Pssst: Read ahead if you can make peace with some spoilers.
For decades, horror films have warned audiences about monsters lurking in the dark. But a growing wave of modern horror is suggesting something even scarier: men who refuse to accept “no” as an answer.
The latest example is Obsessionthe surprise horror hit of 2026 that has sparked intense online discussion, particularly around its disturbing Hansel and Gretel monologue. On the surface, the scene is a grotesque shock horror. But it reveals something deeper about the film’s central theme: the horror of having your autonomy stripped away by someone who claims to love you.
In Obsession, Bear uses a supernatural object called the ‘One Wish Willow’ to make Nikki love him more than anyone else in the world. What follows is not a romance but a nightmare. Nikki gradually loses control of herself, becoming a distorted version of the person she once was.
The film’s most unsettling moment arrives when the possessed Nikki tells a twisted version of Hansel and Gretel at a party that leaves everyone dumbfounded and uncomfortable. The story includes incestuous undertones, bodily horror, and repeated references to a willow tree. Viewers quickly noticed that before the wish was made, Nikki had described Bear as being “like a brother” to her. The story’s warped sibling relationship mirrors the unnatural way Bear forces intimacy onto someone who never wanted it.
My theory is, the monologue is actually the “real” Nikki briefly breaking through the possession. Rather than being random horror imagery, the story can be interpreted as a coded expression of her trauma. The references to the willow tree directly connect the story to the wish that destroyed her agency. In this reading, Nikki is trying to communicate the violation she has endured, even as the supernatural force controls her body.
What makes Obsession particularly interesting is that it belongs to a growing subgenre that could be called “incel horror” or “consent horror.” These films are less interested in ghosts and slashers than in exploring what happens when male entitlement becomes monstrous.
The roots of this trend can be seen in several recent films.
In Companion (2025)a seemingly perfect girlfriend is revealed to be an AI companion designed around a man’s desires. The film gradually transforms into a story about control, ownership, and what happens when a woman, even an artificial one, refuses to behave according to a man’s expectations. Beneath its sci-fi premise lies a sharp critique of the fantasy of creating the “perfect” obedient partner.
Blink Twice (2024) examines a different form of power imbalance. The film explores how wealthy and influential men exploit women under the guise of luxury, pleasure, and opportunity. As its mystery unfolds, it becomes a chilling allegory about coercion, manipulation, and the ways power can erase consent.
Even Don’t Worry Darling (2022) fits comfortably within this category. The film’s central horror comes from a husband literally trapping his partner inside a fantasy world designed around his idea of happiness. Her desires become irrelevant. What matters is maintaining his vision of the perfect relationship.
Perhaps the most controversial example is Passengers (2016). Though marketed as a romantic sci-fi adventure, many critics and viewers have since re-evaluated the film through a darker lens. The story revolves around a man who wakes a woman from cryosleep, effectively stealing her future so he will not have to be alone. Years later, audiences increasingly view the premise not as romance but as a disturbing violation of choice and autonomy.
Even The Menu (2022), while not explicitly about romance, examines entitlement in a broader sense. Several of its male characters treat women as accessories, possessions, or extensions of their own status. The horror emerges from systems of power that reduce people to objects.
What connects these films is a common fear: not physical violence alone, but the erasure of consent.
In traditional horror, monsters attack bodies. In these stories, the monster attacks agency. The terror comes from being trapped in someone else’s fantasy, whether through technology, wealth, social power, psychological manipulation, or, in the case of Obsession, supernatural force.
The rise of these films also reflects a broader cultural conversation. In the wake of discussions around toxic masculinity, coercive relationships, online misogyny, and incel communities, horror filmmakers are increasingly exploring the consequences of male entitlement taken to its logical extreme.
That’s why the Hansel and Gretel monologue in Obsession resonates so strongly. The scene transforms forced affection into body horror. It turns a wish for love into a nightmare about ownership.
And perhaps that is why audiences cannot stop talking about it. The scariest thing in modern horror is no longer the monster under the bed.
It is the person who believes they deserve your love, whether you want to give it or not.
– Ends
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