Obsession
Bear just got on my nerves OMG. He's the human equivalent of a wet sock left in a gym bag for three weeks. Such a spinless self-pitying little weirdo who is so terrified of hearing the word "no" that he'd rather magically strip a woman of her free will than risk an awkward convo. He didn't want love, he wanted a compliant doll who exists solely to validate his sad little existence. When the doll starts glitching into violent obsession, he still clings to it like a toddler refusing to let go of a broken toy cuz God forbid he face the fact that he’s the problem. He’s not a tragic romantic, he’s a walking consent violation with a sad boy haircut and the personality of lukewarm oatmeal. Ik there's alot of Bears out there quietly hoping a magic tree will fix their inability to TALK. Absolute wet wipe of a protagonist. FUCK YALL.
Anyways, Michael Johnston did such a great job for making me boil lmao. But the whole hype definitely goes for Inde Navarrette. She took what could've been a one note "possessed gf" role and turned it into something genuinely unsettling and magnetic. Nikki starts as this warm, grounded, lowkey cool coworker with real chemistry and quiet charm, and then Inde gradually twists that same energy into something obsessive, predatory, and terrifying without ever losing the thread of the character. You still recognize the person underneath the curse, which makes the horror hit harder. Her physicality is excellent. The way she stares a little too long, the sudden shifts in intensity, the moments where the affection feels both sincere and completely wrong. She sells the tragedy of it just as well as the menace. Both actors have a bright future ahead.