Obsession

Funnily enough, I am obsessed with this movie. Since I got out of the theater two days ago I cannot stop thinking about it. I wonder if Baker may have used the One-Wish-Willow himself... I actually debated giving this movie half a star less, as there are some technical flaws like objects moving between cuts or movement of actors not adding up when cut back. I also understand the critique of the repetitive camera position and music choice, but these worked for me. Having me forced to lock at a characters face rather than getting distracted by everything around them, made the horror more intense for me. Especially when you could not see what was happening and had only the characters reaction. In the end I landed on the 5 stars rating, because the good parts were so good that I can overlook these things. I mean, it is Barkers debut and he had a very limited budget. Now onto those said good parts. I am trying to keep it short, but honestly I could write a whole ass essay about this film. I think this movie does a great job depicting what male entitelment, male loneliness and a patriarchal worldview such as incels have it does to the women around those men. Bear does not start to become a horrible person once he spoke his wish, but he already is one before, underlined for exampel by is starting monologue, where he only addresses what Nikki does for him and by the treatment of his cat. He also did not understand what Nikki meant by the diffrence between romance and a love story. How should he understand what love means then? What made this film so intense for me above its great ups and downs between shocking and tense moments (because there are no quiet moments), is its realism. What I mean by that is, that while the One-Wish-Willow is a fantastical object the rest of the storyline does very much happen in our world. The Wish just exaggerates what is happening. As a women that has been in an immensely toxic relationship I could understand Nikkis reactions to a certain degree (in a none quirky 'Oh my god, thats so me'-way, like I have read on here). I additionally want to address the criticism that this movie is misogynistic or shows Barkers supposed hate of women. While I also made the observation that this movie lets its two women suffer way more than its two men, I think that this does not have to be an indicator of misogyny in this case. Bear is protected by his wish. It makes no sense that Wish-Nikki would harm him in any way. Him being to cowardly to kill himself with a gun also underlines his refusal to take responsibility, as he does not try to kill himself for Nikki, but to escape the situation. Ian was just at the wrong place at the wrong time and Sarah is a potential threat to Wish-Nikki as she could replace her as Bears girlfriend. But I do agree that the way Wish-Nikki propped up Sarahs dead body was too much. I interpret it as Wish-Nikki showing the most disrespect that she could to her sexual rival, but honestly she did not have to be naked for that. I could go on and on, but I stop this review here. This film was awesome and I want to watch it again and again. Probably my favorite horror film now.