Sad Spook

to me, the main focus of the movie is on bear and his selfishness. he puts himself and what he wants above everyone, including nikki.

when bear wishes for nikki to love him more than anyone else in the world, this could mean that he wants her to love him more than she loves anyone else, but his wish could also be interpreted as wanting her to love him more than anyone else loves him. and because no one loves bear as much as bear loves bear (after all, the only person who’s ever gonna care about us and our lives as much as we do is—well—ourselves), he almost wishes for her to become him. this not only fits nicely with the theme of men seeing women or potential romantic partners as an extension of themselves, an accessory or their own desires reflected back at them, but it was also what was coming across to me in the moment where nikki says that her cat died—before remembering it was actually bear’s. in order to outdo his own selfishness in the love contest, she actually becomes him for a moment. she feels his pain and experiences his life as if it is her own.

Stratt: I don’t have the time or emotional capacity to be sad or stressed about this.

Stratt: GRACE!

Grace: On it!

like that kind of "you didn't need magic, you could've gotten what you want the honest way" dramatic irony can be effective and i see why a lot of writers use it for "be careful what you wish for" plots like these, but i love that Obsession is like, "no. she doesn't like you like that. there is no version of this where you end up dating her, and you need to get over it."

it must have been equally terrifying for her as it was for the real nikki to have someone else fight for control over what she perceived as her body. the scene where she's sobbing in the corner, terrified of her dreams is now more sad than terrifying to me. real nikki, who has just been raped by her once best friend hurting so badly that it seeps into entity!nikki's nightmares. entity!nikki who doesn't understand why the thing she wanted so badly is causing her so much pain. why she can't bring herself to lie in bed next to the man who is the center of her world.

and the worst part is bear doesn't even seem to like her. she's trying so so hard; she made a lovely memorial for his dead cat, she waited for him to come home all day without moving an inch, she made sure to be the most doting girlfriend at the party, and he's not pleased by any of it. he seems disturbed and angry and scared and she has no idea what to do to make it better. to make it worse, he keeps asking her to behave like the original nikki but he was the one who wished for her!! she can't be like nikki because nikki was simply not capable of loving bear even a fraction of how much she does!

she can't seem to reconcile it; he wanted her so badly he conjured her into reality and now he doesn't want her anymore. she doesn't know what to do. she tries everything. she obsesses over him, she threatens to hurt herself, she gets rid of that bitch sarah who keeps distracting him and trying to steal him away, and then dresses in her clothes for good measure and he still doesn't want her.

and then finally in a fit of desperation, she makes the wish and for one beautiful moment its all perfect. he's finally looking at her the way she looks at him. and then he's dead and she's lost everything.

“Hey man, your main character isn’t sympathetic enough, could you fix that?”

actually it was the first time when Nikki became conscious after the wish. you know, when she was outside Bear's car, talking nonsense about the cat and she suddenly snaps into consciousness and goes "wait what the fuck?"

it wasn't enough to scare me but it was so fucking unnerving. especially if you know what's happening and what's coming, which i did.

like imagine you had a long night and you're going home to get some rest, and then suddenly your body starts moving of its own accord. and suddenly you're outside your coworker's car and you're talking nonsense, you're behaving very strangely, you're creeping him out and you don't know why.

did Nikki think she was going insane? did she think that she got drugged or that maybe something was wrong with her? how long did she wonder if she was just losing her mind, before realizing Bear had something to do with it?