Obsession

Ive never rooted for a main character to kill himself so hard. Okay im kind of afraid of sounding like the friend thats too woke but I wanted to start of by saying that I'd noitced a lot of my male friends in particular are number one, asking me if ive seen it yet and number two, praising it really highly. And theyre not wrong at all! I personally really enjoyed it and it is objectively well made. I just really hope that they understand the themes of rape and the mistreatment of women and dont just see it as a cool horror movie where the 'monster' is a pretty girl. (Very much not true, Bear is genuine evil) I have faith that they do, but the thought struck me about like the wider male audience in general too. Not because I think theres something about them that inherently means they'll let it go over their heads, but a mans perspective and a woman's are famously very different and especially on themes like this. This movie is to me, at its core is about the removal of choice. The removal of a person's ability to say no, to consent. Its terrifying and it works so well as a horror concept because it's a very grounded and real thing, even if its dealt with here in a sort of quirky paranormal way. Again it's not that I don't have faith in audiences, but I do have a sort of fear that this will either not be acknowledged or will spark conversations and echo chambers about 'what counts as sexual assault' that somehow end up justifying Bears actions or writing them off as not assault because he wasnt violent towards Nikki at any point. Hes the "nice guy" that everyone knows, the guy people hesitate to believe allegations against. Nikki as a character is so tragic, we hardly get to know her before she immediately gets all her autonomy and personality stripped away. And at the end, she's the only person who has to deal with the entire situation. Beyond that, this was so well written, shot, and edited and is such a stellar debut from Curry Barker.