Fortnite, the gaping maw devouring pop culture as we know it so it can feed it into an AI-driven pipeline that cannot resist another skin to sell to its millions of players, is finally bringing Nikki, the titular obsessor, to its battle royale so she can snipe Sabrina Carpenter and a robot who looks like Sonic the Hedgehog and then dance on their corpses. Almost like she’s a puppet with no control over her body.
This article reminds me of this short analysis: Love Magic and Mixed Messages - Pop Culture Detective
If you’re gonna criticize a game for undermining the horror of the wish itself by turning her loss of autonomy into a spectacle… it sounds like (through retelling, since I haven’t seen it) the movie committed essentially the same sin.
If anything, puppeteering her body to make her do the same actions every other character does… might be less misogynist than directing the actress to portray the “crazy girlfriend” stereotype as the focal point of a horror movie.
I really wish Obsession actually told that story. The movie is about a psychotic girlfriend but it’s supposed to be about a girlfriend who is forced to act psychotic due to a wish. I mean, you see the wish and the movie tells you the wish works. But, you never see the girl struggling against the will of the wish. It’s not that “it could go either way.” She is completely unable to control herself and is doing things she does not want to do. But like, we never see her in a dark room screaming “no I don’t wanna do this” or anything symbolic of being trapped and victimised by your own mind. Again, the movie should have told that story. It was still good… as a psychotic girlfriend story. I just think the other story would have been a little better.
I’d have changed Backrooms too. I guess I’m getting to that age where movies made for the younger generations don’t speak to me. I get them. I enjoy them. But… not the same way.
Oddly though, I don’t hate Fortnite. I used to play Unreal Tournament and Rockband back in the day. Fortnite has/absorbed both of them and it does a heck of a lot more. The memes are dumb and I don’t have it installed, the fucking thing updates twice a day and I just can’t be arsed. I’ve never paid a dime into it, almost considered dropping some serious coin on the Kpop Demon Hunters stuff. Yeah, I’m a weeb. I missed the My Hero Academia stuff — that would have got me in trouble with my wallet, too. At least coulda got my boy Todoroki (fire and ice dude). But, the way I play isn’t like how other people play, which is why I do as well as I do. I pick the default skin. People don’t see me. I sneak. I stay out of sight. And I don’t use flashy weapons. I find someone who does and I pick off the people they draw to them. Again, I enjoy new media but not in the same way.
Uhh obsession does tell that story. Bar for bar.
spoiler
Did you miss the bedroom scene? It’s like the most iconic scene of the movie, literally a dark room with her screaming, and the one time we undeniably hear from the trapped Nikki. But even starting from the car scene it’s clear she’s in there suffering.
100% not trying to dog on you, it’s just that what you described is the very thing I loved the movie for.
Honestly I’m starting to think the film was designed to have a very clear feminist reading yet pull very different interpretations at the same time. It’s master class. They shoulda called it Subversion.
That’s definitely not a major focus though. I felt it more as a sick reveal and confirmation (there are a couple times up to that point where she briefly has conscious control) of what’s really happening there.
That being said, the overall effect of the narrative achieves a very similar goal. It’s just not a victim’s story, it’s a perpetrator’s story. Bear is a fucking coward, and his passivity, willful ignorance, and eventual outright complicity make him a villain. This is a story about how a guy whose initial motivation is not, technically, to cause abuse, is still every bit as much of an abuser.
is this why in president curtis they have a thing with him interacting online in a first persion sure online thing? are they implying its something like fortnite. fortnite is one of those things I did not get into and never really meant anything to me. I don’t like first person shooters.
