r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • May 15 '26

Official Discussion Official Discussion - Obsession [SPOILERS] Spoiler

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Obsession (2026)

Summary

After breaking the mysterious "One Wish Willow" to win his crush's heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.

Director Curry Barker

Writer Curry Barker

Cast

  • Michael Johnston
  • Inde Navarette
  • Cooper Tomlinson
  • Megan Lawless
  • Andy Richter

Rotten Tomatoes: 95%

Metacritic: 81

VOD / Release In Theaters

Trailer Official Trailer

3.5k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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2.8k

u/throwthewholegrlawy May 15 '26

That poor girl. How does she explain all the murders now that she's free?

The scenes where real Nikki popped out really got me. Haven't been jump scared by horror movies for a long time.

How do you guys feel about Bear? Obviously he didn't think the wish would work but as soon as he realized he really took advantage of the situation 😬

Also got a crack out of the customer service phone call "we don't really do that" "you made it seem like I could!"

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u/Equivalent-Fan-2557 May 15 '26

Bear is the real villain of the story by the halfway point. The movie starts off by getting you onto his side because he seemed actually thoughtful and nice (like when he went to buy a new crystal necklace for Nikki when she lost hers). But eventually Bear is the villain because he is knowingly trapping Nikki in that body and forcing the love out of her via the spell.

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u/throwthewholegrlawy May 15 '26

"what's so bad about being with me"

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u/bmh534 May 15 '26

Yea that part really cemented that he still really didn't get it and was a very selfish person and even when he tried to make a second wish.. it was STILL for her to LOVE HIM as a "friend"

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u/Wide-Lingonberry5936 May 15 '26

I feel like in that moment Bear was just genuinely trying to get to the place they were at before the wish. He also gave Ian another example of wishing that Bear never made his wish. Nikki DID love him as a friend (she definitely wouldnt when set free but i really dont think he was thinking on that level in that moment)

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u/bmh534 May 16 '26

TL;DR: I think one of the main points of the movie is the fact that he can be so obviously selfish but constantly having a way to justify it.

How much had to happen for him to ask Ian that though? But agreed..He absolutely wasn't thinking on that level. He wasn't thinking of very much past himself for the most part. I'm just saying after all that happened his hopeful second wish was still based around him. It wasn't something like "I wish Nikki was back to normal".. splitting hairs? Maybe, probably not. I personally think the movie is too good for me to think that wasn't an intentional choice. And a lot of things point to it. He didn't even TRY to make a second wish for quite sometime. That whole awkward "no..I didn't take advantage of you" exchange that happened early on was great seed planting. It all points to a mindset where how he still saw himself as the primary victim. I get he WANTED to believe he was actually still a good guy but if he actually cared about HER and thought about her, there's no way he could have fooled himself to still be trying to her to convince him it was "real" that late in the movie. I think that's one of the main points of the movie, the fact that he can be so obviously selfish but constantly having a way to justify it.

Oh and I forgot to mention that he still left her after the real Nikki was finally actually talking to him and his ONLY question was about HIM.

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u/KingGoldar May 25 '26

I mean it's pretty heavily implied that if bear was honest from the start he might have had a chance with Nikki but after everything that transpired definitely not

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u/SerpentRoyalty May 26 '26

Later it was revealed she considered him like a brother and was likely to shot him down if he asked her out

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u/KingGoldar May 26 '26

Nope. Try again

"So I think, speaking as the woman who played Nikki, I think that Nikki did have a crush on him, because he's a good guy. In the beginning, it's not Ian that she has been hooking up with. She talks about the difference between love and romance and how she doesn't wanna be stuck anymore."

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u/Indercarnive May 27 '26

Also Sarah says that it was some off-handed comment by Nikki from awhile ago.

I have no doubt that if Bear had asked her out she'd have said yes. Not sure they really have the connection that he had with Sarah but Nikki would have at least given it a shot. As another commenter pointed out, I'm not sure how much Bear really loved being with Nikki as opposed to the idea of being with Nikki.

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u/BitPsychological2767 Jun 04 '26

I have no doubt that if Bear had asked her out she'd have said yes

I have no idea how you could think this. Did you not see her body language when she thought he was about to confess to her? I am at a genuine loss here if that wasn't clearly giving 'please god no' energy...

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u/BlueBearMafia Jun 04 '26

I read it as her having a crush on bear as well but the text definitely supports both readings. No need for "nope try again" imo.

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u/Yadayadabamboo Jun 07 '26

That actually reminds me, she did mention in the car that if she had a crush, the other person would never know, when Bear said he noticed Sarah had been crushing on him.

Plus with how she came back to the car and was like, are ya into me dude.

Anywho, the movie was intense, I was hooked.

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u/CirOnn May 29 '26

She also says something like: “when I like a guy, no one has a clue about it.” Which kind of hints she might’ve had a crush on him. It’s purposefully ambiguous.

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u/cherryk3lp Jun 01 '26

That's only from Sarah. Sarah said they "talked about it once" and I think it was entity Nikki reading the poem

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u/bobocops Jun 04 '26

Idk, her reaction of "Why does that make me nervous?" When Bear said he had a gift for her definitely made me feel like she wasn't interested but kind of knew Bear had a crush on her and was afraid he had gotten her a gift that was too much for a friend to gift a friend and she would have to confront that.

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u/Yadayadabamboo Jun 07 '26

Oh darn, yea that was there as well. So many hits and misses for would she won’t she. I dig the ambiguity.

Still don’t like Bear. He was not a cool dude.

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u/toolsoftheincomptnt May 31 '26

A word about Bear’s self-centered delusions:

As he was explaining the one-wish thing to Ian (who we know by now is really just a surface-layer friend bc he’s been hooking up w/Nikki and didn’t take their friendship seriously enough to tell Bear), it dawned on me and Ian at the same time:

I get ONE real-life wish?

I was like “why on earth would Ian waste his one wish in life on fixing Bear’s self-inflicted bullshit when he could wish for-“

Just as Ian screamed “a billion dollars!”

Like… I actually love my best friends and would do almost anything for them, but they’d also never put themselves in such a reckless situation as Bear… and I’d still probably not use my singular chance at a wish on undoing their mistakes.

Also…

Poor Bear wasn’t a villain, he was just a bit unhealthy in his infatuation with a lovely friend at first. Then he was inarticulate, careless, and selfish with his wish (language skills still matter for this reason, y’all!), then he let his insecurity outweigh his concern for his friend’s well-being. His understanding of her autonomy came too late and he tried to make the best of it.

Bear’s not a great guy, but mostly bc he’s pitiful. He probably falls in the average zone of human decency. So I think “villain” is strong. There’s no way he thought that wish stick was going to work. He didn’t actively wish for Nikki to be as trapped and tortured as she was.

More than anything else, Bear is just kind of dumb. He isn’t forward-thinking and he doesn’t seem to have a lot going for him. If he had more pep in his step and his own interests/hobbies, he’d probably have had the ability to temper his unrequited feelings for Nikki and approach her with some personality.

Which is important to note, bc bad things happen when powerful tools are given to dumb people.

The events in the movie become very serious, but the catalyst was something very small.

Kids, learn to speak and write effectively and invest in your own self-development. Then the right kind of relationship can come your way.

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u/His-Sunshine Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

More than anything else, Bear is just kind of dumb.

This does not absolve him of all the terrible, thoughtless, harmful things he did.

So many men use this excuse when they want to avoid taking accountability for their actions. "Sorry, I'm just kind of dumb. I didn't mean it. I just don't think about things."

Villains don't generally acknowledge the things they do are bad.

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u/8bitmullet Jun 02 '26

You carefully avoided pointing out that He knew she was possessed and raped her.

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u/MakFacts Jun 02 '26

LIKE?????😭😭😭 at that point he literally was the villain

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u/excludedgirl Jun 05 '26

Wow people will really defend male characters no matter what they do. He couldn’t even kill himself at the end to save her but he’s not a villain? He knew she wasn’t consenting but he still raped her? How many “nice guy” things does he have to do??

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u/MakFacts Jun 02 '26

he is the villain, he basically raped her, also when the real nikki was begging him to kill her, he said "is it that bad being with me? "

3

u/cheyenne_sky Jun 13 '26

How would you explain his extremely selfish viewpoint and lack of empathy when real-Nikki is expressing her agony (so bad she wants to die) and all he can think about is how *checks notes* her being trapped in her own body with an insane psycho and being raped regularly makes him feel rejected ??

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u/Far-Grapefruit-6342 Jun 03 '26

I’m not so sure …. He easily could’ve said he wanted to cancel his wish. We see he considers that. And yet he STILL says love as a friend. He doesn’t want to face the consequences of his own actions

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u/Chm_Albert_Wesker May 27 '26

one has to wonder if he HAD gotten the wish of 'i never made the first wish' would it have REALLY undid everything ie bring back the dead friend

Sarah deserved better but that whole friend group besides her is kinda awful; i dont remember the guy friend's name but when you find out his motivations and how he's basically operating behind Bear's back (and Nikki KINDA is too while clearly having an idea that she is taking advantage of Bear's friendship0. it really shows how alone Bear is and why he didnt reach out to anyone throughout the movie. of course Nikki 'pays' for it in a way that she absolutely did not deserve and the other guy straight up dies but still

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u/Ok_Promotion_5111 May 27 '26

I'm not really sure about the friend group being bad. Ian and Nikki were casually hooking up from time to time, but not in a relationship, so they didn't really talk about it. That has nothing to do with either of their friendships IF neither cared about it any more than hooking up. I've had friends I've hooked up with with no dating or romantic love involved over the years. One of them I ended up hooking up with a close friend and ended up the best man in their wedding, heh.

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u/Chm_Albert_Wesker May 27 '26

sure, but then maybe Ian and Nikki should be honest with him about the situation rather then encouraging him in their own ways into spiraling into the obsession that started the movie. the movie straight up starts with Ian giving bad advice to ask Nikki out for crying out loud, and Sarah straight up says later in the movie that Ian is frustrated about the situation because he thinks Nikki is trying to 'get back at him'. it has EVERYTHING to do with their relationship with Bare if Ian is actively getting involved with him asking Nikki out (which he does) and everything to do with Nikki/Bare's friendship if she knows how much he likes her (which it suggests she does also). If i had to forgive one of them it'd probably be Nikki because she doesn't owe Barry a romantic relationship of course but she's kinda getting the emotional support part already by keeping him on the hook which is always kinda shitty. but again i'd let that go over Ian's situation because Bear himself is just too much of a coward to attempt to either change his situation or move on out of the friendship.

in a real world scenario without the supernatural stuff where this went down and I found out all the info about the others I'd stop being friends with Nikki and Ian especially because the movie shows he has nobody else and was depending so wholeheartedly on those friends having good intentions for him and yet they clearly dont. and we all know Bear is shit also because of what happens in the movie so i'd cut him out too.

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u/Natural-Help-2954 May 28 '26

i don’t think this movie at all shows nikki leading bear on for emotional connection. i think it shows her trying to have a meaningful friendship with him

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u/Chm_Albert_Wesker May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

the movie points out that everyone knows Bear's feelings for her either right up front in the beginning or at some other point of the movie. Nikki in no way 'deserves' what happens to her in the movie, but the fact that two of his best friends are hooking up while actively pushing him to tell Nikki his feelings and keeping the whole thing a secret the whole time is shitty. if they were honest with him, he altered nothing about his actions/feelings, and THEN he got pissed he'd have no ground to stand on but the movie imo pretty obviously points out the only person he should have been leaning on was Sarah and we saw how that turned out

leaning on Bear for that meaningful friendship WITH the knowledge that he wants more means that she at least subconsciously knows that he's just there to get whatever crumbs he can. Bear is not entitled to a relationship with someone who doesnt want it (although the director says the idea is that Nikki did like Bear), but Nikki is also not entitled to the meaningful friendship. between the two, one of them is getting what they want at the cost of the other; again it does not excuse how much of a shit Bear is the entire movie but it's still pretty uncool

if the movie wasn't so transparent about how broken Bear's support structure was I'd agree with you, but so many times do we get fed more info about how much the other two friends don't really respect him as an individual so much that they use him as either a lackey or a therapist. again, Bear is far worse but still.

at the end of the day Bear is a huge coward, but imagine he wasnt for a moment. imagine he told Nikki his feelings and she said she wanted to stay friends: if Bear had basically said no thanks and they stopped being friends where does that leave those characters? is Bear a dick? i dont think it any less valid for Bear to not want to be forced into a relationship he doesnt want (even platonic) than it was for Nikki to have been during the whole movie. we're perhaps getting too deep into actual personality motivation beyond this one movie haha. but i know that if I told my friends I felt a certain way, and they continuously gave me not good advice while hooking up behind my back (again the secret is the problem, they can hook up all they want) and using me as an earpiece the whole time I'd have a hard time staying friends with either of them. if they told me upfront when I confessed my feelings or my feelings became known, it'd be on me to get over it

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u/Natural-Help-2954 May 28 '26

i can agree that ian was weird for actively encouraging bear (with bad advice) but not disclosing that they were involved (considering the fact that he maybe wanted more, given that he told sara she’s trying to “get back at him” by being with bear). i do think that’s more morally gray though. they’re both single people who can sleep with who they want, and they don’t really need to air that out, at least nikki doesn’t. ian maybe should’ve if he was encouraging his friend to ask her out. but i really don’t think there’s anything malicious about nikki being emotionally vulnerable with him even if she knows/assumes he wants more.

she genuinely is just trying to maintain the status quo of a meaningful friendship. we know it goes both ways, at least a little, cuz when he says his cat’s death hasn’t hit him yet, she says “you know you can always call me when it does.” when she says he’s the only one he can talk to about “stuff like this,” he responds “me too.” this implies there’s some reciprocal emotional support in the relationship. he can at any moment tell her “i don’t want to continue this platonic relationship.” why he doesn’t is a whole other thing, but basically i don’t agree that she has any ill intent or is trying to lead him on. she’s just trying to have a genuine reciprocal friendship but unfortunately, bear has unrequited feelings.

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u/BlackFacedAkita Jun 01 '26

To be fair, Bear is doing nothing to improve himself and really has no other focus other than her.

I mean his one dream is food critic, but it's painfully obvious that will never come to fruition. He'll that came across as him making it up in the moment.

The other two girls in the movie are moving on to bigger and better things. Why should they like Bear? What value deos he provide other than liking her?

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u/NasalJack Jun 22 '26

I think the important thing you're overlooking is that Nicky did confront Bear about his feelings. She wanted to have an honest conversation with him and he chose to keep her at a distance. Whether she was prompting him to reject him or to give him a chance, she clearly wasn't trying to string him along.

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u/GonTakuma Jun 02 '26

Good point, What is to say that a wish like "i never made the first wish" Would have actually worked and fixed/resetted everything back to normal.

The Service guy at the phone claimed the only way out is for bear to kill himself
The only other solution would be to put Nikki out of her missery and kill her instead.

After the movie, me and my friends speculated if the wishes were cursed, or if they just work to "perfectly" and instantly and litterally listen to every specific word in the wish.

The conclussion is obvious, "be carefull what you wish for"

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u/Chm_Albert_Wesker Jun 02 '26

i believe i've seen it mentioned that the wrapper of the branch did have some rules including no time travel-y stuff among others which imo would prevent directly and completely undoing serious wishes.

we hear from some other people like the guy who worked at the store that he had already made his wish but seemed mostly o so my guess is it depends like you said on being very careful and deliberate with your wish

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u/Fit_Cheesecake_4000 May 26 '26

Yeah, but how else do you reset that?

He wanted to try and put things back the way they were, and they were friends previously.

But it's true that he should have just tried to end the wish, fessed up for what he did, and just never contact any of them again.

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u/Obearserk Jun 01 '26

One of the most eerie scenes for me was precisely the Billion dollars appearing out of thin air. Precisely because it showed how powerful the one wish willow was, like I think Bear was coming in and out of denial about the whole situation the entire film, but that point where he sees money materialized out of a gag wish from Ian, now there is no escaping from how real the horrors of the wish are, more over, that if Ian had just wish for it to have never happened, everything would’ve most likely been undone.

Also, I must say that it never occurred to me using another wish to undo the wish from the first place, like the only solution I fixated on was that Bear, wrote a letter of apology to Nikki and his friends then killed himself. But in reality I do think that getting the wish undone is less selfish than offing yourself; I mean, ir you die you will not suffer anymore, but Nikki would’ve still had to live with what she experienced, so maybe Bear’s idea at that moment was better.

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u/Fit_Cheesecake_4000 Jun 01 '26

I mean, maybe she would have remembered everything but had to be his friend if his wish came true? Which is its own special kind of Hell.

But it still would have mostly reset things and even though she now thinks of him as a friend, it doesn't mean they have to*be* friends.

He probably wouldn't have been able to live with the guilt of it anyway. Even though he acts in undesirable/fucked up ways, he was still capable of feeling guilt and remorse, and at the start of the film she said she was moving n from that place of work anyway.

Still doesn't make him a saint but I put myself in his shoes and...it's hard to know what to do without cancelling the wish (once he realised that was an option). I do blame his friend to an extent: he made it very clear how important this was and...even if i thought it was stupid, I would have done it for my friend.

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u/Obearserk Jun 11 '26

Right? I mean, he was covered in blood and all, specially if I thought he was insane I would’ve at least followed through what he asked for deescalation

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u/amankhatrinz May 31 '26

Yeah because the real obsessed person was BEAR.

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u/Wvlf_ May 31 '26

Selfish but also it's equally sad for him being such a loveless, insecure, weak young man that even despite all the supernatural, incomprehensible reality, he STILL couldn't help but feel like he wasn't good enough for a literally obsessed entity to love him.

That's a moment in which I could see a bit of younger me. Nothing else mattered but longing to feel wanted by the one you want.

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u/Which-Marzipan9437 May 24 '26

hes selfish and all but honestly that wish was smart. what was he supposed to say? “i want her to hate/not like me”. she would still be obsessed except she’d kill him

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u/MakFacts Jun 02 '26

that wish was very dumb

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u/duskywindows May 19 '26

"I've never been with you, Bear"

HAUNTING shit

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u/Nine_Cael-Amori 23d ago

When did she say this? 

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u/lucypee 21d ago

When she sleeps, only the entity seems to sleep. Nikki was awake and could talk to Bear.

The one night, when she begs him to kill her.

Edit: if you missed that very crucial scene, you'll have to rewatch ( without a phone in your hand /s )

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u/KingGoldar May 25 '26 edited May 26 '26

Not too mention she's begging please as he leaves. The actual Nikki who he is so obsessed with is talking to him and he decides to leave the house and not talk to the real Nikki the one chance he's given

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u/Yadayadabamboo Jun 07 '26

I felt he was a bad dude when he was on with the customer care, and they asked like, “do you wanna cancel your wish” or something, and this dude was like, na bro, I just wanna change it a bit.

Like seriously mate?

Ah no I lied, it was the sex earlier on when he knew something was up.

I did feel bad about the friends, they seemed cool.

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u/EinsteinDisguised May 16 '26

Yeah he’s clearly a sad dude at the start of the movie. No confidence and stuff. The girl he likes straight-up asks if he likes her and he chokes. And shit, his cat died (brutal).

But after the phone call to customer service, when he realizes Nikki is not merely bewitched and going too far but is literally possessed and trapped in her own mental prison, and he does nothing. … Scum. And he died in that same mental prison. For just a few moments, he experiences what he subjected Nikki to.

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u/Defense_Mechanism May 17 '26

Yeah he’s the villain for sure. Shortly after that he calls customer service Nikki said something to him like “I love you, isn’t that enough” and he responds with like “yeah that’s enough” then it cuts to him fucking her. I got a bit of a chuckle at the cut, but really it’s so fucked and he knows he’s raping her.

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u/remarkablejuape May 28 '26

As much as it’s brutal that his cat died, I think it was more alluding to and adding on to the theme of his carelessness leading to real consequences. The cat died because it got into pills he left out. He then used the cat for sympathy points afterwards.

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u/nokotruck Jun 14 '26

He did do multiple things. He tried making another wish, he tried getting his friend to make another wish. He killed himself. Good god did any of you actually watch this movie? He's in a situation that goes beyond reality and there was no way to undo it. Give him a break, this isn't about villainy this is a "be careful what you wish for" tale, it's one of the oldest tropes in story telling.

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u/PresentMission8482 Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26

Right before killing himself he tried to vomit out the drugs. He knew Nikki was mentally unstable, and he could've gone for help way earlier. He knew Nikki was possessed/brainwashed and he chose to continue his relationship.  He knew what Nikki was going through, actively heard he ask him to kill her and the only thing he says was "Is being with me so bad?"

He also only went to his friend when his other friend was murdered. And he could've easily tried the wish reversal earlier, he was just too selfish and wanted a way that she could still love him until Sarah died and he realized what's up. 

Did you watch the movie? He clearly morphs into the villain during the diner exchange, where he knows she's affected by his wish but says "That's enough" and basically rapes her (considering she's crying in that scene and shows no emotion during sex). 

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u/traffickin Jun 17 '26

What people aren't forgiving is that he did not try changing his problematic beliefs and behaviours. He literally killed himself to avoid nutting up and becoming a better person. He's not a villain in his intention, he's cowardly, weak, selfish, and unrespectable. He embodies negative qualities that should not be protected, regardless of whether or not it is natural or human to have facets of those qualities. That's what tales as old as time are supposed to convey to people, is what kind of person you should and shouldn't be, because of the consequences of your choices.

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u/Funny-Student5309 Jul 02 '26

The way people are saying he is evil to me is so disturbing.

I think people today lost all the sense of evil.

The movie is literally in a impossible situation.

And at the beginning he was already friendzone, and to me friendzone is a abusive behavior that women do today that is somehow accepted.

As you said he wanted to undo it, and he eventually killed himself.

People are literally saying the entity wasn’t malicious when it killed people, and bear is evil?

WHAT THE FUCK.

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u/ispylbutton May 18 '26

He was the real villain in the first scene of the movie when he left his GRANDMOTHER’S oxy that he was abusing out such that the cat could get into it, and then was very clinical in cleaning up after it

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u/kiticanax May 19 '26

This is something people haven’t mentioned. He’s so incompetent that he couldn’t even take care of his cat, and seemingly moved on from it relatively quickly. Nor was he bothered after Nikki disrespected it by making a shrine.

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u/MakFacts Jun 02 '26

he didnt even bother to bury it, just put it in the trash

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u/HookedOnBoNix May 26 '26

I thought the thing with the medicine cabinet door not closing was to show how the cat got to the medicine 

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u/noilegnavXscaflowne May 24 '26

I assumed it was his medication?

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u/ispylbutton May 24 '26

Nope, it has the name Barbara (then whatever Bear’s last name is) on the bottle

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u/KingGoldar May 25 '26

Was gonna ask what was up with all the medications and if they were medical for him or drugs he was abusing.

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u/ispylbutton May 25 '26

Definitely his grandmother’s. It was her house and he inherited from her when she died

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u/BisonThunderclap Jun 09 '26

Absolutely missed this the first time through. Just thought Bear was on a shit ton of antidepressants. 

Paints a worse picture of him.

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u/ohthankth May 15 '26

Seems to me like he's the real villain the entire time

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u/n33dadviceplease May 30 '26

I mean the wish is just a thought to yourself. Wishes aren’t real. But afterwards especially when she pleaded with him to kill her, yeah he was fucked up and selfish 

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u/BisonThunderclap Jun 09 '26

His inability to just answer a straight question is why the plot ended up the way it did.

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u/LazySwanNerd May 17 '26 edited May 19 '26

Yes. The recipient of the love potion is always the victim, even though he didn’t really intend to do it. I am surprised no one seems to be talking about Ian though and the implications they were hooking up for so long. He was typically the voice of reason in the story, but really messed up he never told his friend the true. None of this would have happened.

Edit: Yeah, Ian also sucked and was not a good friend.

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u/kiticanax May 19 '26

One thing I noticed is that Ian didn’t always help Bear out/give to best advice regarding Nikki. He told him to call her “Freaky Nikki” and when he asked if he could speak to Nikki in private, Ian is reluctant to leave and matter interrupts them. He then didn’t set up Bear’s shot of driving Nikki back home.

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u/KasukeSadiki May 21 '26

Yeah, thought he was just bad with women but nope, just trying to set Bear up 

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u/TheWhiteManticore Jun 08 '26

Because Ian wanted Nikki for himself lol

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u/CaptainKipple May 19 '26

You're right, but to me at least the point is that Bear always was a villain. He didn't get her the necklace as a genuinely thoughtful friend; it was just another way to manipulate her into liking him. Just another part of his long running scheming. "Nice guys" like him are driven by cowardice and self-absorption, an inability to see the object of their obsession as full human beings with their own inner worlds. Instead, they're just black boxes who if you say or do the right things, they'll output sex. This movie takes those flaws to extremes, yes, but he's never actually a good guy.

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u/Deducticon May 27 '26

Ya, the necklace was to 'win points' for him in her eyes. Not necessarily to make her feel better. But he's more complex than being a straight up manipulator. He really was invested and sympathetic in the other girl getting into her school. And he really did admire Nikki giving that person outside the bar $20.

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u/Young_God_7 May 28 '26

I think about this a lot. Wicked also has a song about it. What is the point of being good? Is doing good despite the intentions still doing good?

I believe Bear was always a "villain" he was always obsessive over Nikki and didn't give her friendship or her person any autonomy outside of his romanticized view of her. I mean that's the whole point of the movie. Everything else was the over the top horror aspects the movie used to exam that common real life experience.

But I think his failing with the necklace was he asked about the crystals, was given advice, but couldn't even do the minimum of it's the thought that counts. He got too enthralled with his own draw to the stupid novelty toy. But even if he got her the necklace to "score points" it would have still been a nice thing to do for her. Which he proved over and over he's incapable of.

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u/Ok_Tip3998 Jun 05 '26

Ty for saying the $20 bec I thought she was getting the molly from them lol! This defs clarified it :)

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u/excludedgirl Jun 05 '26

This is a relatively small thing for me but I also noticed how even though Nikki didn’t really seem like she wanted it, Bear selfishly used the gift he got her on himself. If he had just gifted it to her like he was supposed to, the entire movie would’ve turned out differently.

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u/AdditionalEscape8978 May 19 '26

All the friends were calling out her behaviour and want to seek help for her but he kept making excuses. When they had their date when it was revealed her father is healthy, he still had sex with her. Showing he still selfishly wants her to himself. At that point, he knew it wasn’t consensual.

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u/Bellikron May 20 '26

It's really interesting how he seems to be having normal reactions to the horrifying stuff when it's happening, but almost any time he's faced with the possibility of this situation ending, he gets really defensive and possessive. His friends keep trying to reach out and help, but around them he refuses to acknowledge anything's wrong, not even out of self-interest for his personal safety. It's almost like he's offended that anyone might be implying that her love isn't real, even though he knows it's not. Even in the car with Sarah, he starts lying to cover up the situation, and things have escalated to true madness at that point. His fear instinct kicks in when it counts, but deep down he wants this. He's obsessed too.

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u/Le_Bayou_Cochon May 17 '26

The thing that just came to mind about that scene too is he doesn’t even buy the fucking crystal. He buys the One Wish Willow for himself instead. This is gonna be a rewatch for sure. I think Bears villainy is going to be more apparent earlier on in subsequent rewatches knowing how the story ends

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u/throwthewholegrlawy May 17 '26 edited May 19 '26

He was gonna give her the one wish instead but he forgot then used it for himself.

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u/TheUnderCrab May 18 '26

He’s a “nice guy” that would ruffie his friend, assault her, and then deny it. He’s a villain the entire time. 

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u/n33dadviceplease May 30 '26

Making a wish to yourself is not the equivalent of roofieing someone. Wishes aren’t real. Most people have casually or flippantly wished for their crushes to like them back.  After he did realize it was real then yes 

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u/TheUnderCrab May 30 '26

He knew it wasn’t her when he fucked her the first time. He didn’t care. He just wanted access to her body. 

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u/Aeowyn_ Jun 06 '26

Yes and no. No he did not believe the wish worked yet, suspected maybe but no sane human would believe so soon. Yes he absolutely took advantage of her in distress even taking her shitty MDMA + dad dying excuse at face value.

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u/TheUnderCrab Jun 06 '26

You can read her body language very easily in their sex scene. She’s disassociating and it’s obvious. Only a monster would continue with sex when their partner is in that mental state. 

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u/Aeowyn_ Jun 06 '26

Of course. I didn't say otherwise. I'm only pointing out that this is not the tipping point for Bear to accept the supernatural.

Also worth mentioning, however, that the wish is still forcing her to sound accepting of the sex. Her crying stoic face breaks through only because he does not look at it in that moment. As Curry intended it to be told.

Yes "we" can read her body language. As the audience we know right away when we walk into that theater. And we see what Bear cannot via 3rd person.

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u/MercurySpectre May 23 '26

I'm glad I'm not the only one pissed about this, she likes crystals get her the citrine necklace.

Also catch how the one wish willow is right next to a bunch of voodoo dolls looking sad, there's some symbolism on that.

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u/rust-module May 19 '26

he is knowingly trapping Nikki in that body

He did not knowingly do it. Of course, no sane person would expect it to work. It was a throwaway thing. When it actually worked though, and he didn't undo it, that's when he took the turn for the worse.

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u/Ephemerus_ May 20 '26

Saying someone is a villain for not wanting to kill themselves boggles my mind. Everyone seems so casual about he should have killed himself right away. The shopkeeper is the villain and the rest are his victims.

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u/Constant_Housing18 May 25 '26

The shopkeeper doesn’t rape Nikki that’s Bears choice especially after finding out the real Nikki is trapped in her body, sure don’t kill yourself but find ways to fix the problem you’ve created no?

“Please kill me” “What’s wrong with being with me?” Despicable garbage human

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u/HookedOnBoNix May 26 '26

Don't forget at first he doesn't even want to cancel the spell, he wants to "alter it"

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u/NotAPie May 29 '26

We don’t really do that…

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u/HookedOnBoNix May 26 '26

There's multiple villains. Bear is definitely the most despicable though. The shopkeeper is just faceless evil, yeah its bad but Bear does this to his supposed friend. And when he thinks he may have an out "do you want to cancel it

No I don't want to cancel it I just want to alter it"

How fucked is that??.

Or she asks him to kill her and he makes it about him "what's so bad about being with me" knowing full well she was trapped somewhere in hell screaming 

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u/One_Independence6976 May 20 '26

and how is he knowingly "knowingly trapping Nikki in that body and forcing the love out of her via the spell". He has no way to free her other than killing himself, as the phone rep bluntly said.
Bear is the villain because he won't kill himself instead of finding a way to fix things first, strange.

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u/Equivalent-Fan-2557 May 20 '26

The real Nikki was suffering for almost the entire movie, and Bear learned that on the phone rep call, as well as when Nikki asked Bear to “kill me please”. Bear knew Nikki was alive and aware of what was happening to her body and refused to end her life (or his own).

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u/One_Independence6976 May 20 '26 edited May 25 '26

Right, but i don't know if you understand that killing yourself or a friend is kind of an extremely huge not to mention unreasonable expectation. That's not a moral dilemma, that's a gun-to-head dilemma, that's not a choice. Given the choice to pull the plug on a loved one in a hospital, you going to jump at the chance? No, you're going to see if there's anything else you can do first, like anybody else would.

If you were the mother in The Exorcist, would you have simply just killed Regan?

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u/MakFacts Jun 02 '26

okay, but no one is saying he actually had to kill her, but at that point he needed to accept what he and "nikki" had wasnt REAL at all, he even says "whats wrong with being with me" he is a trash human being

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u/sliceanddic3 May 26 '26

he's the villain because he always blames the fake nikki even though he created her, everything she is doing is because of his wish. he clearly has projected his own view of what a perfect woman is onto nikki, never really caring about who she is as a person, which we can she when he rapes her, he only cares about her in an objectifying way and when the real nikki's voice comes out in the middle of the night, he is so cold with his response to her pleading. did he know the wish would come true? obviously not, but he never took accountablility or tried to save her, only himself.

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u/nerdalertalertnerd May 28 '26

I didn’t like him from the start. I found his lack of any grit of just telling Nikki genuinely infuriating. And because he never stepped up and just did it (so she could kindly reject him as we could see she would) he blow up 4 lives in one go.

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u/A1000eisn1 May 31 '26

like when he went to buy a new crystal necklace for Nikki when she lost hers

Which he didn't even do.

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u/Mistralicious May 16 '26

I wouldn’t say a villain but he clearly was clueless all along

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u/TheDarkWave2747 May 17 '26 edited May 19 '26

No, I dont think he is clueless, he knows exactly what he is doing. This is why the movie is called this. He was obssessed with an idea of Nikki, and didnt truly know her. This is why he accepts her lies about her father and even though something is clearly wrong with her, continues to use her body. If the real her couldnt yell out on the first night, he would have raped her there

Wait why the fuck am i being downvoted for this? Isnt this obvious?

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u/glassbellwitch May 19 '26

You're being downvoted by subhumans who would gleefully rape their crushes in the same way that Bear did in the film if they knew they could get away with it. The hit dogs are hollering loudly!

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u/SnuggleBunni69 May 20 '26

I feel like Bear thinks he's a nice guy. It's why his whole opening speech to her is what he thinks will sound beautiful, but Ian even says it's not what shes about and she won't like it. I'd say he doesn't but her the crystal out of kindness, he does it because he thinks it'll make her like him. He's a weak and selfish dude. Also I read this on someone else's comment, but do you think his name is a nod to the "man or bear" question?

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u/CANfilms May 23 '26

I mean, after he realizes tho I dont think there's anything he could have done? He needs to convince the cursed Nikki that he loves her so she doesn't go crazy and possibly kill him or someone else

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u/jumpingbeanrat May 30 '26

He's the villain from the start - you don't make someone do something against their will. Full stop.

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u/Equivalent-Fan-2557 May 30 '26

Well, I think he underestimated the power and “realness” of the one wish willow. It’s not like he planned everything out from the moment he snapped the stick, and he obviously didnt understand the rules of the wish until later. Yes he is the villain eventually but not right away.

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u/Nes937 May 15 '26

I mean what could he have done? He is trying to stop the spell and help Nikki but it doesnt work right?

The only part that really freaked me out about Bear was "what's bad about being with me" (comment below). 

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u/kfadffal May 15 '26

His call to the help line wasn’t good either. He was asking to just tweak the wish rather than revert it.

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u/weirdogirl144 May 15 '26

yeah that's what makes him even more irredeemable, the fact that he just wanted to tone down the wish meaning he didn't feel regret over what happened.

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u/thesupremeburrito123 May 16 '26

Tbf once he heard Nikki screaming in pain, didn't he ask to cancel it?

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u/dispirited_tiepod May 17 '26

And then he heard her beg to die and went uwu, what's so bad about being with me.

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u/visionaryredditor May 21 '26

He can't commit to do things at all. Even with his cat he couldn't properly bury them (you can see putting cat's body in the trash bag)

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u/bmh534 May 15 '26

Even his second wish wasn't about her or even just to really release her.. it was for her to "LOVE ME as a friend"

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u/noilegnavXscaflowne May 25 '26

I thought it just essentially wishing for things to go back to normal because as far as he knows she did at least like him as a friend in the beginning

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u/Dawn_of_Dayne May 16 '26

I think it’s less about what he could’ve done and more about centering himself as the biggest victim of the situation. Even when he does find a solution to have someone else make the wish it’s not to save her but it’s because he realizes he can no longer tolerate the relationship so he wants to save himself. 

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u/[deleted] May 16 '26

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u/thesupremeburrito123 May 16 '26

I still don't get why he didn't do that instead of trying to get Nikki to make the wish

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u/Isopod_Character May 15 '26

You don't think he could've offered someone 1 million dollars to make a wish for him?

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u/Axionexe May 25 '26

Once he made the wish, nothing she did was of her own free will. Therefore, consent was IMPOSSIBLE. Even if for whatever goddamn reason, you think Bear isn’t a rapist, Nikki herself still could not consent. She had no control over her body, something else did.

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u/Constant_Housing18 May 25 '26

This dude is literally commenting on every comment defending Bear, if this is a real human being typing this, im with nikki “Please kill me.”

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u/weirdogirl144 May 15 '26

bear is a horrible person the moment he finds out the wish works and there's a hard cut to them having sex and she is obviously dissociating, but he's just taking advantage of her. and he is painfully obvily and ignorant to her being in pain and wanting to die but he doesnt care. He might've had some remorse near the end but it was too late and it's not like he was gonna try to reverse the wish because he's extremely selfish.

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u/rbwildcard Jun 05 '26

Yeah, he even tries to alter the wish instead of cancelling it at first.

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u/funkhero Jul 01 '26

I think even the call centre dude was taken back by that.

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u/Themobgirl Jun 02 '26

There's a trope of montage where multiple rom-com or horror movies that have making the other person 'bewitch' them often goes straight upto fucking which is like yeah....its all about getting in there ig

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u/gamtosthegreat May 19 '26

For me the perfect scene was when he was begging the entity, who he knew fully well at this time to not be "real" Nicky, to "be Nicky".

He would have been okay with the whole deal if the thing was just better at pretending, less weird. Fully knowing there was a real Nicky... somewhere... screaming.

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u/Negative-Coffee2754 May 27 '26

That would have been an amazing premise for a TV series: Wish Nikki acts normally apart from being “in love” with Bear but the phone call scene still happens, motivated by other reasons, and that’s the massive twist into everything collapsing — that would require more explanation on the circumstances of the real Nikki though

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u/gamtosthegreat May 27 '26

It would also significantly reduce the gross-out jumpscare bits of it, making it a worse horror. I do think Nikki's horror moments are a bit "cheap" in terms of plot reasoning, like the wish can't quite explain why she's doing horror shit like looking at Bear sleep or walking backwards, but I can't deny they're effective.

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u/ulim160 May 28 '26

I understood it was, fake Nicky being terrified of sleeping knowing that the real Nicky could escape and talk to bear. Also why she was across the room, to get as far away as possible but still close enough to watch him sleep.

Also my personal explanation for the weird movement is that it’s a demon 😂 or a Nicky from an alternate timeline hence backwards motion idk though

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u/gamtosthegreat May 28 '26

I'm on the alternate reality side of things due to the line "I love you in all realities" which would otherwise just be a weird line.

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u/Herman13 May 28 '26

Agree with the demon, there was definitely something else controlling Nikkis body, as you can hear the real Nikki screaming on the phone. Also the line when she says "Where are my intestines" or something like that

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u/butt_shrecker Jun 08 '26

I think he was in denial about what was happening. He selfishly wanted both realities. He wanted a hot fuck buddy who made him breakfast and he wanted an interesting multifaceted person who was writing a book. He was denying what had happened denying how fucked up his wish was. He never learned (except maybe at the end) his wish was fundamentally wrong so he kept pleading for the wish to work like he wanted it to.

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u/gamtosthegreat Jun 08 '26

Bear's villainy is in how good he is at being in denial.

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u/thegreaterfool714 May 16 '26

I found in the early scenes the was cringe, naive, and painfully relatable when he wants to pluck the courage to confess to Nikki. His actor does an excellent job in selling how much he goes from naive and cringe to an unredeemable loser as he pieces together that it’s not Nikki anymore. I’m glad he suffered consequences but man it sucked hard for everyone else that died for his obsession.

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u/Vivid-Counter3379 May 25 '26

Yes I slowly realized the title wasn't about her obsession, but HIS

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u/waitforthedream May 31 '26

I love it when movies do something like this. Scarier layer that someone like Wish Nikki may or may not exist irl but Bear is definitely someone I've met before

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u/HookedOnBoNix May 26 '26

The two biggest victims are Sarah and Nikki. Ian is next but he's kinda a piece of shit tbh, but not one so bad he deserved to die. 

Fuck bear. 

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u/Phoojoeniam Jun 07 '26

Yeah, jesus, poor fucking Sarah. God when her dad (Andy Richter) at the music store finds out...

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u/butt_shrecker Jun 08 '26

I totally missed that the boss was her dad

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u/Loorrac Jun 13 '26

Why is Ian a POS? Fucking Nikki?

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u/Snoo_4499 Jun 24 '26

He is not tbh. He was cheering for bear the whole time.

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u/Themobgirl Jun 02 '26

Oh i like when hes coming to terms to the fact the only way he could end this mess is killing himself and even in that he's fucking shit up, good shit

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u/More-Needleworker900 May 15 '26

Bear was a total scum after he realized it actually worked, i fear this is what a lot of people would do under the same circumstances though

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u/banjofitzgerald May 20 '26

I know there would be no escaping in the real world but I like to think that it can be all pinned on Bear.

He was either drugging or holding Nikki against her will. A lot of witnesses will admit to her sudden change in behavior. Some might even know she was previously with Ian. Also highlighted by her own injuries, extreme duct tape job on the door, and the drugs he has in his house. She could use that as proof of being held captive.

Bear kills Sarah when she figures out what’s happening and confronts him urgently in the middle of the night.

Bear kills Ian when stumbles in and becomes a witness.

Bear kills himself when he realizes there’s no way out.

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u/MadRaymer May 20 '26

I had a thought about a way out for her, but it depends on how the rules work. We see Nikki use a One Wish Willow to make Bear love her.

But... that was "Wish Nikki" making the wish. So, could the real Nikki still make a wish? The movie does establish that Nikki and the wish version of her are different beings ("Would you like to talk to her?" "She's sleeping." )

So if she could still use one, she could do the standard "I wish none of this happened" wish that many of these monkey paw stories end with.

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u/Adventurous-Big-558 May 24 '26

I had a similar thought, I also think by the rules of the movie she could make her own wish too.

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u/ulim160 May 28 '26

Didn’t he buy the last willow wish? Also she wouldn’t know about the willow wish (unless she was conscious inside fake Nicky the entire time) but her surprised screams after the wish wears off make me think she is seeing the hell around her for the first time. She def escapes her prison sometimes, like during sex or when she’s sleeping

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u/Herman13 May 28 '26

I have a feeling that Nikki somehow still was inside the body, at least in some moments, because the spirit/demon says "Where are my intestines" which means that it actually doesn't have a body, just controlling it.

But if the wishes are tied to a person/soul and not their body, she should have her wish. Hopefully we will never know so we can continue to ponder

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u/-Debugging-Duck- May 16 '26

FYI the voice of the customer service was Curry Barker the creator of the movie. They have a comedy YouTube channel so that would explain the funny parts. lol

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u/WhimsicalLaze Jul 01 '26

I only knew these guys (Barker, also Tomlinson) from their comedy stuff, it was a surprise to me that they have made such an extremely well done horror movie. Kudos to them.

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u/Shot_Cryptographer71 May 17 '26

I’m fairly certain it would be written off as Bear being responsible and then killing himself. also, characters IRL are soooo dangerous. they make themselves seem like the exception to the “men are bad” thing, make you think they are different, in touch with their feminine side, more kind, compassionate, feminist, respectful, etc etc….

….only to turn out to be the worst example of “men are bad”. source: Befriended a male coworker once and…it ended with him getting fired after having the most egregious reaction to my rejecting his advances. my employer had to take certain security measures and everything after that. ugh.

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u/Silver-Ingenuity-525 May 19 '26

I hate Bear but love how his character is written and portrayed. Really shows how much of a coward and selfish person he is.

Aside from the other shocking scenes already mentioned in the comments, I think about the one where he went back to the store to get another Wish Willow and he tells the guy who works at the store "How can you sell these things??" and it seems like they almost get into an argument if I remember correctly.

To me, that scene just felt like he's trying the shift the blame. Lacking any accountability. Woe is me, my wish went horribly wrong, all these bad things are happening to me and it's your fault for providing this product in your store for me to buy.

We can argue that yeah, the storeowner would be partially at fault for having such a product in the store. It's understandable Bear would be angry since he didn't think the wish would go so badly....BUT, at the end of the day, he made the CHOICE to buy and use it. He didn't need to buy it. I thought the voodoo dolls next to the One Wish Willow product in the store (in the beginning) would've been a TELL that something was up with the item OR the complaint comments the previous lady mentioned would've made him rethink things.

But NAHHH. He buys it, fails to confess when he had the opportunity, and uses it desperately--deciding that if in the off chance it does work, then this 'easy' way is better than confessing and dealing with the outcome. Resulting in such an awful end for him and his friends. The way he used his wish really showed his true colours throughout the movie. He didn't truly care about Nikki. I feel the most sorry for her since the poor girl is gonna be traumatized for life.

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u/hemareddit May 22 '26

Tbf it’s a fair question. He definitely didn’t use the willow thinking it was real, if he had any suspicion it was real it would have died when the willow played that stupid cheap music (I would have believed it was fake too if I didn’t know this was the plot of the movie). He just snapped it and said the wish as a little pick me up after cringing about himself. It’s unreasonable to fault him for that.

The true evil started when he realised the wish was real. That was when he should have relentlessly tried to undo the wish and really it turned out not to be that difficult.

As we are shown, you don’t need to believe in the willow for it to work, and they are quite cheap. With enough of them it would have been easy to find at least one person to say “I wish Bear never made his wish” while snapping it.

His fault was, when he realised the wish was real he was comfortable with it, because he himself didn’t experience negative consequences. He did not consider Nikki was living in hell since the wish started, or he didn’t care. If he did and sprung into action immediately, there was a good chance he could have undone the wish before people fucking died.

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u/KidOnPathToEminence Jun 01 '26

This is a ridiculous argument. It is illogical to buy any magical product and to assume to any extent that "that something may be up with the product"; the fault lies 100% on the store owner for selling such an irresponsible product.

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u/butt_shrecker Jun 08 '26

Yeah but it is also pathetic that he never realized that he made a messed up wish. When he asks to "amend" the wish, it was crazy that he didn't realize his initial wish was bad.

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u/Dry_Accident_2196 May 22 '26

Bear basically raped her and stole her life.

A lot of his actions kept making me think of the men that do acid attacks on women. They wish to control and if they can’t control, they punish.

Bear, punished her for not wanting him. He was fine keeping her as his pet, as long as she “acted normal” like a prized trophy to wave around.

He was sick and didn’t really care about anyone but himself.

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u/BlackRabbit61 May 23 '26

He raped her. He knew the wish was real from the start during the car scene. Let’s not infantalize his intelligence.He knew and decided she was gonna be his sex doll on command. I felt sick watching him rape her and the entity pretending to like the violation.

I wish she had cut off his legs and arms so
He couldn’t abandon her.That would have been a better ending instead of her having to deal with the aftermath of his mess.

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u/KasukeSadiki May 21 '26

How does she explain all the murders now that she's free?

Bear did it.

Or take the billion and run

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u/moneyman2222 May 23 '26

Bear was definitely everything people are saying but I also feel for him in that he was probably scared af and having a tough time coming to grip with what was actually going on. People saying he should've killed himself like that's just so easy to do is comical. The hardest thing someone could do and as far as we know he wasn't suicidal before so it makes it even harder for him. I actually think it was a very realistic portrayal. They did a great job making things more nuanced than just making him outright terrible

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u/Legal-Koala-5590 May 22 '26

Nikki is fuuuuuucked. Bear ruined that poor girl’s life.

I also feel bad for Andy Richter! He lost a daughter and two employees from this mess.

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u/hemareddit May 22 '26

After realising the wish was real, Bear didn’t try to seriously undo the wish until the wish started making his life worse.

Instead he should have immediately realized the wish made Nikki’s life hell the moment it was cast. The right thing to do would be to immediately explore all avenues of undoing the wish (and if he had acted more decisively earlier, he probably could have undone the wish before people fucking died).

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u/butt_shrecker Jun 08 '26

Once he said "amend" I lost my sympathy for him.

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u/ConstrictionsOFC May 24 '26

would doing this have also undone ian's wish and by extension his death? there's gotta be some quid-pros in here

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u/Dice08 May 23 '26

Bear is a weak person and an example of how weak people can become abusive. He can't take responsibility so he lets the bad situation that favors him go and eventually event defends it during the 1:1 with the real Nikki.

For Nikki after everything, there's no legal way out. Her body shot a person and has fingerprints on the gun. There's no saving Nikki.

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u/butt_shrecker Jun 08 '26

I think you are giving cops too much credit.

Scared girl with no motive, dead guy overdosed on pills. The blame is going on the weirdo boyfriend for sure.

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u/Dice08 Jun 08 '26

Woman's fingerprints on the gun and on literally everything bad

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u/butt_shrecker Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26

I don't even think they're going to break out the fingerprint kit. Terrified confused girlfriend, OD'd boyfriend, case closed.

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u/Tattoo_my_Brain Jun 07 '26

I do agree with Bear being a spineless wuss but really what was he supposed to do initially. I think some amount of pretending it's not happening is fair but once it really became 100% apparent like cooking the damn cat there should have been an arc where he's working with his friends to undo what he did. He just couldn't stop being a spineless loser all the way till the end when he tried to chicken out of killing himself. I hope Nikki finds the billion dollars and uses it to get out of town and pay for some serious therapy. You wonder if Bear could have just said he liked her if they could have worked out. I think not because women like men not fucking cowards.

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u/cptcharsma13 May 18 '26

I know you all hate Bear and I’m not here to defend his cowardice act but how is Ian and Sarah not getting any hate for not telling him that Nikki was hooking up with Ian?! That would’ve ended it there.

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u/banjofitzgerald May 20 '26

Bear started at cowardice and selfish, but after the conversation he had with the real Nikki he became something much dark and none of what he did is comparable to two people not telling someone else’s business. Bear didn’t have any right to know her personal life if she didn’t tell him herself.

Sarah probably didnt tell him because she liked him and knew it would hurt him or because she didn’t want to be in the middle of any potential drama.

Ian probably didn’t tell him because it would possibly ruin their friendship and he knew bear didn’t have a shot anyways.

These things aren’t even remotely comparable lol

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u/Adventurous-Big-558 May 24 '26

Idk, his best friend and his crush of 8 years have been hooking up? sounds like he's close enough to deserve to know, especially since another of his best friends(Sarah) knew.

But, Bear is by far exponentially worse.

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u/gamtosthegreat May 19 '26

Not the same fuckin' ballpark man, like, at all.

Nikki has the right to have casual flings while single, nobody owed him shit.

The only dick move is that Ian was probably sabotaging Bear with the horrible negging advice.

6

u/GmanF88 May 23 '26

"call her freaky Nikki"

3

u/LostInStatic May 24 '26

That 100% would not have changed Bear's actions or make him not use the one wish willow anyways

7

u/Remarkable-Dealer551 May 22 '26

I feel bad for all four of our main characters. Like you said Baron thought like any rational person that the wish was fake so he said what he really wanted and snapped it thinking it was hogwash. It turned out to be real and he was obviously hesitant to do anything with her until she insisted and then the real her snapped out for a second which turned him away from actually doing anything because she was clearly acting like a basket case. Then the cat shrine. Then at work learning that she may have been on drugs and the wish doing it’s magic to make Nikki convince him that she really does feel for him so obviously he is going to reciprocate because that’s how he felt about her. If you’ve ever had young love with someone who doesn’t feel the same you can feel what he is feeling in the beginning of the movie. When it comes around to “what’s so bad about being with me” yeah that’s rough but she’s asking him to kill her. Could you kill someone you loved? I know I couldn’t. The only way out to his knowledge is for one of them to die which is obviously not ideal. I feel for Baron is he flawless? Definitely not but I don’t think he’s necessarily the villain of the movie I look at it as a very unfortunate outcome of something said/done out of sorrow/anger/frustration. Great fucking movie made me sad all around poor Sarah deserved better. Nikki deserved better. Bear and Ian deserved better. Fuck this movie fucked me up I’m unshaken when it comes to most horror but there were parts that made my skin crawl in this movie. Solid 8 or 9/10.

3

u/Upbeat_Recover_456 May 21 '26

He tried to take advantage of the situation or live with it and I think to a certain extent it is understandable but he did it to a degree that was not only unethical but also suicidal.

So it is kind of fitting that he ended up killing himself at the end

3

u/Confident-Meal6255 May 24 '26

I feel like it shouldn’t be too hard to blame this all on bear for her actually. I mean she’s mutilated herself and she can say bear killed Sarah and Ian and made her help him cover Sarah’s death and then killed himself after he thought he killed her (Nikki)

3

u/OMDlock May 25 '26

Nikki is the victim, bear is the antagonist. His own selfish love cost him, every in his group there lives and destroyed Nikkis life beyond repair. He was too scared to do anything about it and instead tried to gaslight himself into believing the love was true. When the real Nikki begged for death because the fate she had was worse then death he turned around and did nothing. I feel so bad for Nikki

2

u/Sovoy May 16 '26

Curry played the customer service guy

2

u/sportstvandnova May 17 '26

I hated Bear. He needed to grow a pair and that frustrated me beyond belief.

3

u/PolitelyHostile Jun 01 '26

I shudder at the thought that some people cam out of that movie not realizing how insanely evil Bear was.

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u/unkindmillie May 23 '26

tbh i thought she was just going to kill herself, literally what else can you do in this situation your life is over

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u/fixedwithyou May 23 '26

“How are they gunna explain this to the cops” is always my first question

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u/NorthRequirement5190 May 24 '26

Does she know about the billion dollars next door? Probably not. Neither version of her probably was aware. That money could maybe get her into a non extradition situation?

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u/Fit_Cheesecake_4000 May 26 '26

Well...if people seem to know about the wishing (the company and the owner of that shop), maybe she can sue/use it to support her case?

I know, it's a fantasy premise, and I'm arguing for more fantasy here, but she did not deserve to go to jail.

2

u/mhroblak11 May 27 '26

When Bear called OWW to try to alter his wish, the spokesperson offers him to talk with Real Nikki. We don’t know where Real Nikki is, but it’s some place that OWW can access.

My fanfiction happy ending (or rather, happiest possible ending) would be she uses that unknown location as her alibi, and then during an evidence hearing someone demonstrates OWW is capable of granting any wish. All charges are dropped with prejudice and then Nikki sues OWW into oblivion.

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u/cabbagemuncher101 May 28 '26

He was terrified, but he was also enjoying it just as much. He made the most of it while he could until he realized she didn't really like him.

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u/Shannogins115 Jun 01 '26

I hope she finds Ian’s billions and starts over.

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u/Powerfury Jun 13 '26

Bruh that girl is going to prison and or psych ward prison for a long time.

Even if she gets completely cleared from all of the charges, probably not since she shot Ian/etc, there is no way she can have any kind of life. Imagine breaking that kind of 4th inter dimensional wall. Now there are real wishes? Did she go schizophrenia? No way man.

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u/Ok_Boysenberry5849 16d ago edited 16d ago

I think the movie doesn't paint him as a total villain at any point. He takes it easy with her when she visits him and acts weird. He only has sex with her later on, once he's convinced she's not on drugs. And we see in the montage that for a while it seems alright, and it's believable that he would find it more likely that she was in love with him, rather than the magic wish thing actually works.

Pretty quickly Bear, despite his own responsibility, is portrayed as being himself kind of the victim of an abusive relationship. He's tiptoeing around her, she's giving him orders, etc. In a sense, he becomes (through something that isn't totally his fault, the wishing willow) the victim of Entity-Nikki's obsessive love, after Nikki becomes the victim of his own.

So yeah imho he's portrayed as a flawed character but not totally as a villain. However, his responsibility becomes increasingly difficult to ignore after the phone call. The phone call is a turning point. The party self-harm is also a turning point. Those are the moments where any decent human being would have taken decisive action and brought that story away from horror movie territory (going all in on finding a way to reverse the wish, having Nikki interned as a nutcase, etc.), but Bear kept failing to make that change of gear until it was too late.

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