Wishes Gone Wrong and Toxic Relationships: 9 Movies Like Obsession

Joe Dante’s zombie romantic comedy, Burying the Ex, features a possessive girlfriend to rival Nikki. Twilight’s Ashley Greene plays Evelyn, the overbearing and controlling partner of Anton Yelchin’s laid-back, horror-obsessed Max. On paper, it is unclear quite how the couple came to be, but just as Max has worked up the courage to break-up with Evelyn, she dies.

However, she doesn’t stay dead for long and returns from the grave to continue their relationship. When it comes to unhinged behaviour, Evelyn feels very much like a prototype Nikki, with Max being a not-quite-as-cowardly version of Obsession’s Bear. 

Pearl forms the mid-section in director Ti West’s X trilogy. It tells the history of X’s murderous Pearl, flashing back to the 1920s to explain how she developed an appetite for killing. Featuring Wizard of Oz levels of technicolour, Pearl left behind the silly slasher nature of X to become a more intimate character piece.

Mia Goth gives a phenomenal performance as the titular character and her closing one-take monologue should really have earned her at least an Oscar nomination. While that did not come to pass, Goth’s performance in Pearl was what Inde Navarrette watched repeatedly when she was developing Nikki. Fingers crossed Navarrette can succeed where Goth failed when awards season rolls back around.

One of the magic components of Obsession is its score. Composed by Rock Burwell, the soundscape of Obsession is synth heavy, sinister, and oddly ethereal, conjuring up an almost dreamlike — or more accurately, waking nightmare — environment. Although Obsession is set in the ‘real’ world, the score infuses an out of time quality to its proceedings.

Another horror that pulled off the same trick is It Follows. The story tells of a sexually transmitted demon stalking teenager Jay and her friends, and is accompanied by a heavenly disturbed synth score from Disasterpiece. It Follows became an instant classic, and Obsession looks set to do the same. 

For a film that feels more thematically akin to Obsession, Companion is one to seek out. Starring Jack Quaid and Sophie Thatcher, the film sees a weekend away with friends turn violent when Thatcher’s Iris becomes aware of her reality. Rather than being human she was instead bought by Quaid’s incel Josh to be his girlfriend.

It’s a very icky situation, but one that has a happier ending for Iris than poor Nikki. The worst moment is possibly when the origins of Iris’ name are revealed; but the whole first act is a diabolical display of toxicity and control. Much like Bear, Josh doesn’t think twice about his actions, only of his comfort in their relationship. 

During interviews for Obsession, Curry Barker has repeatedly called director Ari Aster an inspiration. Viewed as one of the modern greats of horror, Aster caused waves with his debut feature, Hereditary. Barker has spoken about the impact that Hereditary had on him and confirmed it was an inspiration for Obsession.

Narratively the two films couldn’t be further apart, with Hereditary following a family in the wake of a tragedy, before bringing in some Occult elements. However, the two films both contain that uncomfortable, ever-rising sense of dread and discomfort. They also both feature an unexpected, inciting incident set around a car. 

Although not remotely a horror movie, Ruby Sparks makes an excellent companion piece for Obsession. Paul Dano stars as anxious novelist Calvin who writes his perfect woman, Ruby Sparks, into his next book. Much to his shock, Ruby comes to life, but when faced with his dream girl, Calvin comes to realise that reality is not as whimsical as fiction.

Ruby Sparks deals with the concept of the importance in not idealising a partner and the problems that this can bring. Far more light-hearted than Obsession, Ruby Sparks is perhaps the movie to watch after Barker’s film so that you can actually sleep at night. 

One of the greatest aspects of Obsession is that it does not go for the happy ending. Nikki ends up free, but at what cost? She awakens surrounded by dead bodies covered in her DNA as so she’s likely facing life in prison, or an institution. For a movie with a similarly bleak ending, one has to look no further than Frank Darabont’s The Mist.

An adaptation of Stephen King’s novella, Darabont famously changed the book ending in favour of one of the most depressing endings in history. Having survived a grocery store of religious zealots, and strange creatures from another dimension, David Drayton, who has just had to do an unthinkable thing, must now live with the knowledge that if he’d just held on a few more minutes, his son, and fellow survivours would be alive and well. 

For those that enjoy the wish-gone-wrong aspect of Obsession, there are countless examples of things to watch. There’s The Monkey, which is packed with super silly gore, as well as a Treehouse of Horror episode of The Simpsons — which Curry Barker has mentioned as an inspiration. But if you want a movie that really hones in on the horror of wishes then try Wish Upon.

A teenage girl comes into the possession of a mysterious music box that claims it will grant her seven wishes. Each wish comes at a cost, though, and as people start to die around her, the young girl must decide what she values more — her heart’s desire, or those closest to her. There is a really nasty aspect to the wishes in Wish Upon, as demonstrated by the bully that contracts a deadly skin disease, and an innocent person squished by a lift. 

Throughout Obsession, Bear continually displays cowardly behaviour. Right from the start when he can’t tell Nikki how he feels, to his constant refusal to face his situation and do something to help the woman he claims to love, Bear is an utter coward. His cowardice causes the destruction of everyone around him and he doesn’t really seem to care.

A similar character can be found in Zach Cregger’s Barbarian. Played by Justin Long, actor and Airbnb owner AJ repeatedly fails to own up to his actions. He’s kicked off of a job due to claims of harassment, which he vehemently denies despite clearly having overstepped. Then, when faced with the strange happenings underneath his rental property, he continues to be sneaky, repeatedly throwing Tess into the line of fire, leaving her to battle the monstrous mother so that he can save his own skin.