The Obsession

Sixteen-year-old Connie lives with her mother, Louise, and older sister, Isla, in a gated home funded by their family's lifestyle vlog, LouPlusTwo. Louise, a former dental assistant, films nearly every aspect of their daily lives for YouTube, coaching her daughters to appear happy on camera. Connie despises the vlog but is powerless to stop it. Louise forbids both daughters from dating to preserve the vlog's brand, so Connie keeps her relationship with her boyfriend, Seth, a secret, just as Isla hides her relationship with her girlfriend, Ally. Jules, the town sheriff and Louise's best friend, has warned Louise that the videos expose identifiable locations, but Louise dismisses the concern. Threatening comments from regular viewers have escalated, with one writing, "we all know where you live."

When Isla and Louise leave for a two-week college tour followed by a vloggers' convention, Connie is home alone for the first time. At school, she befriends Ellie, a friendly freshman who shares her love of books. Online, Connie notices that a persistent YouTube commenter, blueqb, only criticizes Louise, never Connie or Isla. On impulse, Connie likes one of Blue's supportive comments, a small act of rebellion. After her family departs, Blue migrates to Connie's Instagram, liking dozens of older photos. The attention is unsettling, but Connie does not block the account because Blue's criticisms of Louise echo her own frustrations.

Walking through the town square, Connie passes a billboard memorializing Harmony Williams, a seventeen-year-old from a neighboring school who resembled Connie and died five weeks earlier after falling from a ladder. Moments later, she watches a body drop from a landing near the mall and rushes to the victim: Ellie, unconscious and bleeding. A bystander stabilizes Ellie until paramedics arrive. Shaken, Connie calls her mother, who responds dismissively.

Connie's friends grow concerned. Seth tells her she looks exhausted. Rosa, Connie's best friend, admits Connie's "light has dulled." Dustin, Connie's oldest friend and the son of Sheriff Jules, urges her to shut down her social media. All three have been discussing Connie's situation behind her back, leaving her feeling isolated.

Unsettling incidents accumulate. A pink flower appears on Connie's porch. Her security camera captures a figure in dark clothing sprinting through her backyard at night. At school, she hears footsteps in an empty corridor and spots a similar figure running off campus. On her drive home, a gray truck follows her until she reaches her gated community. Jules attributes each incident to unrelated causes.

Connie begs her mother to come home, but Louise calls her selfish. Then Rosa calls with devastating news: Ellie has died. In Ellie's memorial article, Connie sees a photo of Ellie with long fair hair in curled waves styled exactly as Connie wears hers. Isla calls Connie after overhearing the conversation with Louise but dismisses Connie's fears and tells her not to ruin the trip.

With school canceled due to storms, Seth organizes a party at Connie's house. She turns off the security cameras so her mother will not see the footage. Connie is stunned when Grayson, her childhood best friend who moved away two years earlier, walks in. He says he is visiting his aunt nearby and keeps details about his family vague. Connie confides that she thinks someone is following her. When the storm knocks out the power, the party scatters. Afterward, Connie discovers a second pink flower placed on her bed. Someone entered her room during the party.

Connie and Rosa visit Container Golf, a glow-in-the-dark mini-golf venue made of connected shipping containers. Rosa plays ahead through curtained sections, and after several minutes of silence, Connie finds her unconscious and bleeding from a head wound. At the hospital, Dustin implies Connie had the opportunity to hurt Rosa, since the receptionist confirmed no one else entered the building. That night, Rosa calls from the hospital and says she thought she saw Connie in the room just before she lost consciousness.

Gray visits and confesses he is blueqb. He explains he found the vlog months ago, was furious at how Louise treats Connie, and stayed anonymous because he was embarrassed about his family situation. When Connie later meets him at their childhood den in the forest, Gray reveals the full truth: His parents are divorcing because his father had an affair, forcing his mother to pull him from private school.

At Ellie's vigil, Sarah, Ellie's best friend, tells Connie that both Harmony and Ellie physically resembled Connie: fair skin, similar build, and similar hairstyle. The realization strikes Connie that she is the intended target and the other victims were attacked because they looked like her.

Connie shares everything with Seth, who is suspicious of Gray but agrees to help. Jules visits with two updates: Rosa remembers her attacker as a woman with long hair and a petite build, while Connie has described a tall, broad-shouldered man, suggesting two people are involved. Jules also confirms that security camera footage shows no one else entering Container Golf. She stations an officer outside Connie's house.

Connie again begs Louise to come home. Louise grudgingly agrees but accuses Connie of emotional manipulation. Events then accelerate. A photo surfaces of Gray and Harmony together as a couple before Harmony's death. Dustin reveals that Gray has been in town for nearly three months, not just days, and that his aunt no longer lives nearby. The police move to bring Gray in for questioning.

Gray and Connie overhear the officer receiving orders to bring Gray in. Gray panics and flees. Connie soon receives a text from an unknown number containing three oddly placed words. She enters them into what3words, an app that converts three-word combinations into precise map coordinates, and the result points to their childhood den. She discards her phone to avoid being tracked and runs through the forest.

At the den, Connie finds Gray dead, surrounded by pink flowers identical to those left on her porch and bed. Before she can flee, Dustin and Rosa step out of the trees.

They confess everything. Dustin reveals that Gray's father's affair was with Jules, Dustin's own mother, and that Jules's devastation fueled his rage at Gray. Rosa admits to jealousy of Connie's lifestyle, resentment of Connie's complaints about the vlog, and insecurity about Dustin's closeness with Connie. They detail each crime: Dustin kicks the ladder out from under Harmony, who had been dating Gray. Rosa pushes Ellie because Ellie resembles Connie and is growing closer to her. Rosa fakes her own attack at Container Golf by smashing her head against a wall to deflect suspicion onto Connie. Together, they kill Gray with a hammer, staging the scene to look self-inflicted. They reveal that Seth has also been struck with a hammer. Rosa tells Connie they intend to kill her.

Connie goads Rosa about her jealousy over Dustin. When Rosa lunges, Connie strikes her with a rock and sprints through the forest. Dustin catches and strangles her, but Connie grabs a log and strikes him in the temple. Jules arrives, screaming her son's name. Dustin tells Jules he did this "for us." Jules orders him to the car, then turns to Connie and says she will "take care of everything" and that it will "all be over soon," suggesting she intends to protect her son by silencing Connie rather than arresting him. Her grip on Connie's arm is ironclad, with Jules revealed as Connie's captor rather than her rescuer.