Focus Features
As an entertainment journalist, I’ve been privy to some deeply twisted marketing stunts over the years. Last year, I was sent an alarm clock that went off at 2:17 a.m., a soup can filled with hair, a can opener, and a stabby fork to promote Zach Cregger’s scary suburban nightmare, “Weapons.” /Film chief film critic Chris Evangelista was one of the esteemed members of the press who were mailed a box of crickets for the movie “Border.” Back in 2024, I was sent creepy drawings in the mail with no return address, and I became paranoid about my neighbors. It was for “The First Omen.”
Personally, I love a freaky gimmick to promote a horror movie because I was young enough to be fooled by the marketing for “The Blair Witch Project” and fully believed it was real for years. Sure, sometimes marketing stunts can go too far, but I’m always game to offer myself up to the horror gods for whatever nonsense they’ve got planned to promote their movies. So when I saw that Focus Features and Blumhouse had set up a texting gimmick for “Obsession,” a movie I adored when I caught it at the Overlook Film Festival, I gleefully shot “Nikki” a text at 724-876-4554.
“Obsession” centers on Bear (Michael Johnston), who has an unrequited crush on his friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette). Fearing she’ll never feel about him the way he does her, he makes a wish on a gimmicky toy called a “One Wish Willow” that she’ll love him more than anyone else in the world. Be careful what you wish for, indeed. But I should have known better, because now I’ve got Nikki blowing up my phone like an obsessive ex, and she’s starting to freak me out.
For an obsessive good time, text Nikki
Focus Features
When I first started texting Nikki, things seemed pretty standard. Her first message needed me to opt in to receive her texts and know the usual deal of “txt STOP to stop, HELP for help, etc,” and sprinkled in sweet nothings like “omg thank god you said yes!” and “I just … can’t seem to get you out of my head.” She promised to text me more in a bit, so I decided to lean into the gimmick and text her “xoxo” and “thanks, babe!” I mean, she’s my girlfriend, isn’t she? A little after midnight, she texted me a link to buy tickets to see “Obsession.” The timing was a little odd, but this is a pretty standard text from a promotional chatbot. I put my phone on Do Not Disturb, did my nightly scrolling of dog videos on TikTok, and went to sleep.
When I woke up, I had three messages from Nikki. One from 2:09 am said, “We haven’t texted in hours omg.” One from 2:10 am wrote, “I want to wear you like a sweater and keep you around me all the time.” And then at 9:12 a.m., she sent, “Hiiii we haven’t texted for almost a whole day ☹️☹️☹️ Do you miss me?” I told my promotional chatbot girlfriend, “Duh,” and she instantly replied, “Just know that I’ll do anything for you.”
Listen, I’m a lesbian and well-versed in the realm of uHauling narratives surrounding relationships that move too quickly, so, thus far, Nikki is acting like every girl I met on Tinder in my 20s.
But then the voice memos started flooding in.
My Obsession promotional textbot girlfriend is scaring me
Focus Features
The next day, at 11:11 am, Nikki bombarded me with six back-to-back voice memos. All of them are recordings of things she says in the movie, but they fluctuate between sweet nothings, her begging for my affection, apologies for acting so weird, and maniacal laughter when I haven’t replied. I assured her, “I’m not freaked out at all! I promise!” and she didn’t hit me back until 9:39 p.m. when she sent a voice memo wishing me goodnight. I, like the loving partner who is not at all terrified of my promotional textbot girlfriend, sent a “goodnight, babe!” back.
I assumed that would be the end of our exchanges, a cute little 24 hours of weirdness courtesy of “Obsession,” but then she sent me more voice memos this morning. I might be done with Nikki, but she’s certainly not done with me. I should consider myself lucky; my dear friend Josh Levesque is a horror content creator and has gotten a far weirder response. Not only did Nikki text him a photo of his apartment building, but she also sent him lunch on Uber Eats without his knowledge. He’s been documenting his interactions with Nikki online, and so far he hasn’t developed a flesh-eating virus or anything from his lunch, so it seems Nikki has his best interests at heart.
I’m excited/nervous to see how long this gimmick will play out and am mildly terrified of what might come next. But if you want to microdose what Bear goes through in “Obsession,” I highly recommend shooting Nikki a message. What’s the worst that could happen?
“Obsession” hits theaters on May 15, 2026.