CAT: Decoding it in Obsession

What is the meaning of the "Cat" in the movie Obsession?

Cat is an element that keeps reappearing in Curry Barker’s Obsession. While at no point it becomes the key plot driver, it subtly contributes to the storyline. However, its major contribution is in establishing the theme of the movie; let’s discuss howw.

[Spoilers ahead]

The movie starts with the death of Bear’s cat, due to eating his anti-depressents. As cats can’t open screwed bottles, it becomes evident that the cat died due to the left open medication by Bear. It’s a portrayel of destruction of an innocent life by Bear due to his recklessness. Let’s contrast this with the movie’s last scene. The real Nikki is left crying with herself in the most miserable condition. The movie starts and ends with consequence of Bear’s actions via the same plot line of med-overdose.
Nikki is a parallel to the cat; another life destroyed due to Bear’s recklessness.
And just like Baron doesn’t tell anyone how Sandy (the pet) dies, he hides the truth behind Nikki’s behaviour until the very end.

The Cat-Nikki parallel becomes even more evident when cat is seen as symbol of the kind of femininity Baron desires: soft, domestic, dependent, and controllable. His love is not built on mutual choice, but on possession. The cat, then, becomes an image of Baron’s idea of love.

The movie keeps bringing back elements of the cat into play, to reinforce the key theme. The Controlled Nikki’s behaviour to a large extent resembles that of a cat. She is not simply made “strange” or “animalistic”; she is reduced into something watchful, domestic, and possessed. Her physical movements are intensely feline where she doesn’t just walk through the house; she stalks, slips into tight spaces, and watches from the shadows with a quiet, observant stillness. The sparkle in her eyes while she stands outside Baron’s door in red dress, or the dark-sharp, predatory wardrobe all resemble a cat. Just as cats bring their hunt back to the owner, Nikki digs back Baron’s cat suggesting he would like its memorial. She also brings back Sarah’s body and keeps it tied to a chair in the house.

These repeated references of the Cat are used to highlight the key theme for the story, the theme of “reckless love”. The elements of cat are a call-back to Sandy’s death who in turn is a result of Baron’s deeds, his carelessness with her. Hence establishing the cat’s parallel with Nikki.

The infamous cat in sandwich scene is another strong metaphor presented in the movie. With multiple elements tying together; “not me” on photograph, the “what’s the verdict - cat?” message and the dead cat in the sandwich.
Cooking food for someone is an act of love which Nikki displays by sending him the lunch box. But here, the real Nikki (‘‘not me’), then asks him, “what’s the verdict - cat?”, on how does he like her love. The outer sandwich is his expectations (just like little food critic message is), but the inside is Sandy, the results of his reckless behaviour, or metaphorically, his wish. This cat element again brings back Sandy’s death to assert how Bear’s mistake is destroying another life (Nikki’s), though she is giving him the love as he wished.

The final sum up is brought up by the cat image on box of willow. Everything the wish willow represented, from a reckless wish to real Nikki’s screams on phone call frames the cat’s elements. The cat on the willow box completes the symbolic loop between wish, possession, and consequence.

Baron’s wish tries to turn a woman into a controllable object of affection. Through Baron, the film exposes a patriarchal fantasy of femininity without agency. But the result is not love; it is imprisonment. The cat, becomes the perfect symbol for the film’s central horror: a woman’s agency erased by a man’s selfish fantasy. She is what becomes of reckless love; locking the same fate for Nikki and the Cat.