{"id":378,"date":"2026-06-05T23:13:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T23:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=378"},"modified":"2026-06-05T23:13:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T23:13:16","slug":"obsession-takes-gen-zs-social-anxiety-to-the-extreme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=378","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Obsession\u2019 Takes Gen Z\u2019s Social Anxiety to the Extreme"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The following contains spoilers for the film <\/em><\/strong>Obsession.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The premise of the hit horror movie Obsession<\/em> may sound relatable: What if you had a totally debilitating crush on someone but were too afraid to confess your feelings to them? In the early scenes of the director Curry Barker\u2019s feature debut, a 20-something record-store employee named Bear (played by Michael Johnston) can\u2019t work up the nerve to ask out his co-worker Nikki (Inde Navarrette)\u2014even when she demands to know, point-blank, whether he likes her. Instead of confirming that he does and dealing with the consequences, he opts for a different way into her heart. He snaps a magical tchotchke (called a \u201cOne Wish Willow\u201d) in half with the hope that Nikki will love him more than anything in the world.<\/p>\n

Read more The Supreme Court Has Invented a Right to Discriminate<\/a><\/p>\n

That desire becomes more than Bear ever bargained for. Nikki transforms from a free-spirited girl next-door into a woman possessed by jealousy who duct-tapes Bear\u2019s front door shut, puts flesh from his dead cat into his sandwiches, and lurks in dark corners watching him sleep. She loves Bear above all else, sure, but that \u201clove\u201d comes at the cost of her selfhood. From there, the \u201cBe careful what you wish for\u201d trope is taken to an extreme, dramatizing a particular kind of Gen Z anxiety spiral: the feeling of being trapped by their own social fears.<\/p>\n

At 26 years old, Barker is speaking directly to his own generation\u2014the moviegoing Zoomers\u2014by making a meal out of their most pressing interpersonal crises. Obsession <\/em>doesn\u2019t seem so interested in concerns such as intimate-partner abuse, although it could easily be interpreted as an allegory for it. Instead, Barker uses the story of a boy magically convincing a girl that she\u2019s in love with him as a way to explore social angst. Researchers have scrutinized young people\u2019s supposed aversion to dating, sex, and human connection in general; the idea tends to be that these feelings are exacerbated by the surveillance-state-like world of social media and the instant-gratification culture offered by smartphones. Indeed, people Bear and Nikki\u2019s age sometimes view instances of potential interpersonal friction\u2014asking a friend why they ghosted them, telling a roommate to quit leaving their dirty dishes in the sink\u2014as occasions for immense emotional discomfort; rather than engage, they might be more seduced by the idea of a quick fix, even if that fix is making a wish on a novelty toy.<\/p>\n

Obsession<\/em> uses the fear of confrontation to its advantage, translating that anxiety into genuine scares. It begins with Bear sweatily rehearsing his planned declaration of love to Nikki with another friend, hyperconscious of every potential pitfall that could come from being honest with her. Yet later, when Nikki asks him directly wether he likes her, Bear freezes in place, saying nothing. Freaking out in his car as she walks off, he doesn\u2019t even stop to consider whether Nikki would have rejected him\u2014he simply wishes the possibility away. In doing so, he forces her to act against her nature and turns his own life into a nightmare. But at least no one has to be vulnerable or have any hard conversations about their feelings\u2014whew!<\/p>\n

In Bear\u2019s defense, the film doesn\u2019t reward honesty either. One pivotal scene has Sarah (Megan Lawless), another of his co-workers, about to tell Bear that she actually likes him. The pair sits together in Sarah\u2019s car to avoid Nikki, who has proved to be dangerously protective about her relationship with Bear. But they\u2019re not hidden well enough; suddenly, Nikki appears with a brick, breaking the window and smashing Sarah\u2019s face against the steering wheel until she\u2019s dead. This and other acts of nihilism show how well Barker understands the neuroses of his own age group: He gets what\u2019s so scary about taking a chance.<\/p>\n

Read more The Old Campaign Playbook Is Dead<\/a><\/p>\n

Obsession<\/em>\u2019s willingness to mirror young people\u2019s fears back at them has certainly resonated with its audience. In the three weeks since it debuted, the movie has become a phenomenon: It\u2019s made more than $100 million (on a budget of less than $1 million), and sent viewers home arguing on social media over who the \u201creal villain\u201d is and the nature of Nikki\u2019s possession, as well as what the rules of the One-Wish Willow are in the first place. The film is ripe for the type of close-read analysis that plays well on social media: Is Bear a narcissist aware that he\u2019s torturing the girl he thinks he loves? Is Nikki possessed by an evil, demonic version of herself intent on punishing Bear for his mistake? Or perhaps the real demon is the terror of romantic failure.<\/p>\n

That a film by a 26-year-old director has traveled so well online makes sense. And Barker\u2019s Gen Z sensibility manifests in other ways. Obsession<\/em> includes more than a few IYKYK tidbits of online culture, seemingly modeling Navarrette\u2019s special-effects makeup after an \u201cuncanny valley\u201d trend, and choosing a song from a popular TikTok audio clip, the Little Dippers\u2019 croony 1960 ballad \u201cForever,\u201d to play over the credits. Even Barker\u2019s filmmaking background is typical of his generation: He cut his teeth on YouTube, acting in and directing comedic shorts with friends. You can see hints of this experience in his feature debut, in the moments of levity injected between the scares.<\/p>\n

Barker\u2019s generation of worriers may continue to fixate on the question of \u201cWhat\u2019s the worst that could happen?,\u201d but Obsession <\/em>offers an answer in no uncertain terms. Telling someone else about your feelings can be one of the most terrifying moments of a young person\u2019s life: What if they don\u2019t like you back? What if they like you too much? Maybe acting on it will save you from a world of pain, the film suggests. But at the same time, maybe doing so isn\u2019t worth the risk\u2014maybe it\u2019s safer to stay quiet and keep scrolling.<\/p>\n

Read more What Dogs See That We Can\u2019t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Avoiding vulnerability comes with ghastly consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Obsession\u2019 Takes Gen Z\u2019s Social Anxiety to the Extreme - Commercial Relocation Pros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=378\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Obsession\u2019 Takes Gen Z\u2019s Social Anxiety to the Extreme - Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Avoiding vulnerability comes with ghastly consequences.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=378\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-05T23:13:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=378#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=378\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a\"},\"headline\":\"\u2018Obsession\u2019 Takes Gen Z\u2019s Social Anxiety to the Extreme\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-05T23:13:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=378\"},\"wordCount\":1036,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=378#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/d7ff95999abaaf60aa575c8422daf52b.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=378#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=378\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=378\",\"name\":\"\u2018Obsession\u2019 Takes Gen Z\u2019s Social Anxiety to the Extreme - 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