‘Obsession’ Blended Takes Where Nikki Liked and Didn’t Like Bear to Keep Fans Guessing

Curry Barker‘s Obsession is one of the great success stories of not just this year, but the last handful of decades. The Monkey’s Paw tale sees a guy named Bear (Michael Johnston) wish for his crush, Nikki (Inde Navarette), to love him more than anyone in the world, only to see it go terribly wrong. Fans have speculated whether or not Bear had a shot without the wish, to which the cast had some interesting answers.

In an interview with Cinemablend, Navarette was asked about that exact thing. Here’s what she said. “Everything’s from Bear’s perspective, Bear doesn’t really know how Nikki feels. So me and Curry played with the idea of whenever we did certain takes, we played one where she is super interested, we did another where she wasn’t. And so, in the editing process, kind of marrying those together to also see it from Bear’s perspective of ‘how does she feel?’ So ultimately… we don’t really know.“

Added Navarette, “But, speaking as Nikki, I think that there’s a little inclination of like, [he] would treat me right, to a certain extent, I just wanna emphasize that. But, like in the beginning, like, he’s a good guy.“

We could argue all day whether or not Bear’s a good guy (I don’t think so), yet ultimately, that’s not really a definitive answer. But if you’re one of those who think Bear had a shot, you’re not crazy. Barker and the cast wanted you to feel that way because crushes are always confusing. From his perspective, he couldn’t tell, so neither could we. Though it should go to show that it’s always better to just tell someone how you feel to get their response instead of, you know, forcing them to love you.

While I personally don’t believe Nikki liked Bear that way, it’s an interesting approach to shoot two different sides of her and blend those together. Doing so has caused audiences to keep the conversation around the film going as they endlessly discuss whether or not Bear had a shot. That keeps your movie in the public eye and has almost certainly played a part in the film’s massive box office success.