Obsession has become one of the biggest horror movies of 2026, and for good reason. The twisted tale of Bear and Nikki as they navigate a terrifying, supernatural wish did what many think is impossible, wherein its second weekend at theaters outdid its premiere. To no one’s surprise, the creator of the film, Curry Barker, has been on the press circuit to discuss his campfire story that is taking the world by storm. During a recent discussion, Barker revealed that he had a much darker, alternate ending planned for Obsession, and it has to be read to be believed.
Warning. If you have yet to see Obsession, be forewarned that we’ll be diving into serious spoiler territory. For those who have seen the horror juggernaut, Obsession ends with Bear taking his own life to free Nikki from the wish that made her obsess over him. Before Bear dies from taking too many prescription pills, Nikki turns a gun on herself, only to be freed from the wish seconds before she pulls the trigger. Left with Bear dead, along with most of her core friend group, Nikki ends the film by screaming into the ether while the credits roll.
During a recent discussion with Entertainment Weekly, Curry Barker revealed that his darker alternative ending would have seen Nikki, in fact, killing herself. Surprisingly enough, this blood-soaked finale was based on the work of Shakespeare. “I was really obsessed with this Romeo and Juliet ending, actually. We shot both; we shot this ending that you see in the movie, and we shot the ending where she ends it all. We had shot a ton of different versions of the official ending, the one that’s in the script, the one that I was excited about, and I was like, Okay, we’ll do one ending where [Nikki] survives, but we’ll just do one take of it, and then we’ll move on.”
Ironically enough, one major reason why Barker decided to go with the “Nikki lives” ending was thanks to Inde Navarrette’s performance, “You see her coming to this realization that she’s alive again, and she’s looking around the room, and she looks so disturbed, and I just remember my dad and multiple people around me being like, ‘Dude, I think it’s way more disturbing if she just survives this thing.’ I was like, ‘Ah, you’re right.’ And so we switched it.”
As Barker also explains, Nikki was trapped inside her own body during the time when she was obsessed with Bear, unable to break free of the parameters of the wish. You can see instances throughout the film, often times skin-crawling instances, where she is attempting to escape. The question now remains for fans who witnessed the horror film: was the original ending better than Barker’s alternative conclusion?
Would it have been better if Nikki hadn’t survived the events of Obsession? Ultimately, we’d say that the ending that Barker and crew went with was the right call. Having Nikki survive leaves an open-ended question to this tragedy that can keep fans talking, or even bring back the character, should this horror movie spawn a franchise of creepy wishes. Specifically, Nikki takes back control of her own body, only to see all her friends dead, but the police are surely not going to believe the story that a “One Wish Willow” was responsible for the carnage. Would Nikki have ended up in prison? Would she try telling others about her story to stop any other wishes out there? These make for some interesting questions that could arise in the future should Barker continue in this world.
This also makes sense in the lore of the film, where it was repeated that the only way that Nikki could escape was through Bear’s death. With Bear kicking the bucket in the film’s final moments, Nikki startling herself awake is a powerful moment. While we never see Nikki truly come to grips with what happened to her, it leaves plenty to the imagination, versus had she simply pulled the trigger.
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