MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Obsessed (2009).

Obsessed (2009).


(Ooh, touchy movie with a touchy topic, anyways...)

What did we all think about this 2009 movie "Obsessed", directed by Steve Shill and starring Beyonce (yes that singer, and former member of Destiny's Child, Beyonce Knowles), Idris Elba (long before he had COVID-19 and no offense to him), Ali Larter (whom I mainly knew from William Malone's 1999 horror remake "House on Haunted Hill") and others?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1198138/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Me? If you ask me, its not a complete failure, nothing to get too "obsessed" about though, but its just so middle of the road and average, and has been done before AND better. And around a 4 or at most a 5 out of 10 is what I give it.

Basically, if you've seen "Fatal Attraction" (1987), "Disclosure" (1994), "The Temp" (1993), "Basic Instinct" (1992), "The Last Seduction" (1994) and even anything from the likes of "Office Killer" (1997), then you have seen a movie like this done before and at times, often better if not much better, worth a look once but nothing too special.

And by the way, I watched the whole film with my MOTHER, last year on NetFlix. But its not surprising at all, since I watched many adult films with her and my parents a long time ago too (think of The Devil's Advocate (1997) or Lynch's "Lost Highway" (1997) as two examples but OK haha we're off track, and I even first time saw "8MM" (1999) with my parents also.)

And yes Ali Larter does indeed play a pretty but mentally unstable office worker who becomes infatuated and (as the title says) obsessed with Idris Elba's character and all manner of mayhem ensues. Maybe "Fatal Attraction for Beyonce fans"? She even, OH MY GOD HOLD ME BACK otherwise I will die (from shock value of a gender reversal movie-related variety), forces herself s*xua**y on him at least once (my mother asked me to look away during that scene) and another spoiler, does she almost kill herself to AVOID police prosecution for that act at least? And a detective here investigates a SUICIDE attempt.

Spoiler also - Beyonce kills her at the end in a prolonged cat fight in the house. In that sense, there are also shades of "Hand That Rocks the Cradle" (1992) here (a very good film by the way and also one of my mother's favorites). Oh well. And its rated PG-13. Oh well.

P.S. I told my mother no girls have ever stalked me in life like this. She knows, haha. :)

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No girls have ever stalked you? Why am I not surprised?

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I don't live life according to movies, haha. :)
P.S. I even made a similar comment to my mother for "Der Fan" ("The Fan") (1982), a very good early 80s German psychological horror about a female stalking a male pop artist, and at the end especially, which I wouldn't spoil, it turns ape crazy. )

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Shit movie that's entertaining to watch with people.

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"The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" (1992) was amazing. "The Crush" (1993) was great too but this one is God-awful. Beyonce is not an actress

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I liked the crush.

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I remember it being predictable and boring. Certainly average like you said, 5/10.

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By the way, you know that Beyonce song "Sweet Dreams" that has the line in the chorus that goes "You could be a sweet dream or a beautiful nightmare", to a certain extent at least, can it apply to Ali Larter's main character in this song or even Elba and Beyonce themselves?

Off-topic once again, whenever I hear "Sweet Dreams" in any song, I immediately think of that "Sweet Dreams" popular song by Eurythmics - "Sweet dreams are made of this, who am I to disagree? I traveled the world and seven seas, everybody's looking for something".

Also, now, OF COURSE I DO NOT mean to imply and use it in a literal sense, but I also wondered about the lines "Some of them want to use you Some of them want to get used by you Some of them want to abuse you and some of them want to be abused" but wondered, hey, what do they mean, also, who on Earth "wants to be" "used" and, dear God, "abused"? By the way, apart from last line or so, some of the lyrics here can even apply to this movie too, no offense of course. Albeit Ali Larter's character DOES want to use and to abuse for selfish "love" and obsession, Elba's character, and while NOBODY "wants" to be used or etc in ANY way, even if her character also nearly kills herself at least once (self abuse and near suicide). But anyways...

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I couldn't name one Beyonce song off the top of my head. I'm sure I would recognize some of her music if I heard it, but I couldn't tell you the name or lyrics of any of her songs without looking it up. It's certainly possible that some of her songs could be about the movie or linked to it for promotional purposes.

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Haha, I do know some though. Including that "Charlie's Angels" song she did with Destiny's Child and also for the "Goldmember" flick.

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Haha I forgot she was in Goldmember! I thought those were funny.

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The decorations in that video were copied for the Russian Philip Kirkorov and Anastasiya Stotskaya clip for "I Ti Skazesh" ("And You Will Say") song in 2004, and then a little later a real scandal happened when Kirkorov insulted a female journalist at a press-conference in 2004 when asked "Why there are so many remakes in his repertoire" (covers of other peoples songs), which caused him to go mad, insult her, have his body guards attack her and the incident led to a public outrage in Russia at the time in May 2004.

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I enjoyed it

The 'Obsessed, weirdo, lover' genre is pretty fun stuff

I like them all

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You ACTUALLY saw the film Shogun AND liked it? (mmm?)

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I did like it, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, The Roommate, Pacific Heights, Fatal Attraction, that one with Marky Mark...I think the 'stalker' subgenre is pretty fun thriller stuff

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Alright cool, but given how mostly it doesn't have a great reputation and plus stars Beyonce I was thinking maybe the flick wouldn't catch your attention, but you saw it and appreciated it. And yes it does compare largely to those genre movies albeit in my opinion it is a middle of the road example of the genre, the film that is.

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Most of the 'stalker/obsessed scorned lover' movies are usually very stupid but a I do like a shabby thriller from time to time

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One thing that may have also given the movie its cult value is a song "Obsession" by Cabaret Voltaire.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVJie3P8E8E
Too bad the video isn't available on YouTube - although I own the "Double Vision" DVD by them which has its video for the song. One one one - obsession, indeed. Haha. )

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