'Obsession', Memes, and the Desire Path

Movies can make you see the world around you differently. That’s the power of, let's say, the new film ‘Backrooms’—because of it, now whenever you see something that looks like a ‘backroom’, you think of ‘Backrooms’. For online people who have followed the short films and whatnot for a while now, that’s been the power of ‘Backrooms’ for many years—it’s just gone mainstream as of late, and so normies can be part of the fun too.

With ‘Obsession’ on the other hand, though it and ‘Backrooms’ are sharing a very Barbenheimer-esque moment together right now (leading to mutual box office success) something else is happening. The movie itself called ‘Obsession’ is not changing the way that people see the world so much as a single frame from it has become a launchpad for people to have some very interesting conversations. In fact, one conversation in particular has absolutely dominated:

I haven’t seen ‘Obsession’ yet (or ‘Backrooms’, for that matter) but I know enough about its plot to know that nothing remotely like this happens in the movie. Which means that, what we are looking at here is not anything that was ever laid out by the filmmakers, or marketers to ever happen, but which exists instead as a desire path.

Across just these two accounts, at the time I am writing this, this meme has been viewed over 54 million times:

You don’t need to agree with this meme, or see any truth in it personally, to be able to see that it is resonating. More people have viewed it than have seen ‘Obsession’ in theaters, by a wide margin. For all intents and purposes, right now, overnight—and directly in the middle of the film’s millions-and-millions-of-dollars marketing blitz—this meme is the movie. It has surpassed it in relevance and in cultural penetration. As desire paths tend to do.

You’ve seen countless examples of desire paths throughout your life, both literal and figurative. Most ‘Mandela Effect’ examples are in fact just desire paths: “Luke, I am your father” is just cleaner. So is ‘Berenstein’. So is the Fruit of the Loom logo having a cornucopia, or the Monopoly Man having a monocle. All of these things just make sense, and are easier—and so, our brain records them in that way. Even if Facebook had never changed its name from ‘The Facebook’, people would still have eventually just called it Facebook.

But even beyond that, a desire path is, at its core, populism. It is the voice of the people expressing what it actually craves as art. If you are reading this right now, and you want to make the next mega popular movie like ‘Obsession’ then don't copycat ‘Obsession’ directly—instead, copycat its desire path. Copycat what people are begging for from it, and from media in general, but didn’t receive. Again, whatever you think about that Obsession meme, positive or negative, is irrelevant—it is quite clearly full of yearning for uncomfortable conversation.

That meme is Neil LaBute-esque—you could write an entire one-act play (or one-location film) centered entirely on its premise, or a similar one. It's strong enough an uncomfortable concept. It ‘has legs’—and its popularity has shown that people crave it or anything like it.

But, Hollywood is never going to give that to them—a movie based on that meme would never be greenlit. So, as has increasingly been the case over the years, the people can only get what they actually want from Hollywood by forging desire paths out of Hollywood's offerings. Kind of like how the movie ‘Joker’ was embraced in ways that its studio and filmmaker never intended (leading to a fan-hating sequel).

But you know who can give the people what they actually desire? Truly independent filmmakers. Because truly independent filmmaking is the cinema of desire paths as the ACTUAL paths—no contorting necessary. It is the cinema of the people. Nothing could be more populist. Not 'mainstream'—truly populist.

Far too often, people think of the 'mainstream' as a word interchangeable with ‘populist’. It is not. The mainstream is dictated—it is what you are told to like. It is conformity. Literal billions are spent in order to make sure that you pay to see certain media and think certain things. It's mind control. It’s spells cast.

The underground bubbling up from the ground and catching on is not imposed will—it is answered prayers. It is populist. Someone's favorite movie of 2022 being ‘No Shark’ is populist. Loving something no one told you or paid you to love is populist. It is freedom.

Far more people will love that ‘Obsession’ meme than will ever love the movie ‘Obsession’. That is populism. That is the voice of the people. And guess what? The voice of the people is uncomfortable. So, give them uncomfortable art that Hollywood could never. They're ready for it.

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