. But now that she is, you can see the uncertainty visible in his features.
Being with Nikki is not a fantasy anymore. It's real. And maybe it wasn't what he wanted at all.
She needs him to be around her at all times. Bear loses his autonomy, his need for space or to simply hang out with his friends all by himself.
He has Nikki, but she's not the girl he was infatuated with. Initially, Bear is living his fantasy, telling himself he has finally achieved what he has desired for so long, but the cracks begin to show a little too quickly.
He's tired of her days into the relationship, and that's before she turns into Freaky Nikki.
But Bear doesn't admit this even to himself. He wanted her, and now he must learn to be in a relationship with her. For quite a bit, Bear isn't sure that the woman he is with is under a spell or that the real Nikki is trapped. He thinks it's the same girl he wanted who is experiencing a tragic circumstance where her estranged father has cancer.
He's making the relationship work. He doesn't know the real Nikki doesn't want him yet.
And that's when we as the audience witness Nikki's consent being taken away. Bear may not fully realise it yet, but we do, and it is an uncomfortable watch from there on.
Of course you dislike Bear for being so reckless with his wish, for not standing his ground, and for not realising that his actions are not ethical.
He's being irresponsible and sometimes a coward when he doesn't stand up to Nikki. He knows she's being weird and behaving out of character, but he lets her go on until she begins to believe that this is what is expected out of her. This is what Bear wants, which is why he stays.
When Bear is sure that his wish has caused all this, he does take the steps that make sense to him. He does call the number and ask for the wish to be altered or cancelled. He does go to the store and ask for advice. He does approach his friend to help him retract his wish.
But everything goes frustratingly wrong.
Following the confirmation that the real Nikki is trapped, Bear no longer tries to take advantage of her, but he is disheartened when he speaks to the real Nikki, who shows no desire to be with him.
It's crushing, but Bear is shown to attempt to put things back in order.
Of course not.
This is Bear we are talking about. His character is hopeless and unfortunate. He sees too late that the love he was looking for was sitting on his left.
He gets what he wants, but it's not what he desired.
Interestingly, seeing Bear be quick to pass on Nikki to his friend Ian because he knows they were hooking up is quite revealing.
Whether Bear was taking advantage of Nikki or not may still be debatable. It is how we interpret the movie on our own.
Nikki did kiss him first. She did want to go home with him. She did initiate intimacy. Of course, Bear being Bear didn't understand that it wasn't entirely consensual at that point.
What is obvious is that Bear never really loved Nikki. He liked the idea of being with a girl like her.
His only confirmed act of villainy is making that thoughtless wish which caused a chain of horrific events.
In the end, he's not the one who has to pay for any of this. He tries to make up for his wrongdoings with a sacrifice, but it comes at the cost of Nikki being subjected to trauma and possible incarceration.
Is Bear really a villain? Or is he a guy who made a really stupid mistake?
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