Tina Kakadelis
Codependency is becoming a hot-button topic in horror movies. Together took over social media for months with its body horror take on a long-term couple that has hit a plateau of complacency. Maybe all this talk of codependency comes from Covid relationships that were fast and furious for a while, but are now at a place where many of the semi-long-term relationships are crumbling. People dream of having someone who only has eyes for them, but obsession is a flame that eventually runs out of oxygen. As part of the Midnight Madness program of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, Obsession creates a codependent nightmare that reminds viewers to be careful what they wish for.
Bear (Michael Johnston) has had a crush on his friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette) for years. It’s easy to see why. Nikki is the type of person who gives off the impression that nothing bothers her. She’s the go-with-the-flow Cool Girl who has a way of making Bear feel like the most important person in the world. Bear’s friend Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) is sick of hearing about Bear’s crush that he won’t act on, so he encourages Bear to admit his feelings. Bear decides tonight at bar trivia is the night, so he goes to a local store to buy Nikki a gift. It’s there where he stumbles upon a little trinket that promises the user’s wish to come true. After chickening out at trivia, Bear decides to use the trinket. He wishes that Nikki would love him more than anything else in the world. At first it’s a dream come true, but things very quickly become nightmarish.
Romantic relationships of the late teens and early twenties are hellish. That’s the age of Obsession’s protagonists. They’re young adults just out of school with jobs at their friend’s dad’s music store. They’re making money, but they have nowhere really to be. They can go out drinking and arrive at their shift hungover without any real consequences. The unstructured time and overworked feelings allow for romantic relationships to easily morph into runaway trains. The first few connections are often complicated by the fact that the people in the relationships believe they’ve found The One. Sure, a few likely did, but more often than not, everyone has to go through a few bad eggs before making an omelette.
Bear’s wish comes from a genuine place. He has a sweet crush on a girl whose signals he’s woefully misunderstanding. It doesn’t come from a place of malice, but the genuine puppy love that tends to make everything seem a little rosier than it is. Obsession really kicks into gear when the effects of the wish take hold of Nikki. All of a sudden she’s into Bear in a way that confuses their friends because she’s often said he feels like a brother to her. You can’t blame Bear for going along with it for a while. Who would genuinely think a wishing willow twig sold for less than ten dollars at the local crystal shop would actually work? When it’s time to confront Bear’s actions, he begins to realize the weight of what his wish has on Nikki.
Navarrette’s portrayal of Nikki is extraordinary. She’s breezily kind when the audience meets her, instantly endearing them to her. Then, when they see the toll the wish is taking on her, Navarrette’s portrayal shifts in a deeply unnerving manner. The attributes of her character that made the audience care about her are now twisted to mean something else. At around the one-hour mark, there’s a scene with just Navarrette and the camera. It’s the sort of moment that shouldn’t be described to preserve the utter sucker punch it delivers in the context of the film, but also the type of moment that you’ll know when you see it. The kind of scene that will have you thinking about it for days afterward. Obsession provides a powerhouse platform for Navarrette, and she provides a performance that will make you remember her name.
As Obsession nears its end, it becomes clear to Bear that his wish is untenable. Obsession and love are not the same thing, and what Bear has been given through his wish is not love. He thought having Nikki’s full attention was what he wanted, but the reality is that no one actually wants to be the complete center of someone’s world. By the end of the movie, he’s begging her to be Nikki again. The Nikki who doesn’t share his feelings, but whose company he actually enjoyed. Nikki, with a pained, too-intense smile, says, “I’ll be anything you want me to be.”
For much of Obsession, you might be wondering why it was included in the Midnight Madness portion of the festival, but when the film finally gives you what you came for, it’s utterly explosive. The one jumpscare is used extraordinarily well, and what a thrill it is to have one perfectly placed scare instead of an overabundance throughout. Codependency is a hallmark trait of many youthful relationships. Most people grow out of the need to be the center of someone’s world. If not, Obsession warns, it might just be the death of you.
