violence enthusiast

i also enjoyed how the film showed what everyday violations of consent can look like…media often shows the most obvious, often-dramatized occurrences of it, but this depicted a more common way of it showing up.

bear did indeed take advantage of nikki while she was in a mentally unstable state. he was well aware her consent was compromised. all the while he is very insecure about it, knows what he is doing, becomes aware even that nikki is aware and it is hurting her, continues doing it. i love that this film names this. it even critiques “not like the other girls” anti-feminism through sarah, who sees it as nikki taking advantage of bear…then she ironically tries to take advantage of bear’s vulnerable state herself by coming onto him.

also on a smaller note nikki’s batshit incestuous gorey hansel and gretel story had great prose i enjoyed it. my partner pointed out that before the wish, nikki saw bear as a little brother figure. meaning the hansel and gretel thing very well could have come from real feelings of disgust, like it nearly feels like an incestuous relationship to her.

and the ENDING. a lesser film would have insisted that, in these circumstances where the wish can only be broken if one of them dies, the male lead must survive between the two. but there was no self sacrifice from nikki out of “love”, there was no moment of lucidity or jealousy or rage where she kills herself, bear is forced by the narrative to take full responsibility for what he has done to nikki. what’s more— he reaches for a gun, almost uses it, ultimately decides on overdosing on pills. my partner and i personally think this was intentional commentary on masculinity, by having bear consider, then reject, the way men typically choose suicide in favor of the way women typically choose it. just a fun detail and maybe we’re both batshit.

The gender commentary of this film from a variety of angles, all centered on the perverse corruption of desire via the sense of entitlement that an impotent man feels and enforces onto the objectified woman of his desires, all for the facsimile of a relationship where Nikki’s autonomy does not matter and which only ever existed in Bear’s wish-altered reality.

The fact that all the above is true, and Bear is objectively in the wrong for his violation of Nikki’s selfhood, and he’s still a completely normal guy. Like he’s terrible but he’s very mundane. He’s got his own issues, as implied by his very living situation and how he handles emotional situations. The fact that he does love Nikki becomes warped into this passivity that lets him continue to be in this “relationship” that he doesn’t even want- the movie does after all make distinct a love story and a romance story, and love can be horrific.

The obsession in the movie isn’t about Nikki, despite her more overt actions and cries for help driving the scares and dramatic scenes, it’s the fact that Bear was so obsessed with Nikki that he let everything spiral so far out of control to the detriment of everyone in his life, including the one he thought he loved most, for ultimately very selfish reasons.

Also I personally adore splatterpunk, so Im gonna give some of my favs, which are tamer than the norm (Im gonna stray from those that "suck" objectively like Beauregard's books, even if I do enjoy them myself!): Fluids by May Leitz, Gone to see the river man by Kristopher Triana (the first part of a series, I haven't read any other books tho, but this one is infuriatingly good), The divine farce by M. Graziano (its short, i finished it two days and im a slow reader), Things have gotten worse since we last spoke by Eric LaRocca (this one is not as terrifying as I thought it was gonna be, but then again I have consumed splatterpunk for years so take my reactions with a grain of salt!) aaaand thats what I can remember rn!

Hope this helped ! If it doesnt then.... idk smite me down zeus style heh!