SPOILERS AHEAD for Obsession.
I don’t know about you, but I got so freaked out and squeamish while watching the darkly amsuing Obsession. It’s going to take a lot for another one of the upcoming horror movies to top it. And when CinemaBlend had the chance to chat with Curry Barker, one thing I had to ask about that cat scene.
If you’ve seen the surprise box office smash you must remember the moment Bear realizes he’s eating the meat of his dead cat. It’s absolutely disgusting, so I just had to ask “But, why?” to the writer/director. Here’s how he responded:
When you’re writing a story like this, you have to kind of come up with the craziest thing that could happen right now that still could make sense for the story. And, not feel like it goes so far that it [feels] silly. The cat sandwich was the perfect meal… I don’t have anything against cats, though.
I respect it. Curry Barker’s job is to get us freaked out while watching Obsession, and he absolutely aced that job by including the scene. Another filmmaker might not have been able to pull off something like this without it getting “silly.” But, Barker knew how to get under our skin with this sequence.
What really horrifies me is the idea of Nikki digging up the cat from his burial site and then cooking it. The idea of the smell of the house when she did that alone disturbs me to no end. I know a lot of people thought Bear got what he deserved, but come on, no one deserves that experience.
Outside of Barker’s answer, I’ve seen so many theories about how Bear’s cat plays into the storyline of Obsession I wasn’t expecting. Many think there’s metaphorical comparisons to Nikki and a cat because perhaps she’s just a piece of meat to Bear. The scene where she soils herself while waiting for him to come home could also be compared to Nikki becoming like a pet/cat.
There’s other ways to look at it, though. I’ve seen someone suggest that Nikki cooked the cat to punish Bear for wanting to be a food critic. It would mean more time away from her. I’ve also seen someone (via Reddit) suggest that the cursed Nikki has a very literal, almost childlike logic. So when Bear said he wanted his cat back, she felt like she gave it to him with the cat sandwich. Another example of her logic would be when she shallowly got Sarah’s tattoos to look like her – thinking that would make her more desirable to Bear.
Curry Barker definitely thought up something completely twisted with that cat sandwich. I’m kind of mad at him for thinking of such a gross idea, but he’s also kind of a genius. And, what makes Obsession the movie that keeps on giving is all the discourse it inspires – including for the cat sandwich.
