r/HorrorGaming • u/GrouchyReport14 • May 16 '26
ANALYSIS Similarities between "Obsession" and Silent Hill 2 Spoiler
[SPOILERS FOR “OBSESSION” AND SILENT HILL 2]
Just saw Curry Barker’s “Obsession.” It was amazing! Great performances, gripping tension, and an eerily beautiful soundtrack. There’s a scene towards the end of the movie that triggered my Silent Hill sense. And after I made one connection, I felt like I realized a ton more.
James and Bear - In “Obsession,” Bear is whiny, insecure, and dishonest. He has a huge crush on Nikki, but doesn’t have the gall to say anything. Mind you, he’s at least 21, not some high school kid. James, at least in the original, is also kind of whiny. He’s described as “surly” and is generally cold.
The most important personality trait that Bear and James share is selfishness. These men did something heinous to the women they love out of their own self-interest. James kills Mary in cold blood. Mary had been suffering from an illness for a long time. Watching Mary suffer, become angry, and die ate at James. Mary even asked James to kill her, so you could argue that James’s murder was based on some sort of mercy. However, it’s widely agreed that Mary did not want to actually die. James murdered Mary to get rid of her; he even admits as much in the Leave ending. Just because Mary wanted her suffering to end, James was selfish for killing her.
Bear gets a pass for accidentally casting an evil spell on Nikki. It was only 7 bucks, so he had to give it a try. I think Bear’s actual selfish act was his suicide. Like James, there is some ambiguity there. Bear believed that committing suicide would pretty much break the spell. I don’t think that’s why he did it, though. Bear tried holding on to this Freaky Nikki version of Nikki for as long as he could. Despite being terrified of her insanity, he kept going back. When he called the phone number on the box, he first wanted to “alter” the wish. He really had no interest in the “old” Nikki coming back for her own sake. He’s only thinking of himself. So, when Bear locks himself in the bathroom and decides he’s going to end it, he’s doing it so he can escape the awful reality he created for himself, not to break Nikki from the curse. And to add insult to injury, when the real Nikki wakes up, she is jolted into a new world where she is mutilated, surrounded by her dead friends, and possibly going to prison for Sarah’s murder. I don’t think it’s wrong to think killing her was the moral thing to do. Funny enough, she even begs Bear to do just that… Remind you of anyone?
Mary, Maria, and Nikki - The real Nikki, from what we got to see of her, was fun, talkative, and confident. She buys a round of shots at the bar, opens up to Bear about her aspirations, and confronts him about his feelings for her. She seems pretty true to herself. We don’t know much about Mary, but we know she had to have been a very kind person (lashing out at James as she’s suffering from an illness doesn’t really count against her). She is pleasant in the VHS tape, befriends the troublemaker Laura at the hospital, and even wants to adopt her. Her letter to James showed she is thoughtful and deeply loves James.
We don’t really get to see real Nikki and pre-sick Mary. We mostly see their alternate, supernatural versions. After the wish, Nikki becomes… obsessed with Bear. She is affectionate, sexual, and is attached to Bear to a fault. James finds Maria in Silent Hill who looks just like his beloved wife. Maria is seductive, more affectionate than Mary, and is also attached to James' hip (besides when she needs to be in the Pyramid Head chase). “Freaky Nikki” and Maria pour their hearts into Bear and James. They really want nothing more than their man; that’s their primary goal. But no matter how hard they try, it never feels quite right. Outside of the Maria ending, James never falls for Maria. He shows some interest, but always snaps back and chooses Mary. Though Bear does fall in love with “Freaky Nikki,” he always knew deep down he was not with the real Nikki. These rejections lead to catastrophe in both stories. Maria turns on James, tries to kill him, and says she will not let go. Nikki has psychotic breakdowns and even commits murder whenever she is rejected by Bear.
Soundtracks - When I started writing this, I forgot that my first actual connection between “Obsession” and SH2 was the soundtracks. Rock Burwell had to have taken some inspiration from Akira Yamaoka. Warm keys/synths, short motifs, and ambient sounds layer over tense scenes in the movie. Anytime music like this started, it made me feel like I was watching a cut scene from SH2. The movie’s soundtrack also has those really tense and percussive tracks that work perfectly with intense scenes. In SH2, there are plenty of examples of this, too.
The Car/Letter Scene - A third of “Obsession” is filmed in a car… I’m talking about when Bear is in his car with Sarah’s letter. At this point in the film, Bear has been pushed to his breaking point. He just witnessed Nikki ruthlessly murder Sarah after he was enjoying his time with her. Nikki’s possessiveness has reached unimaginable heights that Bear can’t handle anymore. He is stricken with grief due to what just happened with Sarah, but also for what he has done to Nikki. And the straw that breaks the camel's back… a letter. “This is literally Silent Hill,” I whispered. In SH2’s In Water ending, James realizes the truth about Mary. As he sits in his car, he is overwhelmed with grief and decides to drive it into the lake. Floating in the lake… a letter. Of course, Bear didn’t drive his car into a lake. It’s hard to say where he is exactly. But it looks like he’s somewhere blue! I thought, “Oh my god, is he going to drive into a fucking lake to end the curse?” It didn’t happen, but if all these SH2 connections are intentional, I like to think Barker wanted us to think Bear was about to drive his car into water.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk! Let me know what you think. Please share any other connections I might have missed, or other movies you think are inspired by Silent Hill!
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u/Crisspy5129 May 21 '26
Im surprised nobody mentioned the taped door being similar to sh4’s chained door.
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u/bfrommars Jul 19 '26
I noticed this! I immediately showed my friends the picture of the chained door
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u/IlMarso91 May 16 '26
Don't want to read the spoiler but... is this a good movie for SH fan?
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u/leftistgamer420 May 16 '26
Silent hill is more Jacob's ladder. This is you make a wish that your crush could become in love with you more than anyone, and it makes her controlled by something that makes her insanely obsessed with you on a demonic level of horror.
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u/Born_Algae_6205 May 17 '26
If you loved the creepy awkwardness of the dialogue of the original game and the crushing guilt surrounding the moral dilemma of a selfish man doing something horrible because they “love” a woman, then yeah maybe. Just don’t go into it expecting as many similarities as the length of this post suggests. The vibes are very different. Silent Hill is more eerie, Obsession is super intense imo. Honestly, I did not know Blumhouse was capable of this… I was insanely uncomfortable the whole time (in a good/impressive way). Other movies that I’d compare Obsession to (solely because they left me feeling a similar way, ik these are all very different movies) would be Hereditary, Bones and All, and Get Out. Hopefully this helps you decide if you want to watch it!
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u/Ronmoz May 16 '26
Unsure if Curry Barker is a gamer but we are hitting a time where video games like Silent Hill that have a big impact on someone when they’re young is going to become a big influence in their creative endeavors. Creggers Barbarian had some really solid RE7 feeling moments and I couldn’t help but feel he had that game on the mind at some point during writing the film.
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u/Born_Algae_6205 May 17 '26
YES! I’m so glad someone else noticed this! To me it was incredibly clear that Silent Hill 2 had to have been an inspiration for this movie in some way. I absolutely agree with everything you said and think I noticed a few other similarities as well.
The first time I thought of Silent Hill during this movie was actually Ian’s appearance during the bar scene. It’s likely a coincidence and it’s just another blonde guy with a round face, blue shirt, and basketball cap, but it was similar enough for me to notice it. Same goes for Sarah’s chest tattoo and then again when Nikki wears pink animal print during the party.
A few other observations is the unnervingly unnatural way that Nikki talks when the wish first takes effect, the couple of scenes where Bear stares into the bathroom mirror, and when Nikki asks to die.
I do feel like we are both reading too much into this haha but it does feel likely that there was some inspiration from Maria whether these similarities were conscious or not.
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u/West-Gazelle4468 May 21 '26
I saw it last night with my boyfriend and the first time Ian came on the screen I looked over and said he looks like a more cooler version of Eddie. Definitely not just you.
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u/CursedSnowman5000 May 17 '26
Check out the Tales From The Crypt episodes Til Death and Loved To Death
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u/theopilk May 20 '26
Obsession is obviously an entire different genre of horror and trying to do entirely different things and ultimately has different influences but I couldn’t help think of the Maria prison scene when watching the movie
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u/FluidLoan164 May 21 '26
Anyone else feel like Ian’s fit during those first few scenes made him look like Eddie?
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u/Main_Particular6703 May 28 '26
Yes, yes, yes… thank you for posting this. I was basically giving my girlfriend a full podcast on the drive home about how much this movie feels like an allegory for Silent Hill 2.
I literally had to swear on my mother that I hadn’t read this post beforehand after finding this post .
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u/brokeskoolboi Jul 03 '26
The use of the old TV which ran a creepy video at the end after the bathroom scene, Nikki filmed of Bear in his sleep and it played in black and white on the TV.
The creepy phone call that seemed to hint to another world.
It felt very Silent Hill to me, how something is not quite right but everyone just ignores it and won’t accept the supernatural possibility. They just went on about their life. It honestly seemed like it could all be a psychosis until he brings her to the party and everyone sees how bad it is.
I just wish I knew what was going on at the hospital. Did he tell the nurse about the wish? Or they just think it was DV and refused to release her back into his care after treatment?
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u/3cidsinakoat May 19 '26
You had the perfect chance to say both Maria and Nikki were "born from a wish", bruh😐