Obsession

yo it is two am rn but i am up thinking about this movie lowkey saddest movie ever #save nikki this guy genuinely infuriates me (and fascinates me as a character) i should've known that kirk lookalikes should never be trusted okay the wording of the wish itself is so interesting because he wishes to change her rather than to change himself instead. an obvious observation, but important. he could have wished for the confidence to ask her out, or to become the kind of person she'd like. instead, his wish is to *make her love him. bear does not care about nikki. sure, he likes the idea of her - he thinks that she's pretty, that she's kind, that they'd be perfect together. but he doesn't... know her. he doesn't know the kind of things she likes. he knows how much she hates being called freaky nikki, and yet, he uses that nickname. he knows nothing about her relationship with her father. he has this idealised version of nikki in his head, and he himself operates under the guise of this nervous, awkward nice guy who's your coworker and also maybe possibly totally perfect for you. he does not see her, but he still wants her. despite this, he does not take any of the chances he gets to be vulnerable with her, to act like a real fucking human, because he doesn't want the work that comes with a real relationship. and as a result: even though it is made abundantly, sickeningly clear that nikki is NOT herself ('not me' polaroid, most blatantly, screaming 'that's not me', even more blatantly), bear cannot be a 'victim' because he does not give a shit! (sorry, bear apologists! you can't even excuse him for 'not thinking that his wish would actually work' because his wish already, from the start, meant to take her autonomy away!) in other words: he likes her like this. he finds the control, the power he has over her absolutely intoxicating. he complains to ian about how she's all over him all the time, right? but he's the one who reads the dare on the jenga that'll get a rise out of her instead of taking a drink at ian's party. (god, she's so obsessed* with me!) he's the one that, despite being directly confronted by real nikki's sheer misery, the nikki that he claimed to love, he sulks and questions "what's so wrong with being with me?" faced with her suffering and he's sad because she hurt his ego. and finally, he's the one that attempts to modify the wish and refuses to cancel it instead because he doesn't fucking care! even after everything, he still wants this nikki. just, you know, more cooperative. (that's the core of his character, i think. he wants everything easy.) in his final moments, bear attempts suicide. and, side note, this is a moment that i truly applaud barker for. a moment in which bear's horrifying character does not waver. he does not die to free nikki, no. he dies to save himself. to get out of the horror he's created. and he isn't even able to do it. he tries to shoot himself, but he chickens out. he swallows a bunch of pills, but he attempts to spit it all out. it would have been sooo easy to frame bear differently, but he stays a coward. good riddance. and finally, when his own autonomy is taken away (when fake nikki wishes for him to love her back) it is, fascinatingly, the only time bear actually helps nikki throughout this film's entire runtime. some pills stay in. he dies, and nikki is saved. it is horrifying how he just gets an out after all this. nikki is left alone with the consequences of bear's bullshit. and no one will ever believe her.