Obsession's villain is the final boss of nice guys

Before the end, Ian (Cooper Tomlinson), Bear’s closest friend and confidant, expresses concern that Bear is taking advantage of Nikki’s altered state, but doesn’t believe him when Bear begs him to use his one wish to break the spell on Nikki. After marveling that his wish for untold wealth came true, Ian runs to Bear’s home where he’s shot and killed by Nikki, still very much under the curse’s influence. Sarah (Megan Lawless) meets a much more gruesome end after sitting in a car with Bear, during which Nikki attacks and slams her face into a brick on her steering wheel until it becomes a bloody pulp. Bear watches the carnage helplessly in the passenger seat, unable (or unwilling) to stop Nikki’s bad behavior, once again failing to take any action around the problem he’s caused. 

To counter Bear’s friends’ concerns over his questionable behavior, Barker’s script also features a voice encouraging Bear to manipulate the situation and embrace the unsavory curse. In a moment of panic, Bear calls the number on the back of the One Wish Willow box, looking to break the spell, but a tired and unhelpful voice tells him there’s nothing he can do to break the curse but to kill himself. The voice then nefariously suggests that if the relationship is real for him, then it must be real for her. It’s a haunting moment, not just because of Nikki’s following screams, but also because that’s when it’s clear Bear’s feelings for her have turned possessive. The voice on the line echoes a pick-up artist’s way of thinking, that the ends justify the means so long as it’s what the abuser wants—the other person in the scenario be damned—and while Bear hangs up in horror, he doesn’t actually do anything to stop an already escalating situation. 

When nice guys appear in horror movies, it’s often because they have an ulterior motive. At first, Billy Loomis simply seems like Sidney Prescott’s ineffectual boyfriend in Scream, and their relationship is already on rocky ground by the time Ghostface shows up. But he continues to charm his way into her good graces throughout the film, hoping for a chance at revenge. In Over Your Dead Body, Dan (Jason Segel) can’t stand his wife or afford a divorce, so his solution is to resort to an elaborate plan to kill her during a trip to his dad’s remote cabin in the woods. Yet, he plans to do the deed after making her a nice steak dinner—as if sugarcoating his murderous intentions by giving her one last good meal negates the terrible act he intends to carry out. 

Then there are the dangerous lovebombers, like Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer) in Gaslight or Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) in Crimson Peak, who charm their targets in pursuit of much more nefarious goals. Hiddleston’s character is similarly unassuming to Bear, seemingly a misunderstood sensitive soul until it’s revealed that he and his sister have a long history of murdering Sir Thomas’ brides. Like Bear, these characters allow the horrors to persist because they benefit from them, no matter the human cost.

Bear doesn’t start Obsession seeking to murder or control anyone. He’s just a guy with a crush, but quickly, he lets go of what a good guy would do to embrace the way of the nice guy, reveling in the toxic codependency the curse gives him: physical intimacy and the semblance of a relationship. Things get darkly twisted fast, because this isn’t Nikki’s decision, it’s one that’s made for her. It’s only after Bear has lost seemingly everything but his unhinged, tortured girlfriend that he take matters into his own hands, killing himself and leaving the real Nikki as the Final Girl, Texas Chain Saw Massacre–style, covered in blood and screaming in horror at the carnage left behind by one nice guy’s little wish.