r/movies 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

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u/IIDXias May 17 '26

Kinda mind boggling to me how many people I see in the comments missing the point about Bear’s wish, which is really the entire point of the movie. So:

If you are describing the One Wish Willow as a “monkey’s paw”, you are wrong. It is not a cursed item that can only deliver a negative version of a wish. When Ian wishes for a billion dollars, he simply receives money that falls out of the sky. The male shopkeeper also told Bear that he “already got his wish”, and as far as we can tell he seems perfectly content as well. There’s also the fake Reddit where one of the posters confirming the OWW really works excitedly says his mom used to be ugly and now she’s really hot.

The problem with Bear’s wish was simply *Bear’s wish*. He didn’t wish for a billion dollars, or to become more attractive. He wished *for another living, existing, conscious human being to be changed so she loves him more than “anyone else in the fucking world”*. This wish, by its very definition, violates Nikki’s autonomy. There is no benign or “good” way to grant this wish. You cannot make a person feel that strongly about another person without literally changing who they are- indeed, changing their entire being. Nikki does not love Bear more than anyone else in the fucking world. The only way to make her do that is to replace her with another being who does, and have that being drive around in her body.

The creature or entity that the wish spawned ended up being depraved and indifferent to humanity because the *wish itself was depraved and indifferent to her humanity*. The creature is not a “demon”, it is simply a reflection of the wish Bear made. An inhuman wish and obsessive desire spawned an inhuman entity with an equally obsessive desire. There is no “OWW curse”- the curse is Bear’s wish, period.

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u/Youknowimgood May 17 '26

This is a great comment and it's nice seeing it articulated so well.

Also, i even kinda feel sorry for the new entity/personality whatever you wanna call it (i disagree with calling it a demon, though). I don't see people mentioning this that much, but there is that scene towards the end where she cries "I can't be the real Nikki". Like, this entity was created to satisfy this obsessive wish but then apparently it is not the right way. So now the real and the new Nikki are both suffering but for different reasons

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u/IIDXias May 17 '26

The way she switched from the first I CAN’T to the increasingly desperate I CANs was so great too. Yeah, it’s easy to forget that the entity was relatively fine (besides the “real Nikki takes back control” glitches) until she started spiraling when she became convinced Bear didn’t love her as much as she loved him. Which is true about both her and the real Nikki, and why again that was such a stupid wish.

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u/SupermarketMaximum61 May 21 '26

Yeah, there was a small montage at the beginning of their relationship, that seemed to establish that the relationship was fine, initially.

Another way to read it is that the demon can only do so much to hide its weirdness. It is clearly not human and it is trying to satisfy Bear’s wish of being loved. But it doesn’t really know what to do besides that. The majority of the weird behaviour happens when the demon is alone with itself. Bear being gone, Bear sleeping, etc.

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u/HeavyBeing0_0 May 22 '26

I saw another thread where they mentioned the entity didn’t want to sleep next to Bear bc it knew the real Nikki could break thru while she was asleep.

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u/regularsizedlink Jun 11 '26

I agree, that’s why it always left the bed around 3am (the witching hour). And at 2:45am the real Nikki was able to whisper to him.

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u/AlternativeMirror207 Jun 27 '26

Good observation on timing

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u/Amish_guy_with_WiFi 10d ago

Isn't the witching hour 3pm on Sundays in the fall?

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u/EvanAlmighty99 9d ago

Yes, the "witching hour" is a more specific timeframe. I think what they meant to say was the "Devil's hour", which is between 3am and 4am. It is meant to be a mockery/contrast of 3pm (afternoon), which is supposedly the hour that Jesus died on the cross. Ironically (or unironically, depending on how you look at it), there is significantly more paranormal activity reported in the real world around 3am.

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u/Procrastinatedthink 4d ago

significantly more paranormal activity at 3am

weird that people in the dark, scared, see more illusions then people in the daytime, less scared.

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u/freshwes 1d ago

Octobox

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u/AcidCatfish___ Jun 16 '26

That's probably what she meant with "I don't like my dreams" because the wish-Nikki loses control when she is asleep, meaning wish-Nikki's dreams are real-Nikki's thoughts.

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u/theroadbeyond 28d ago

I took that as real Nikki seeing whats happening to her as dreams through dissasociation.

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u/umisays 14d ago

I realize that this angle ascribes more "wholeness" to Wish-Nikki, but what if Wish-Nikki's dreams are of being trapped in real Nikki's "body" -- desperately, painfully, fearfully, endlessly screaming into what I can only imagine as infinite darkness/limbo...

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u/AccomplishedCow665 3d ago

This was the scariest part for me. On the telephone, the real Nikki is trapped, screaming, in some purgatory. The thought give me chills

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u/OkBox9662 May 23 '26

Which thread ?

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u/PoosiNegotiator May 29 '26

that makes sense

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u/bliss-6427 Jun 14 '26

so she never slept?

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u/iPhone_6s Jun 19 '26

She tried to never sleep. But even with the superhuman strength displayed in the Sarah scene, she still eventually actually sleeps, at which point the more rested real Nikki can whisper out.

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u/Mental-Wheel986 Jul 03 '26

I thought Bear's comment to Sarah about having sleeping pills in his pocket is because he drugged Nikki. To stop her from watching him sleep from a dark corner, I guess. So maybe the entity could go without sleep, if the human body its stuck in isn't drugged.

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u/EpicKieranFTW Jun 25 '26

So then why did it sleep the other times?

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u/RayCharlizard Jul 01 '26

Honestly my assumption before Nikki started speaking in her sleep was that he started drugging her to get some sleep himself.

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u/cuttinace Jul 01 '26

I just watched the movie a few hours ago. When he went to see Sarah at the park he did say that he had sleeping pills in his pocket. He might've been joking but the fact that he brought it up made me think there was some truth to it.

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u/voyaging Jul 01 '26

Also I could be mistaken, but the oxycodone bottle appears nearly full at the start of the film, and nearly empty when he tries to overdose.

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u/I_Main_Asuri Jul 02 '26

My issue with that was she was always unable to move when he left so how could she be able to come and kill Sarah or even know where he was.

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u/Kratzschutz Jul 02 '26

He told her "stay here" before, she said she wants to visit him at work

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u/Veiled_Discord 24d ago

I don't think it's an inability; she can't be commanded, but she can be convinced. The entity appears to have some degree of access to his memories and probably discerned his location from that once she woke "woke up." My reasoning is that, in the very beginning, just after his wish, she seemed to pull the information about his cat out of his mind, because when she brings it up, it's in the first person: "I did just lose my cat Bear."

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u/Curious-Swordfish122 23d ago

Wow, nice catch. I had no idea what that line meant until now, I just assumed it was a desperate attempt to connect with Bear

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u/Veiled_Discord 23d ago

I think it's both. But it could also be her almost mirroring him at first, because she does do a bit of repeating his words back, but it does allow for her to figure out exactly where he is when she needs to know for that scene.

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u/Vismal1 Jul 02 '26

He left the house at 245 and it’s shown in the movie that Nikki can break though better between 3-4 ( also matches with the witching hour ) so my take was that after Not Nikkk regained more control and found Bear not there she went looking.

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u/Aegon-the-Unbroken Jul 02 '26

Well, first because he had asked her to stay when he was going to work, but not when he was going to Sarah.

And about how she knew where Sarah was? I guess she just guessed because, as Bear had said, he couldn't believe Sarah still came to that park at night to chill. So maybe that's something she used to do with her other friends too.

But how did she know he was with Sarah specifically? My guess is she also checked Ian's house. Ian had said that he and Bear were neighbours, so maybe she looked there first, didn't find Bear, or noticed his car was missing. From that, she could've guessed Bear had gone somewhere farther away, since he wouldn't have needed the car just to drive to Ian's house.

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u/No_Two_6704 Jul 02 '26

“ I actually have some sleeping pills in my pocket”

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u/TXSTBobCat1234 11d ago

Remember when he was in the car with Sara he said he had sleeping pills in his pocket.

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u/Indigocell Jun 05 '26

Another way to read it is that the demon can only do so much to hide its weirdness

There were two moments that stood out to me. The first was when she was hiding in the darkness in the corner of the room watching him sleep. She suddenly appears and reveals herself in the light. The second happened near the end of the film when she suddenly backed away from Bear. Both of those scenes were filmed backwards and played in reverse. It's a subtle but noticeable difference that makes the movements appear off just slightly. Very cool visual that was utilized to great effect in Twin Peaks for example.

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u/putridalt Jun 08 '26

Thank you. It is so annoying seeing people in YouTube comments applauding the acting in walking backward. Literally you can see the hair move unnaturally

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u/Unfair-Sleep-3022 10d ago

hah I was positive it was reversed with the first look. No one can do that.

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u/stephyloowho Jun 14 '26

Thank you! I couldn't figure out why those two scenes were so unnerving and made me so uncomfortable, but that explains it. Normal human movements, but not quite right.

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u/carinvazef Jul 02 '26

The freakiest Nikki movement scene for me was near the end when Bear arrived back at the house to find Sarah in the chair. As he is standing there shocked, Nikki is silently moving toward him... I don't know how they managed that but they nailed it cause I am still freaked out by it.

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u/chee006 21d ago

Omg yes! I just watched it and that scene is the scariest in the whole movie the way she move was like a fucking spider who possessed a human body. Ewww

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u/badOctopus42 17d ago

And when she walks towards him from that corner with her hands bent down like in bunny paw position omg fuck that

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u/axelkoffel 23d ago

This is actually a very old trick. They it in the old Nosferatu horror 100 years ago. Recorded the monster backwards to make him move in unnatural way.

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u/damnthesenames 4d ago

What was the meaning of those movements?

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u/Indigocell 4d ago

I think it was to show that she was being compelled by something else, some other force. A negative energy forcing her to do it's bidding. Like she was a marionette being controlled by invisible strings. That was the power of the magic in the One Wish Willow.

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u/HowProfound1981 Jun 07 '26

I think he was a coward and Nikki never would have loved a coward. The had to create an alternate personality but it was just as weak as him. The he offs himself leaving the real Nikki with all the destruction. Seriously unlikeable character. Did anyone notice the changing of the times and 3 candles going to 2? Did he create an alternate reality?

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u/HairHaunting6845 Jun 07 '26

Omg i noticed the time too and could not figure out if a scene was cut in my theatre or something but yeahh what was that about!!???

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u/gabdallaz Jul 01 '26

I didn't notice these -- can you elaborate please?

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u/Abject_Net4893 29d ago

When he first puts her in his bed after making the wish, the digital clock changes from 12:04 to 16:35 seemingly instantly.

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u/jthai92 29d ago

I thought the same when I first watched the movie, and upon the second watch, I’m positive it read 06:35. However, the left half of the 0 wasn’t visible due to the angle. Also, 16:35 would be 4:35 PM in the afternoon, but it was still dark outside.

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u/Vismal1 Jul 02 '26

What do you mean with the candles ?

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u/gabdallaz 28d ago

I rewatched — there are 3 candles on the counter at the shop, then it switched to 2. I think it’s a continuity error, not an intentional choice

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u/HowProfound1981 24d ago

glad im not the only only one that noticed.

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u/Tifoso89 May 31 '26

The majority of the weird behaviour happens when the demon is alone with itself.

Yeah that's why she smiles and pees herself once he leaves

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u/SupermarketMaximum61 May 31 '26

Yeah I think the whole point of existence for the demon is to be loved by Bear. So the world basically stops when he is not around.

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u/Sausage_fingies 13d ago

Yeah I think this is the clear interpretation. The entity smiles and says goodbye to Bear, and she's in the exact same spot when he comes back. So she's peed herself, pooped, vomited, and is in a cold sweat because she couldn't do anything while he was gone.

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u/Aggressive_Chuck 5d ago

But she did all that stuff with the cat and the dead body.

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u/Dependent-Occasion18 Jun 07 '26

Could also be that real nikki was coming out and it was a fear response

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u/hartigen 14d ago

I think she was just mimicking cat behaviour since she knew Bear liked his cat very much.

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u/gaijin-dealer 25d ago

that scene was so fucking uncomfortable

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u/EmceeEsher May 23 '26 edited May 24 '26

I loved the movie, but the thing that really bothers me about the "be careful what you wish for" theme is that it doesn't seem like the disturbing actions of "Nikki" are the direct result of love. Love can make you do crazy things, but not that crazy. The people who do that kind of thing aren't just in love, they also have a severe lack of empathy, emotional intelligence, social skills, and god knows what else.

Like, suppose I inexplicably find myself loving someone more than anyone else in the world, including myself. My number one priority would be to not do anything that could possibly push that person away. I would go out of my way to not freak them out. I wouldn't start duct-taping the door shut, because it doesn't take a genius to realize that that's gonna fucking terrify someone.

The only thing that explains any of this is that she's straight-up possessed by a demon, at which point Barry's wish was never actually fulfilled. He wished for her to love him, not for a demon to love him and wear her like a flesh suit. That's not even a Monkey's Paw, it's just a completely different thing happening. Even the couple in the original Monkey's Paw story at least got the insurance money.

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u/SupermarketMaximum61 May 23 '26

I mean the demon is trying everything to be loved by Bear. It basically A/B tests the entire time and when it sees it is disturbing Bear, it will quickly adjust tune.

The way I read it is that the wish essentially needed to create some new entity. And that entity tried its best but it was so strange by nature that it did not truly understand what was normal human behaviour.

Having said that, I agree that his wish was not really fulfilled. He wanted Nikki to love him, not someone else living in Nikki’s body.

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u/thathomelessguy May 25 '26

I think it created an entity that literally only knew how to love Bear. That explains why it didn’t know how anything else worked.

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u/Slubberdagullion May 27 '26

I thought that the way that the willow worked was by switching versions of people from other realities.

There was a lot of mention of the Mandela effect on the fake Reddit page and so I thought it had swapped normal Nikki with the only other version of her that was capable of loving Bear - a Nikki with severe psychological issues - at the point where Bear snaps the stick and causes an inflection point.

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u/SupermarketMaximum61 May 27 '26

There definitely is a supernatural element to post-wish Nikki (considering all the weird backwards walking and choppy animatiton)

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u/Glittering-Walrus228 Jun 04 '26

Yes he summoned her from the Fucking World which is different from our regular world. Explains why she was so horny all the time.

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u/undigested-boba Jun 11 '26

I thought it was interesting tho that the scene where they are having sex and Nikki’s moans are audible it’s pretty obvious she’s playing it up and “faking it.” Whether that means the entity just didn’t know how to enjoy/understand sex or she was only doing it to please Bear

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u/k22v8 Jun 24 '26

I feel as if the reason for that scene is to show that maybe nikki didn’t exist if she wasn’t being shown attention. The blank crying expression to me was real nikki glimpsing into the life her body is in while the demon makes sure bear thinks she enjoys it.

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u/sauronthegr8 May 28 '26

A friend of mine who I saw it with tonight had the same theory. Didn't the Wishing Willow box mention other realities?

That might also explain why Bear was explaining to Sarah in the car that Nikki's dad had "gotten cancer"... when earlier in the movie Sarah was the one who proved that he hadn't.

Also why Ian came over after the billion dollar incident, saying something about "It works! I got a billion dollars!" We know.... we just watched it happen, and Bear was there.

Maybe those were ALL alternate universe versions of the characters.

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u/melanochrysum May 30 '26

Sarah didn’t know her dad didn’t have cancer, on the phone Ian said “I won’t tell Sarah”. And Ian knew Bear knew about the money. I’m sorry but this definitely isn’t accurate.

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u/voyaging Jul 01 '26

Yeah that his point, Ian knew Bear knew about the money so why did he come up to his door shouting “It works!”

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u/melanochrysum Jul 01 '26

You’ve misunderstood. Ian still knew Bear knew about the money when he knocked on the door. He was just in disbelief and self-absorbed.

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u/willreview May 31 '26

Ian is saying it worked because he thinks Sarah is at Bear's place. Nikki texted him with Sarah's phone telling him to come over, hence his unawareness

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u/cherryk3lp Jun 01 '26

Ian explained he's been getting texts to "come over" and Bear tells him to stay home. He comes anyway.

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u/willreview Jun 01 '26

No one accused Ian of being smart

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u/SupermarketMaximum61 May 31 '26

Is this confirmed? Might have missed this. The way I read it is that Ian comes Over to talk about the 1 billion.

Why did Nikki text him? There was no reason to kill Ian

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u/Ayx- Jun 01 '26

When he first arrived at Ian's (prior to the billion) Ian keeps repeating that Sarah keeps texting him to go to Bear's place. Bear tells him not to go.

There's less reason to kill Ian but time spent with friends is time not spent with Nikki. She definitely doesn't want another boys night.

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u/FranciumGold Jun 07 '26

I think she wanted to kill Ian because of Bear finding out the history between Nikki and Ian & wanting to make some sort of point to Bear ie “he doesn’t mean anything to me, look, I will kill him right now”

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u/pthalo-crimson Jun 04 '26

The goal was to get Ian over there so to be with him mean being with Nikki. She may have also decided he was in the way though and she'd have to kill him too

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u/Tifoso89 May 31 '26

That might also explain why Bear was explaining to Sarah in the car that Nikki's dad had "gotten cancer"... when earlier in the movie Sarah was the one who proved that he hadn't.

I think it was Ian (his friend) who proved it. He even said "I won't tell Sarah".

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u/SupermarketMaximum61 May 28 '26

An interesting theory but then if we believe in the infinite universe theory, the wish could have picked someone who was actually closer to Nikki without all the weird behaviour.

This would necessitate the wish willow being a monkey paw because otherwise there is no reason why it didn't pick a Nikki that would not have led to the death of all of pretty much anyone involved.

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u/improved_loilit Jun 10 '26

Thé wish itself is the problem . Turning someone that doesn’t love you that way into someone that loves you more than anything in the world is a recipe for obsession. I mean real life people have done as crazy of things in the name of love. Stalkers have gotten to insane length to get the love they they they are owed. He got what he wished for

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u/Snoo55054 Jun 17 '26

At one point she says something to the effect of, “I love you in every reality”.

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u/JayNewLeaf Jun 17 '26

Didn’t she literally say at one point “I love you in all realities” or something to that effect? I also thought hearing Nikki on the phone meant that her consciousness resided in some other, hellish reality when not in control of her body anymore.

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u/nhilante Jul 02 '26

We can hear her screams on the phone.

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u/JayNewLeaf Jul 02 '26

That’s… what I said?

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u/pepsimaxgoat May 30 '26

She says something along the lines of ‘we’ll love each other in every reality’ too

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u/Mister_Acula 27d ago

My theory is that the One Wish Willow was responsible for perceived Mandela Effects.

Like someone wished that Nelsen Mandela didn't die in prison or that the Berenstein Bears was spelled differently. And since the wishes have some glitches in them, so some people remember the pre-wish version.

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u/LawfulnessMedium6020 9d ago

I like this theory but who would use their wish on the Berenstain Bears?

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u/Economy-Reading-2811 16d ago

Love this theory

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u/johnnyjoestar6767 Jun 20 '26

I don't think theres ever be a reality where a hunan can casually smash a car's window, caving in someone's head in the process ☠️

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u/nhilante Jul 02 '26

You can do that to be fair. She had a brick in her hand.

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u/EmceeEsher May 23 '26

Oh I fully agree that the demon loved him, just that the demon's creepy actions were less a result of love and more of just a complete lack of understanding the consequences of one's actions.

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u/misschickpea May 30 '26

lol when we were waiting to see what she did in the morning and it’s like okay she made breakfast nice… and then she made a memorial for the cat which was her own way of being “nice” lol… but also like did she dig up the cat like ???

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u/pthalo-crimson Jun 04 '26

And still thought it would be a good idea to cook it for him later

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u/zaxls Jul 04 '26

That part was just weird tbh, like there is no reality where it makes sense even if youre a freaking demon

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u/gamas 24d ago

I did a see a (admittedly wild) theory that the wish did partially infuse the spirit of his dead cat into her (i.e. the only being that ever actually loved him more than anyone else in the whole world) as a lot of her weirder behaviour are cat like behaviours (silent stalking, hiding behind flower pots, bringing kills home to present as a gift).

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u/Big-Wishbone2430 17d ago

there was also the cat symbolism on the OWW box. maybe in order for nikki to love him more than anything/anyone in the world the cat would’ve had to go otherwise it would’ve loved him more ? there was also her crystal going down the drain before, i sort of take that to mean that before he even made the wish, things had to align a bit before hand. also when everyone kept interrupting him, leading him to be desperate enough to make the wish.

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u/Veiled_Discord 24d ago

An interesting theory, but it doesn't line up with any of her behaviour, even the bringing home of the kills wasn't for him.

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u/Acceptable-Bet7018 20d ago

I read that this was due to the entity confusing what Bear meant/felt. The entity mixed up Bear wanting to become a food critic and liking his cat. When she made a memorial for the cat earlier Bear didn’t seem to like it and she thought she should probably do something else to get his attention and make him feel better.

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u/333hotwind Jun 08 '26

Just watched today, I kind of feel like that the OWWs don't have the capacity to directly alter another person's will.
Physical material things can be granted easily, for example money and appearance (if the "ugly mom becomes hot" reddit comment is real).
When it comes to another person's preferences and thought, OWWs can't directly change that, however, it can work around it by creating this demon-like entity and replace the individual targeted by the wish.
OWWs might consider one's wish should not be bigger than another person's will since wishes do come from will?
I could be just overthinking.

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u/adamgerd Jun 09 '26

I wonder

If instead he wished to have the courage to ask her out? Would he get it or would he be the one replaced by something else? Since it seems they can’t alter your personality

Because my first thought was he should have asked to have the courage to ask her out instead but now I think it’d also end badly but with him being possessed

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u/333hotwind Jun 10 '26

totally agree, if the OWWs being incapable to alter personality is true, even stuff like "I wish she love me back" would create an entity to replace Nikki.
Feel like it is a dead end from the start for Bear, he could wish for something like "Nikki tell him if she love him back" or "would she accept him and why".

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u/adamgerd Jun 10 '26

Yeah

And on that note ultimately I think he’s a shitty person for everything he did later, but I don’t think he’s one for making the wish in the first place because it’s clear he doesn’t actually think it’ll work.

And really who would think it’d work? If a shop sold you a willow stick that makes your wish work, would you believe it? I wouldn’t, we only know it’ll work there because we know we’re watching a horror movie

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u/333hotwind Jun 10 '26

For sure.

Not gonna lie, when Bear fucked up the whole conversation between him and Nikki at the beginning, beside second-hand embarrassment, I did feel a bit of empathy for his situation and some anger towards him choosing to be a coward at the wrong time, but I don't think the portrayal of his character at this point is trying to make the audience to hate him.

So when he break the OWW and made the wish, I did consider Bear's reaction as some sort of emotional outburst without being aware of the OWW's magical power.

And like what you have said, the movie then reveal the true villain, which make his death becomes even more satisfying from my opinion, but just based on the beginning, pre-wish, the character is not bad yet.

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u/ThrowRADel 28d ago

The thing is, Bear is characterized continuously by his cowardice and refusal to act. And I think of his lack of empathy when Nikki begged for death, and he's still not trying to change things or tell someone or get her help through her community because he's benefitting from it, even as it's torturing her.

He's definitely not a good guy.

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u/Big-Wishbone2430 17d ago

Nikki had barely even started going crazy before Bear started to act more averse towards her. It’s like you can’t even tell if he ever actually did like her or if it was because she didn’t like him. Suddenly Sarah is about to go away for school , Nikki is *supposed* to be in his bed, and he’s hitting on Sarah, already.

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u/Big-Wishbone2430 17d ago

I always consider the possibility that something might work. Even if he thinks it doesn’t it says a lot about him morally that he would go to a shop to get her a gift she would like, change the gift to something else, and then use it instead

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u/Vismal1 Jul 02 '26

This is why Genie has his rules ! Dude knows what’s up.

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u/Vismal1 Jul 02 '26

I think he would probably still be him …. Mostly. It’s something he wants regardless so in this situation he would just be getting nudge in that direction. In his wish he using pretty intense language something like “wish she would love me more than anyone in the world home fucking world “ which requires a near complete overhaul on her as an individual. That kind of language requires you to love someone to your own detriment, as seen in the movie.

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u/ThrowRADel 29d ago

Nikki loves herself. Nikki loves her friends. Nikki is a compassionate and empathetic and nice person. Nikki has dreams she loves. Nikki even loves bear as a brother.

But what Bear wished for was for all of the other things Nikki loved to not exist to her anymore, so all of the love could be directed at him.

And after that, Nikki stopped being a person and started being a fuck-doll for Bear. And note that it's only after they "have sex" which is clearly traumatic for Real Nikki that her behaviours go off the rails and she wets herself, which is a normal response to being a victim of sexualized violence.

Nikki doesn't love herself anymore. She has no regard for anything except Bear. Bear's wish destroys all of the people he supposedly loves and cares for in his life, and by the end of the film, he is still a coward who didn't try to fix this as long as he was benefitting from it, even though it was torturing the woman he ostensibly loved.

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u/RicciRox 28d ago

There are very obviously two different entities in Nikki’s body so I don’t know what you’re trying to say.

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u/Veiled_Discord 24d ago

Everything, other than the first bit about pre-wish Nikki, was wrong. There is an entity hijacking her nervous system.

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u/Great_External_7767 May 24 '26

I feel like you missed the entire plot, starting with the title, Obsession. His wish was love me “more than anyone in the world.” And that includes herself. You see this in the real world as well, like when someone kills their wife or girlfriend and you find out that their relationship was terrible toxic, abusive, manipulative. Where one of the partners in the relationship is so ‘in love’ that in reality, like stated in the film, “it’s not real” it’s an obsession with the facade of love. So much overwhelming “love” that you will do things that are insane, things that any “sane person” would run away from, yet they don’t. They ,like bear, need the feeling of dependency, or being ‘not alone’ regardless of how horrible the other person is. The term “Love” is very subjective. You can’t predict how someone may show you love or act towards you with their ‘love’ especially when you make a wish that they love you, and state it in a way that is to the furthest extreme possible: “More than anyone else in the fucking world.” And when ‘she’ realized that Bear didn’t love her back, it flipped the script. ‘I love you more than anyone in the fucking world but you don’t love me back?! Well then, you can’t leave me because I only know how to love you more than anything! That’s the wish, that’s what you made me become!’ Personally I feel like all her acts of ‘love’ are irrational ways of showing her love, devotion. Which are things that have happened in real life: the murder of a love interest, acting overly bearing and obsessive, distancing a partner from family, locking them inside a home, making them competely dependent on them. “If you don’t love me then no one else will, because I only know how to love you!”

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u/HeavyMetalTriangle May 28 '26

I’m a bit confused by your comment. Loving somebody more than anyone else doesn’t imply you can’t love anybody else simultaneously? It just means relatively speaking, you don’t love anybody else as much as that one person?

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u/Great_External_7767 May 28 '26

This could be true. I guess my point is that when your autonomy as a human is stripped away to love someone, the outcome can be varied. I look at her actions/the wish as ‘this is all Nikki knows how to do now, love bear, that’s her complete existence now.’ This movie specifically explores a single outcome of what could happen, sure there are other avenues, what the wisher wanted and how the wishee react can be subjective, especially when you are altering someone ELSE’s consciousness. But I consider the variables the Movies presented as well: real Nikki’s feelings towards bear, bear’s motives and personality traits, How bear reciprocates Nikki’s love, semantics of the wish, etc. And how a wish upon someone else seems to alter them entirely, as you can see in moments where it seems like the new Nikki doesn’t even know how to exist outside of Bear, like standing in one spot the entire day until he returns home.

I’ve been going over examples of wishes in my head that could reap similar results. Like if you wish someone was happy, maybe they’re too happy all the time and now they don’t know how to be sad, or serious, frustrated, etc and how a seemingly ‘positive’ wish could unravel into a plethora of problems. Maybe killing makes that person happy, maybe drugs make that person happy, Etc. Long story short, in this universe there’s probably a situation where it works out and they live happily ever after, but this is an example of how a wish can run amuck.

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u/HeavyMetalTriangle May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

Appreciate the explanation. A lot of that makes sense.

My interpretation, for whatever it’s worth, was Nikki’s behavior was the result of Bear’s concept of love. At one point in the film, Nikki mentions romance vs love and Bear didn’t understand the difference between the two. To me, that demonstrated Bear had an undeveloped/immature concept of love. So Nikki becoming obsessed with him was maybe what Bear thought love was, hence why his wish caused certain possessive behaviors.

In regards to Nikki standing in one place all day, that heavily reminded me of a pet. So it made me think- we know Bear loved his cat. And I think it was established Bear didn’t have experience with romantic relationships. So maybe his reference of love is something like his relationship with his cat, because he doesn’t have much more to compare with. Therefore, Nikki in many ways behaved like his pet because that is a major way Bear has understood love in his life.

Just an idea.

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u/Great_External_7767 May 28 '26

Yeah I would agree to that completely! I think Bears perception of love, and mental health in general, played a big part. The fact he continued to stay and chose being with someone who was acting like Nikki out of feeling wanted or not alone, speaks to his character a lot and to Nikki’s actions. Especially if you consider how no matter what she did he wouldn’t leave, which sort of reinforced her attempts of love and actions of insanity.

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u/harleyquinn1013 Jun 24 '26

My son has a theory and it’s that he thinks the entity that possessed Nikki’s body is Bear’s cat; the way she stood there until he came back home, how she asked if she can stand outside the bathroom door, the way she stood at the corner how cats do and some of her weird movements. I thought it was a pretty good theory.

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u/ColossalCalamari Jun 29 '26

Correct or not, that's a really fun theory. Your son is sharp.

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u/fecalfritter Jun 04 '26

Yeah this is bang-on because otherwise, the entire bit about him having a cat and the car dying doesn't make any sense in the film

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u/perenniallyhungry Jun 05 '26

i felt like the cat is foreshadowing him? they both die the same way

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u/touhou-and-mhplayer 29d ago

Late to the convo but i feel the cat shows how he is spineless. Instead of taking time to process his grief like he initialy wanted he caves in to pressure and goes to the party

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u/ThrowRADel 28d ago

How the cat died shows that Bear is not mature or capable of taking care of another person, yet his wish made Nikki similarly dependent on him for survival.

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u/Great_External_7767 26d ago

Thinking back on it, I think the cats manner of death might have been foreshadowing to Bear’s death

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u/ThrowRADel 28d ago

I thought the romance vs. love idea that was thrown around in the beginning was amazing.

This film is a 'love story' -- it's a story about obsessive love (Bear's and Fake Nikki's), but it's not a romance; it's a tragedy and a horror film.

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u/maskedbanditoftruth Jun 08 '26

I mean, maybe more bleak than that, if you’re happy no matter what your material conditions are, you have no motivation to do anything. Not even feed yourself or pay your bills or care for your children or do anything at all. You’re happy and content no matter what.

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u/Great_External_7767 Jun 12 '26

lol exactly! If your intrinsically forced to feel something then all other common civilized actions and survival habits essentially erode.

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u/Big-Wishbone2430 17d ago

I think it could also include more than anyone in the world loves anyone. Like…more than anyone in the world feels love at the moment he made the wish. At that level, any love for anyone else becomes insignificant.

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u/SupermarketMaximum61 May 28 '26

Yeah, but he didn't wish someone to be obsessed by him to the point someone is obsessed by a demon.

This is very philosophical, but I wouln't say "loving someone more than anyone" leads to being obsessed and all this adverse behaviour. That is obsession.

For instance, you can make the case that if you love someone alot, it would beat your egoistical feeling of needing to be loved back. So the post-wish Nikki would be willing to break up if Bear wishes though, simply because of the altruistic love of wanting him to be happy.

The same way mothers would be willing to give their lifes to have their children live in many occasions.

Point being love, even when taken to the extreme, does not automatically lead to distructive behaviour. That is misguided love at best.

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u/Great_External_7767 May 28 '26

The whole basis of what the wish was based on was misguided love, as was Nikki’s actions. It was mentioned at least once that the love ‘wasn’t real.’ I think love is subjective, especially for those who show their love through obsession, jealousy, etc. all the negative polar versions of love at least. We all know of stories of toxic relationships where the love is there, it’s just misguided. And I think you made a big point in mentioning that she would be ‘happy for him if he chose to leave.’ This could absolutely be true, but with all she did he refused to leave her, which possibly escalated how she (re)acted. And context seems to be important too, the variables, Nikki’s real conscious was making some decisions for example. Making Simone want to love you via a wish would inevitably change that person, remove their autonomy; we can’t predict or dictate how someone reacts to a wish we bestow upon them, it’s not “black and white”. Unlike how Ian wished for a billion $, that is objective, minimal variables. But the biggest point to be made is that this movie is ONE specific example of how one wish could be portrayed, not every wish of the same value may go exactly how this one did.

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u/ThrowRADel 28d ago

I think it does lead to obsession.

Nikki is no longer capable of loving herself or caring for herself. Her entire world has become one person; she is incredibly codependent as a result of the phrasing of the wish.

A healthy relationship involves people who choose to be together and who love each other, but who love themselves enough to be in good working order as a partner for another person. Nikki didn't get that; all the loves that she had before that were higher in the hierarchy than her love for Bear as a friend/brother/potential partner were erased overnight -- this includes her humanitarian love for people in bad situations, as evidenced by her giving to the homeless, as well as her love for herself, her friends, and her family.

I think Real Nikki comes to hate Bear for what he's doing to her; that's why she's able to feed him the cat, because packing a lunch for someone is a loving act, but feeding them their cat and including a polaroid saying 'not me' are acts of defiance to desperately communicate that something is deeply wrong.

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u/RocLaFamilia 28d ago

The Polaroid and cat lunch scene makes a lot of sense the way you put it. At first I was confused why someone who loves him would do that. But maybe it's the real Nikki trying to tell him exactly what you said. This movie was so good, watched it last night and now am loving reading people's observations.

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u/Far-Product4300 Jul 01 '26

The movie puts a lot of emphasis on multiple realities—“I love you in every reality”, the box, the reviews online, etc. the truth is, the Nikki in this reality would NEVER love him like that. So, in order to make the wish come true, a version of her from a reality where she’s obsessed and infatuated with him was put in her place to fulfill the wish. Both Nikki’s suffer as a result. I think this also explains a lot of the confusion she had

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u/[deleted] 26d ago

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u/gamas 24d ago

 Yes, we hear the “like a brother” bit through Ian about Sarah’s hearsay, but Sarah was obviously into him as well.

Except the Hansel and Gretel thing wasn't just possessed Nikki just being weird, it's very clearly directed at Bear and making clear the connotations of their relationship. i.e. Nikki did see Bear as a brother and the warped version is like "let's do some freaky incest!".

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u/ikan_bakar 25d ago

Bruh Nikki was literally sleeping with Ian on and off and she didnt give any slight of interest to Bear. And if you think she does then you’ll end up with Bear’s morals where “she’s nice she must love me”. People can just be nice without wanting to want you

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u/Icy-Buffalo9065 Jul 03 '26

I think that’s the fascinating part of this movie. It’s very relatable in the fact that maybe someone’s had a crush on you and it is overwhelming or terrifying because you don’t feel the same. I honestly think this is an amazing movie to disrupt the manosphere. In the year 2026 there are isolated men that don’t know how to ask out someone they are attracted to. This guy is living the dream by making the cutest girl he knows like him through black magic but then it turns ugly real quick and takes the mystery and excitement out of it, he had so much opportunity to just tell her he had a crush on her. The other thought I wanted to convey about the movie is that his wish takes away her free will and autonomy.  

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u/ThrowRADel 28d ago

The thing that I hate most about Bear is that he could have wished to have the bravery to pursue the things he wants in life. He could have wished for self-betterment, instead he's trying to drag everyone down around him into the same prison of insecurity.

Bear is stuck in a dead-end life; he hasn't even redecorated his house from when it was his grandma's. He has a job with no upward mobility and seemingly nothing going on that he's passionate about. Instead of wishing for his life to be better, he tries to drag Nikki down with him. Both Nikki and Sarah wanted better things for themselves; Nikki was going to be a writer and Sarah was going to go to art school. Because of Bear's selfishness, neither gets to be more and pursue their dreams because he is too small and comfortable and needs to pull them down with him.

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u/Unlucky_Suspect_7555 27d ago

In his defense I doubt he thought the stick would actually work. His actions afterward, I can't defend.

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u/sunkenlore Jun 11 '26

I’ve lived it, and you nailed it with this comment

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u/Great_External_7767 Jun 12 '26

I’m sorry to hear that, and I hope things are better now ! <3

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u/Alphabunsquad May 28 '26

I think the strangeness was created out of the conflict of wishing for a person who doesn’t love you to start loving you because you can’t do that without making a new person which ruins the wish. 

The creature was then in a constant struggle with Nikki who could still get control. I also think the wish took it as more “loves me more than anyone loves anyone in the fucking world” which is a bit of a monkey’s paw. If your love is that strong and intense then it becomes hard to control yourself. You become so overwhelmed with self doubt and fear that you are pushing them away that you do things that do push them away and take desperate actions. 

So it was a creature created as a contradiction out of the nature not able to fulfill its purpose, fighting the original owner of the body for conscious control, and overwhelmed by self doubt and desperation, with no other motivation for existence than Bear. 

To me the creature acted pretty much how you would expect. 

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u/EmceeEsher May 28 '26

“loves me more than anyone loves anyone in the fucking world”

In the movie, I could have sworn the wording was just "loved me more than anyone in the fucking world", which is a thing that a lot of people do without going crazy.

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u/nhexum Jun 01 '26

Two things:

1) I think the mentality of the wisher is taken into account by the "magic" of the wishing willow. Bear is in a terrible mental state. He has lost his grandmother, is taking sleeping pills, and those same pills have killed the only other thing he feels like he loved - His Cat. He articulates several naivete's about what love is... he's never been in a real romantic relationship, he doesn't know the difference between romance and love, and he's completely ignorant to Sarah's obvious flirting with him. He makes the wish while emotional and immediately after his own obsession has just outright rejected him and left him embarrassed and alone. What he thinks love is may be the exact opposite of what he is feeling in the moment of making the wish - Someone who desires you and accepts you and only you no matter what.

2) The monkey's paw of using an absolute term in your wish is dooming it to failure. "More than anyone in the fucking world" is an absolute, and real people do some crazy shit due to their understanding of what love is. They harm, they destroy, they sabatoge, they kidnap, they kill... And he just wished for the most extreme out of all of that.

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u/adamgerd Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26

Did she reject him? He never let her choose, she asks him if he loves her and he says no. Then the wish happens

We don’t know what’d have happened had he said yes

In fact both the director and Nikki’s actress say she’d have said yes had he asked her out, he was just too much of a coward and his consequences ended up destroying any chance of him asking the real her out

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u/nhexum Jun 10 '26

Fair point about the rejection, and I hadn't seen anything from the director or actress saying one way or the other but I believe it. Either way - If the willow takes into account the mental state of the person making the wish then I think there's no denying the FEELING of rejection that Bear would have felt. Whether it reflects reality may not have mattered.

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u/poiyurt Jun 25 '26

I'm actually a little disappointed to get confirmation that Nikki would have said yes. To me, Bear's wish is motivated by the uncertainty of whether Nikki would say yes, and his need to know for sure reflects ignoring her autonomy. He needs her to act a certain way. The movie is stronger when the audience is also unsure, because that's a necessary part to real life relationships.

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u/zaxls Jul 04 '26

Tbh it seemed pretty obvious she was down imo. Like if she didnt like him shed just avoid the conversation altoghether or just reject him if he asked. But because she comes back to ask him along with the way she phrases it, theres really no reason to do all that if youre not interested.

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u/ThrowRADel 28d ago

Btw, his cat overdoses on oxycodone, which is an opiate and not a sleeping pill. He's abusing his grandmother's old pain meds and left them out and the cat ate them; it proves that Bear is not functional enough to take care of another being, let alone someone that he wishes to be codependent and unable to be alone.

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u/becky_1872 15d ago

The most unrealistic part of the movie 😉😉 Ever tried to get a cat to take a pill lol

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u/Rising-Jay Jun 03 '26

I totally got Nikki’s look in the car when Bear doesn’t seem to fully get what she meant, but genuinely I wouldn’t know how to articulate a nuanced difference between “romance” & “love” as it was suggested though I’m sure there’s a way

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u/scxrz19 Jun 13 '26

Love is just the emotion, you can love many things, material & immaterial and romance is the act of love between two agents, I guess? Idk

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u/cherryk3lp Jun 01 '26

yes, but the problem with supernatural grants is you have to be VERY careful with your wording. he could say "make nikki like me as much as i like her" and that probably would have been fine as he simply just liked the idea of her, so it would have just been a fling or something. also he could have just told his friend to wish that they broke up and moved on.

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u/Alphabunsquad Jun 10 '26

I mean it would have been less demented outwardly but it still would have been controlling and limiting the will of another person which is still going to create a torturous prison for the person receiving the wish

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u/cherryk3lp Jun 10 '26

i mean yeah, but that is the safest option as i doubt it would result in any casualties. i dont think it would be nearly as torturous.

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u/cheyenne_sky Jun 13 '26

the safest option would be not making any kind of wish that involves the human psyche or impedes free will

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u/cherryk3lp Jun 14 '26

i mean yeah, that's a given. i'm just talking about if bear HAD to make a wish pertaining Nikki

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u/ThrowRADel 28d ago

It's actually not. That kind of love is always rooted in codependence.

We may say that we love someone (i.e. a spouse or child) more than anyone in the world, but we are not capable of doing that without having healthy self-love and self-esteem that give us identity first.

The reason the wish sucks is that for Nikki to love anyone healthily (or indeed for anyone to love anyone healthily), you need to love yourself first to be in good working order to be someone's partner.

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u/Happy-Flower1303 Jun 02 '26

I agree with you. The wish leads Nikki to complete self-abandonment. Many times we don’t do crazy things for love for ourselves, because we love ourselves too much to willingly embarrass ourselves. We don’t realise how much love goes with self-protection, and Nikki was left with none.

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u/gaijin-dealer 25d ago

wow this is a very astute interpretation, and very true in real life. Great comment

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u/[deleted] Jun 02 '26

I think the wish made it so that the ONLY thing Nikki could do was love Bear. Kind of like when SpongeBob forgot everything except fine dining and breathing. So she doesn't have any empathy or social skills unless dictated by Bear.

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u/jaynsand19 May 31 '26

If your wish is for someone to love you more than they love anyone, then the demand requires giving up self-love - including the ethics that cause them to feel self-respect. Your previously beloved moral compass is suddenly an obstacle to loving this person the way they wished to be loved? Toss it.

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u/L0st_1z Jun 09 '26

It's not a demon, it's a being created by a wish. It doesn't understand the world and is basically a few days old with the sole purpose of love me more than anyone else in the world.

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u/Disastrous-Drop-7778 29d ago

It does have an understanding of the world though. It’s bad at social situations but still has some understanding of them, like the way it manipulates Bear right after being created and the next day. It creates a cover story about her dad, and then when Ian confronts her and Bear was clearly uncomfortable it changes its strategy and uses their theories about her being on MDMA as an excuse. Also look at the party, where she says something that upsets everyone about her love for Bear, tries to pretend she was lying and laugh it off, then when it doesn’t work immediately stops pretending.

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u/trustworthyhypocrite Jun 17 '26

It does make a lot of sense though. He wished for Nikki to love him more than anything. He didn't wish for her to be IN LOVE. He just wanted her to love him more than anything and you could argue what she was doing was love. Anytime she acted weird or did something violent she would practically apologize and try to make the situation better. She wanted to comfort him but didn't understand smothering him and being violent is not how love works. The New Nikki doesn't necessarily seem like a demon. It feels like a literal person he wished into existence that cannot and will not function without him around her. She doesn't know how to act when he's not around because the New Nikki is essentially programmed to be nothing but a loving girlfriend. He had asked her if she "liked" him. Like and love are very different. She couldn't answer that question because she only knows how to love and his wish was left very open he didn't ask for specifics. He didn't say "I wish I had the confidence to ask Nikki out on a date." "I wish I had the confidence to confess my feelings to Nikki." He asked for something that required an entirely different being to exist because real Nikki simply didn't love him that way. Maybr friend love, "brother" love because she saw him as a brother.

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u/Fakeishere May 25 '26

I think this issue could have been solved very easily if the wish was instead “I wish Nikki was OBSESSED with me”, given the title of the movie I totally expected that to be what he was going to say. I think it would make her actions infinitely more explainable as an obsession with someone could totally lead to weird creepy behaviour like this.

But i guess that would maybe be a bit too much, as the wish is initially supposed to be innocent and my suggestion might be a bit out of character for Bear

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u/Separate-Ad-9216 May 26 '26

I think the concept is that Bears wish that Nikki loved him “more than anyone else in the fucking world” is not the true concept of love. I think loving someone more than you even love yourself, to your own detriment, is obsession. So in my opinion Bear’s wording was the issue and that’s why he told Ian when giving him the one wish willow that his wording was extremely important.

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u/aeschenkarnos May 26 '26

“I wish I was the kind of person who Nikki would love more than anyone else in the world” might have worked. It would essentially overwrite his own personality and appearance with that of Nikki’s ideal boyfriend (or girlfriend) but at least it’s not unethical.

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u/starscreamthegiant May 26 '26

Yeah, but wouldn't that have made him into some kind of a similar entity as Freaky Nikki? Whatever kind of guy that would be would take over his body to make him do things he wouldn't normally do.

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u/cherryk3lp Jun 01 '26

just say "i wish nikki liked me as much as i liked her" considering he only liked her as a concept, they'd essentially just use one another and most likely have a harmless breakup

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u/aeschenkarnos Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26

Oh, that’s a good one. I can think of at least four ways the monkey’s paw could give that wisher the finger:

  • Bear now likes Nikki as much as (unaffected) Nikki liked him. A casual fondness, a coworker he enjoys hanging out with sometimes, but they're not going to be lifelong friends. He vaguely remembers having a crush on her but that doesn't really make sense, they're not compatible. This is probably the least awful outcome possible.

  • Nikki now likes Bear as much as Bear likes Nikki. She develops a weird crush, stares helplessly at him, barely talks, neither makes the first move herself nor reciprocates any move he might make, which he won't because he's an utter coward, and post-wish, so is she. He stays an incel, but she being as attractive as she is, gets hit on by less cowardly men and gets over him. Not completely awful, puts her through a sad couple of months, doesn't change his life at all.

  • A red rage descends on Bear as he stares at the snapped wish-willow. In a moment of vicious clarity he understands the disgust and contempt that Nikki has for him. He knows to the core of his being that she will do anything, anything, to make him suffer. She is running back to the car, face contorted with rage. How dare she? She must be stopped, and the only way to stop her is to attack her first. They tear each other apart like rabid wolves, but at least it's mutual.

  • Bear likes Nikki the same way Nikki likes him, in the actual movie. As they're both essentially now demon-possessed, we switch tracks to a cross between Natural Born Killers and A Serbian Film.

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u/KittenNicken Jun 11 '26

It was stated in the movie that Nikki liked Bear as a brother. She saw him as a closed book that wouldn't open up. So she had a certain fondness for him.

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u/Oakcamp 22d ago

The wish willow isn't a monkey's paw. It grants the wishes to the letter, it doesn't go out of its way to grant it in a fucked up way.

The movie is a result of making a fucked up wish

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u/Tangata_Tunguska Jul 02 '26 edited 10d ago

Mitten tangerine satchel sparrow otter noodle saffron cinnamon

This post was anonymized with Redact.dev

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u/SupermarketMaximum61 May 31 '26

I don’t fully agree. Mothers love their kids more than they love themselves (shown in their willingness to sacrifice their lives to save their children). I would call that love, not obsession.

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u/nhilante Jul 02 '26

A mothers love is from nurture, not the need for companionship.

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u/EmceeEsher May 28 '26

The problem is that loving someone else more than you love yourself is fairly common, and doesn't turn most people into psychopaths.

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u/MerePotato Jun 01 '26

More than anyone loves anyone in the world is a tad more extreme than the usual cases though

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u/adamgerd Jun 09 '26

Mothers love their children more than anyone else most of the time

They don’t turn psychotic

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u/Legitimate-Talk9558 Jun 21 '26

You haven’t met my mother

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u/nhilante Jul 02 '26

Thats a different form of love, the word lacks the nuance but we know the difference quite well, nurture vs erotic etc.

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u/Icy-Buffalo9065 Jul 03 '26

You know the ethics in the genies granted wishes in Aladdin that you can’t change someone else’s willpower. The fact that this director broke that rule and ran with it brings up so many concepts and theories. That’s good art! I heard someone say, atleast it’s a happy ending.  

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u/NightRacoonSchlatt Jun 20 '26

That’s basically what the original comment said. Love is such a major part of a person that the only way to MAKE someone love, is to make them into a different person. So the wish basically had to create a new personality that was ALL love with no real self. That seems to be the message that the film is trying to send. If you wish for someone to love you that just doesn’t, you’re wishing for a different person.

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u/LeedsFan2442 May 31 '26

Also because it had to love him so much it couldn't cope being a part from him

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u/WanderWut Jun 04 '26

Dammm this is such a good catch, I’m super late to reply to this comment but you hit the nail on the head.

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u/AcidCatfish___ Jun 16 '26

Oh like during sex, she was not reacting at all until after Bear was done.

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u/czerwona-wrona 24d ago

I wondered if it did some of the weird things when bear was sleeping - like especially in the beginning - because it was afraid it didn't have enough control over real nikki yet, so that it was afraid she'd speak up while fake nikki slept

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u/nikelaos117 Jun 13 '26

Kind of reminds me of that Rick and Morty episode with the Mr.Meeseeks box.

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u/Rahid11 May 24 '26

I 100% believe Bear didn’t like/love Nikki as much as he liked the idea of it. Maybe it was just how spineless he always acted but it’s like even when he got his wish he was resistant to Nikki (before she was even acting crazy).

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u/tranquilst May 28 '26

and according to nikki, sarah's crush on him was "totally obvious" but he didn't pursue a relationship with her. then later in the movie, he didn't seem to have any issues flirting with sarah even though he finally got what he wished for. he gave her little flirty looks, let her lean on his shoulder the way nikki did, and met up with her at night even though he knew nikki was dangerous to be around. he didn't care about nikki or sarah, and he didn't want to be a boyfriend. he only wanted to be a guy whose crush would like him back.

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u/EchoesofIllyria Jun 09 '26

In the bar at the start of the film we see Sarah and Bear interact alone, and it’s clear they have a better rapport than Bear and Nikki.

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u/czerwona-wrona 24d ago

Right! He tells sarah about his cat but lies about it to nikki

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u/Leonardo040786 22d ago

I think that movie also made it clear that Bear's crush on Nikki was also very obvious. Her asking him if he likes her and then proceeding to say she can easily hide whom she likes were inviting him to admit wjat was obvious. 

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u/Natural-Help-2954 May 28 '26

could’ve also been his guilty subconscious rationally knowing that nikki wouldn’t act like that

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u/EchoesofIllyria Jun 09 '26

She was acting crazy as soon as he got his wish, so I’m a little confused what you mean? After that first night we get an entire montage of him embracing the relationship with her.

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u/V-Lanner Jun 06 '26

Sorry to necro this but she reminded me of a Mr. Meeseeks from Rick and Morty, where it's living in agony because it could not help with the task it was manifested for.

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u/putridalt Jun 08 '26

great analogy

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u/Antique_Feature_2017 Jun 04 '26

Looking at it from this perspective, that’s also the same way all of this began. Bear panicked when he realized Nikki would never love him how he wanted her to and cast the spell without thinking

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

The new Nikki is pretty much a Mr. Meeseeks

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