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Film Curious is a movie review podcast that takes a step back from the constant media consumption to discover and ponder great films across genres and time. A podcast where we let our intrigue guide us and are not afraid to explore whatever films pique our interest.
To all you film lovers, casual theatergoers, at-home movie watchers, and streaming scrollers out there, think of Film Curious as your gateway into any and every kind of movie. One that doesn’t gatekeep but doesn’t shy away from respect for the craft either. So, take a dip, the water’s fine…
I really hope someone out there
jokingly said
I want to hippopotamus for Christmas
and broke that wish.
It fell down on top of them if it does.
Like with the billion dollars.
Like on Christmas Eve,
we just cut to them on Christmas
Eve and a fucking hippo
like falls onto them.
I would last for a day
if I get to see that movies.
Hello and welcome to film curious.
I'm joined by Pete
and Nicole this morning.
We've been on a bit of a horror train
lately.
Talked about send help last week,
Lee Cronin.
Zoom on me a few weeks prior,
and Pete gave us a little non
spoiler review on Holcomb the week before.
And that train
is going to keep chugging along
because this week
we are going to talk about obsession.
Let me pull up the premise,
even though I'm sure if you're listening,
you know the premise, you've seen
the trailer ready.
I think that this movie was promoted
a lot.
Did the trailer. Tell you the premise
though?
I think so.
And this is a compliment. Yeah, okay.
For me,
I knew it was. Yeah, I knew it was.
Guy makes wish for. Oh I know.
Oh okay.
Okay. I'm pretty sure that.
I guess I just avoided.
No, I guess I just avoided a bunch,
which worked out really well.
That's what I remember from the trailer.
Nicole, you remember seeing the trailer?
Yeah. I mean, I remember there.
Being like a teaser
that was just the scene of him
making that phone call with the number.
Oh, wow.
They showed that in a.
Yeah. No, it was just that clip
that's pretty like.
Oh, and then that is what
initially made me I'm like, what is this.
Because I love I love narratives
or somebody makes a wish,
a nice monkey's paw or whatever.
I was like, okay, yeah,
I'll definitely see that then. Yeah.
So the basic premise is, is a guy breaks
a one wish Willow
to win his crush's heart, but he finds
himself getting exactly what he asked for,
but soon discovers that desires
come at a dark, sinister price.
And this is written, directed,
and edited by Curry Barker.
It is not his first film.
I think Milk and Cereal was technically
his first film.
It's a short film,
but he had released it just on YouTube.
Because he's originally just a
YouTube creator.
So this is,
I guess, yeah, first feature length film.
It's made on like a shoe
drink budget of 1 million.
So I will point that out
that that's pretty impressive.
I don't at no point did I feel that like
this was very small budget.
I was impressed with what he was able
to do with that small of a budget.
I think now it's up to like 110
million he's made off of it so far.
Yeah, but this is like the first one
since, I want to say almost Blair
Witch, where you've had a film
that was so sub million
and making this much waves at the box
office,
it's going to hit 100 million if it didn't
already, it's going to hit 100 million.
Yeah. So Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity
and now this.
And if I had to argue,
I really like Blair Witch.
This is a better movie.
It's a totally different fucking movie.
But like, it's it's
a, you know, Blair Witch.
You can look at it and be like, yeah,
it's just shot on a camera, you know?
It's fun.
We can see how this was nice and easy to
shoot the shot in the middle of the woods.
Right? Right.
We understand why it was. Yeah.
You could you could look at that
and be like, oh yeah.
Okay. Yeah.
You gotta get away with making a film
for cheap nowadays to shoot in the woods.
They charge you $25,000 or something.
Crazy for your permits.
Yeah, you need the permit. So.
Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna. I mean, it's huge.
So it stars Michael Johnson as Bear,
who makes the wish,
Andy Navarette as Nicky,
who is the victim of this wish.
And it's getting a lot of great reviews.
Everybody's really enjoying this film.
I was very actually nervous
to start this conversation
because I feel complimentary
towards the film.
I like the basic plot
and concept
and I like elements that are in the film.
I'm not a big fan of how
the story was executed.
I guess is how I will start
this conversation off with,
I think you have to take a step back
and kind of project things
onto the film
that the film isn't actually saying.
Story wise, which I know that's what
the director's intention was.
I know I'm talking in
like very vague terms here.
Yeah, you're going to have to go
because I'm not following what you mean
by that one.
Actually.
I think that and then obviously
you can correct me, but I think that
what you're touching on is maybe something
that people want from the movie,
like the bigger statement
of what he's saying, and they're kind of
maybe reading into things
or saying like, oh,
this is what this meant,
this is what this meant.
And you feel like maybe it's
not necessarily there from Curry Burger.
Yes. Thank you Nicole.
That's that.
Yeah. That's how I feel about this.
So I guess my question
to get us into this conversation
and we'll just do spoilers
right off the bat here.
I'm assuming if you're looking to listen
to something about obsession
that you do are looking for spoilers,
and you have seen the movie for this one.
And yeah, and I'll say, if you have not,
go see it blind as much as you can,
you know,
if you haven't yet seen it, don't look up
more about it.
Come back to this at another time
and then,
you know, jump into the conversation.
And the.
Damn near impossible to really talk about
without like, getting into.
It, right?
Yes. Nicole, thank you for
this is what I have. Nicole.
She's much more eloquent
at even summing up my own thoughts.
Or I'm your interpreter. Yeah.
Then I am.
Yeah.
I think for me personally,
I think that the concept is very solid.
I think that the execution of it
isn't working for me.
I think for me there's a lot of thrown in.
Here's the crazy girlfriend trope.
I'm going to use it to further the plot,
when I could have maybe taken
a harder route and found more creative
ways of crazy things she could do.
That's kind of my.
My thing with it is I like the idea of,
oh, you're forcing somebody.
You're forcing this woman
who is not into you.
As far as we know, as the audience
to now totally love you,
that she has to completely change
her personality, who she is
to accomplish this wish, to fulfill
this wish for you.
And we basically the director
has to make her
into another entity for that to happen.
My thing is okay,
but there are moments where we are
just relying heavily upon crazy girlfriend
things like the
no boys nights, and then we freak out
in the bathroom over it.
And the why, you know,
don't you love me enough in return?
And the
you can't leave me ever, I have to.
I know
these are like again, trying to signal
codependency, unhealthy relationships.
Like I have a total understanding of
what the what the intent is of
what he is trying to say for the story,
what the story is trying to say.
Like,
I have a complete understanding of how
you could draw these conclusions from it.
I just don't think it's
actually in the film.
So I'm going to open up the door now to.
Did you feel that everything that is being
drawn conclusion wise out of the film
that you were specifically
not even specifically told the story,
was actually delving into these heavier
topics, was actually tackling them?
I don't know, yeah.
I mean, I think that it was
I do want to acknowledge that.
I think that sometimes
there has been a trend of maybe male
filmmakers creating movies
that maybe say something that went like
a message in terms of it being simple,
but something that women know.
And then maybe the male filmmakers
get praised very heavily as compared
to a million other female filmmakers
that are saying something
and maybe a little bit more nuanced,
and it doesn't get the attention.
But I also want to say that
I think that it's a good thing
that there are male filmmakers,
and when they have the opportunity
that they are delving
into these kind of topics.
And I do think that for me,
there was a lot of stuff that are included
in the movie that did bring up
a lot of consideration of, like, consent.
I did think that there were enough
little things in there, and then
that he has those little things in there,
but then he also has something
like a major scene
that I think that he was conscious of.
And I've seen the internet discourse
that there are some people that are like,
Bear's not the villain, you know,
and then there's other like,
like no bear is the villain,
you know, like.
That's just that's. Just.
Bad emotional intelligence. Yes.
But I think that.
That's just stupid.
It's very, very stupid.
And I think the crew
was very aware of people, maybe certain
men that were going to go see the movie
and have that perspective.
So he, I think, was careful
to also have a scene where there's no
you can't make an argument
for what's happening when we have that
truly horrifying scene where the real Niki
is able to kind of come to the surface
and she begs him to kill her,
and she says, I've never been with you.
And very purposefully
to that bears response to
this is what's so bad about being with me.
You can't really
argue around that scene of like,
how we're supposed to take it, right?
But I think that before that,
there's for me a lot of little things
that I did
appreciate some level of nuance,
you know,
something like toward the beginning,
when Nikki is starting to kind of change,
it seems like she's confused.
She's trying to fight it, that when their
first kissing, that then she freaks out.
She screams at him.
And then when they talk about it
later, he's like, you know, like that.
You made me feel like.
I mean, I was scared. That was scary.
Nikki and I didn't take advantage.
And she's like,
no, no, no, I'm saying that you didn't,
something like that for me.
He's not okay
with that. He's uncomfortable.
It makes him feel bad about himself
when she's screaming in his face.
But once he knows,
he knows officially, after they have
that dinner scene in the wording of
I love you
more than anybody in the whole world,
he knows that it's because of the wish.
And then right after. Yeah.
And then right after
that is what I would consider
a sexual assault scene then,
because it comes like right after that
where he knows.
Yeah. When they're together.
That's the intent.
That's the intent. I think. That
again, unless you're an
imbecile, there's no way that you cut to
that sex scene and you're like, oh, cool.
Oh, that was great. Yeah,
she enjoyed that.
Yeah. You got. So. I'm sorry. Yes.
No. Go ahead.
I'm sorry.
Yeah. No, but just something like that.
To where he doesn't seem to care
when it's.
It made me think
a lot about consent in terms of, like,
coercion and maybe situations
that people are more familiar with.
And I think that the bear character,
it's like, okay, if a girl is screaming
and freaking out at me
while we're making like, okay.
But he knows that it's not actual
real consent
because he knows that it's not really her,
it's because of the wish.
But he's okay with that.
And I feel like the pacing
of having that scene
where he clarifies the nose, okay,
this is just because of the wish.
And then right into an assault scene
like that, that very clearly
that Barker is saying to us, like,
this guy knows what's going on.
He does not care.
He has gotten what he's wanted.
He doesn't really want to think
about the logistics of it, you know?
And so I do think I didn't feel like
all this stuff that people are taking
from the movie, they're projecting on it.
I think
maybe there are little things in there
that maybe Curry Barker wasn't necessarily
meant at a certain way.
I've seen people, you know, analyzing,
like the time that's on the clock
and this is with a historical event
and like that kind of thing.
But I do think that
he created a narrative and also especially
gave us enough of Nikki before the wish
that we know things about her
and specifically to how she views
the story,
the fact that she's a writer,
the fact that we know
she wanted to quit her job,
all these things that don't happen
then once the wish that we don't get
real, Nikki.
So we know that.
And he very much knows that too.
And I don't think that there's any, like,
wiggle room where you could kind of say
that that's not
what we're dealing with, which is somebody
being taken advantage of.
Yes. Yeah.
I mean, he does
I mean he does a good job of that,
of making you uncomfortable,
of making you understand that.
I just think that we're filled
with a lot of moments that I just,
I think are filling up, like,
so the moments that you mentioned, right,
I think
are the shining moments of the film,
and that's
when he really is hitting a stride.
But then I think there are a lot of like,
other filler things that move
the plot along
that are repetitive and easy,
that sometimes he relies upon.
Like, here, let me feed you my dead,
the dead cat, your dead cat, you know?
Here,
let me have a weird the whole cat thing.
No, no, no, I just wasn't working for me.
Not that like not because of the cat. So.
Being good. Yeah.
I love.
Learning a lot.
Right. He's
accusing me of the worst possible things.
Now I hate children. I want to kill cats.
I love demons being like, oh,
yeah, creepy as Garfield.
I am sorry.
Yeah, he's a knockoff Garfield.
But it's funny you, though. Clearly.
Yeah.
I'll mention because like, you talking
about, like, the crazy girlfriend stuff.
Like it made me think of, like,
a Glenn Close.
Like, you know, rabbit
cooking the rabbit on the stove.
Kind of a moment.
Yeah, but I want to hear
what you guys feel about it.
But the cat is something very specifically
that I think when I was watching it,
I was like viewing it
the way that you're talking about it,
where I'm like, okay, it was just like,
I'm going to dig up your dead cat.
And it's a crazy thing I could do.
But when I thought about it
the rest of the week after,
there were like so many layers to it
where I really ended up
appreciating the cat more.
I'll say that.
Let me let me say what I took it
as in you,
because this thing that takes over her
is like an animal,
and it's being treated
and acts like a pet,
and a cat would bring you
like a dead animal into the house.
It's like, hey, look what I did.
And that's sort of how I viewed that.
Just the other thing
towards some of the other points
that you guys were bringing up, actually,
do you think that they could bark,
maybe give him more credit?
Who knows?
I think it's a trap for people
to be like bears.
The good guy.
Like it's a real tell on yourself moment.
You know, when you're with other people
and you're like, no, no, no, he was.
It wasn't his fault.
That is the trap for shitty people.
It's a
good one to lay, especially nowadays,
because it's kind of usually an easy trap
to lay.
Also, to be honest,
I don't see how you can misconstrue.
He's a coward.
Like throughout the movie.
Yeah, he 100% even.
Even as we maybe,
you know, like we learned what he learns
in real time, if he may suspect it
at the end of the cell, like he twice
he goes to kill himself.
And if it wasn't for her
breaking the wish,
he was going to make himself
throw up all those pills.
So he's a fucking coward to the very end.
And actually, if you want to really want
to be, I don't I don't again attempt.
Who knows.
The end of the film is like
a really fucked twist on Romeo and Juliet
where, like, the suicide doesn't happen.
Yeah, but then there's one person
who's just left now
to deal with all these dead bodies
all around them. Yes.
I think the ending is,
like the most horrifying
part of the movie.
And horror
and a different thing, I think, like ash,
I see what you're saying, like,
you know, with the, you know,
this is all crazy girlfriend stuff.
And it is, you know, on that end,
I get it.
But if we flip the role in that
and it's a man doing this to a woman, it's
totally different film
and you can't do that and then be like,
no, no, no, no, it's just an entity.
It's not really the guy who's doing it
because people would seize upon that
by the throat.
So yeah, I don't think that you can gender
switch it because then it becomes
a totally different film
with different of problems.
I don't know if.
Well,
then what do. You fill it with? Right.
You know how he like these
all these crazy girlfriend tropes, right?
If you were to gender swap it,
then what do you.
It becomes more. It's more scary.
It's really.
It's worse.
It's a domestic abuse film. Be aggressive.
Yeah.
It's a domestic abuse film with violence.
And on top of it you're saying,
no, it's not really the guy.
It's this demon that took over the guy,
which is even worse.
So I don't think you can do it
to towards what you were saying.
I actually did feel like,
oh, we're kind of repeating the same note,
just in different scenarios right
now, a little bit to get to a runtime.
So you could do that.
But I hate to say it,
that's a lot of horror films.
Sometimes you kind of run
over the same note just in different ways.
You know, there's different kills,
blah, blah, blah.
Not excusing it.
It doesn't mean like it's totally fine.
But I can see where you were getting that
because I was like, how many scenarios
can we go through
until we get to like the finale, you know,
where are we headed with this?
Right.
Because maybe this is more of like a short
story idea than a two hour film idea.
What does this run for? 109 minutes?
You could probably make it,
you know, 95, and it's fine also.
Right? Right. That being said,
I kind of enjoyed a little
bit seeing this guy have to eat shit
because I thought he deserved it.
So yeah, there is also that
where like the door is a hilarious part.
That is the duct taped where ductwork.
For work. And. Like.
I really think he's.
Playing this a lot more for laughs
in a couple of spots of like,
this guy's a piece of shit,
we're going to give it to him.
Like he's going to take all the worst,
and then we're going to get like the
serious consequences of his actions. But
maybe I can lower your guard a little bit
by making some of these kind of funny.
You know, like the the restaurant thing.
If you've ever had an argument in public,
does it matter what side of the argument
you're on?
You see that scene and you're like,
oh, no.
Embarrassing.
You know, like.
That, that real like new is great.
But the door is such a great.
And that's sort of where I,
where I think it is, it's trying to lower
you down a little bit.
You're like, oh,
this is kind of funny and silly in a way.
And then crank it up with like,
you know, as Nicole was saying,
the phone call is rough.
I actually thought even before that
when he calls like the customer support
and he's like,
I just want to talk to Nick, to Nikki.
And then you just hear her screaming.
Yeah. And he's like, yeah, that's.
Oh yeah, that's Nikki just, you know.
And then he hangs up.
And just hangs up.
Yeah. This is how we know that.
I mean yeah.
There are a lot of great little details
that point to how selfish bear is
and awful he is and cowardly.
So I think the discussion around
it is really great
and all we can point to all these moments.
But yeah, sometimes I think
there are extra moments that
that take away from that.
Maybe that's my like consensus.
And then we can move on to the bigger
picture things of the film.
And I can get over my initial reaction.
My initial reaction to this was, yeah.
I think maybe if he took out some
things and he focused more on
the larger themes, it would have worked
better for me as a whole
because I did like the ending.
I did like a lot of elements of it.
So I guess, yeah, let's move on to
I'll get over it, I think.
I think I could give Kerry Barker credit
and we can move.
On from this.
And I. Also want.
To say to though, like any feelings
that I did have about it,
where like
I will agree that there was a couple times
maybe like once I was hitting the middle
where I'm like, all right.
Yeah. Like we do feel like
we're doing the same things again.
Like maybe we're relying on things
that aren't so creative to show
that something is wrong with her,
but that he is like at the beginning,
you know, and he's lined up to now
do other stuff already.
And so this kind of movie does
any problems I might have had with it.
I will say it does get me excited to see.
I think that as he keeps going
and I think he's
26, like,
I think that we'll get to a point.
Where super young.
Yeah, I think the the backrooms
that's coming out.
The director, he's 20, which is insane.
But you know, I think that I'll just say
that that it got me excited to be like,
okay, I wonder how his second,
his third, his fourth maybe.
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean,
is it mean to say that it does seem
almost like a 26 year
old wrote this film or younger?
I mean, that's
the dialog wasn't working for me.
Well,
they're 26 year olds in the film though.
But like, do. You even.
That's what I'm saying.
Like, I do think that it feels young
and I guess that's what I'm going to give.
Like this.
I guess this is a very good start then.
But anyway, so, so. Oh.
I'm sorry.
Can I ask it? So.
Yeah, but but they're supposed
to be young, so I want them.
To see that the.
Character
kind of dumb sometimes, you know.
And yeah.
I mean I sound much dumber than them
on normal occasions, so I don't know.
I don't know what you mean by it sounds.
But I don't think that you're
I don't think you're
I don't think that you're the characters
in your story have to be like,
you know, just because people are dumb
or young in real life
doesn't mean that the story
and the dialog itself has to be that way.
Like not, we don't watch movies
to have a complete, accurate
representation
of real world conversations, you know?
Yeah. No. Okay. Okay.
So I don't know, I would just
it would be a punchier
a little bit punchier dialog at times.
With movies though though,
like I get what you're saying,
but like, isn't that a different movie?
You know, like that's why you go see,
you know, whatever, you know, 12
Angry men like, you know, it's
it's written for a specific aim.
Okay. Yeah.
I don't know.
I just, I feel like it's it was written
the way it was aimed to be written, like I
don't, you know, if these guys all sounded
like they were in the West Wing,
which also
works,
though, because brick brick is like,
you know, a newer high school,
you know, murder mystery
where everyone talks like
no one would ever talk in high school.
And that's what makes that movie
like brick.
I'm sorry.
I was just trying to understand.
Like what?
Yeah, well, but that's the thing,
though, like, we don't watch movies
and shows with high schoolers in it
and want to hear actually
actual high school or way of talking,
right, like, I don't I'm sorry.
I don't know if I would want to hear it.
Listen to me in high school talk.
You know, I think that it's okay
that the movies are or serving in
stories in general
are serving you a better dialog
than they'd actually be in real life.
I mean, that's kind of why
we watch movies over reality TV show.
Most people.
I don't think those people are talking
like they really talk.
No no. No no no.
It's just trying.
To pull those motherfuckers. Like.
If you were to record,
you know, us right now.
And then, like, out of curiosity,
like clerks, you know, like,
we have, like, the same reaction to that,
but they're they're as dumb as everyone,
you know, who like.
But I don't think that I. Don't.
Think there's were conversations
that were very much conversations
I had at those jobs. Right.
So I'm just trying to find out,
like where it is that, you know,
where does that sound live?
Maybe it was.
Because I see what you're saying.
You know, it's okay.
Okay.
It's maybe it's
more the delivery by certain performances.
Yeah.
I think that like,
the main leads are great.
I think that Indian Navarette
who, who plays Nikki is phenomenal.
But I think when and again,
I don't like I hate having to be like,
oh, that was a cruddy performance
because like,
everybody works hard on these things.
So I don't like, you know, but I think
like Ian was a very weak performance.
And the the conversation between him
and his supposedly best friend
didn't really flow.
And I don't know if it was.
It was mix of maybe a dialog
and a performance issue,
but because I don't feel that every scene
had weak dialog or interaction,
I just think that there are
a lot of scenes between the friend group
that doesn't feel natural
and the conversation
doesn't feel totally natural.
And I think that the point of like
of dialog
in a movie and is to keep the flow nice,
unless like the purpose is totally like,
let's make you all feel uncomfortable
right now, which.
That's one of.
The purpose.
Yes, sleeping with the girl that he loves,
like behind his back.
And then the other girl likes him in front
while knowing that he likes them.
Yeah, it seems like a bad situation
on all fronts.
Like. Right.
Those people should go and find
actually what I would say with
with what you were saying
when the movie first started, I
100% thought it was taking place
in like 1994.
And then it went on
and I was like,
oh no, this is like a modern day.
I'll be honest, I had no idea
people still dress like that.
Like with the backwards
happened back on the Best friend.
From that time.
Is it really is all that back in? Yeah.
I straight up was like,
oh this is like the 90s.
And then the movie went on.
I was like, oh no, it is not.
No. No, no, that's just that's the thing.
It's like back in like the,
the early 2000 and the.
Really weird.
Yeah. That's just in again I.
I will say too though, but like I,
I understand Ashley,
I think what you're saying
and especially yes, there were some scenes
between Ian and Bear and Ian
is played by Cooper Tomlinson who is Corey
Barker's like writing partner.
Like they did comedy sketches together
and like, that's,
you know, his friend
and they write together.
I think that some of those scenes
then with him kind of did come off
like comedy sketchy a little bit.
It felt almost
sometimes like it was out of place.
There were maybe some scenes or
like when they're at the bar all together
where I think you're right, like sometimes
the dialog, it felt a little bit stiff,
but I think sometimes too,
I took it as that curry barker.
Like when you have that feeling
before the wish,
like when they're at the bar together
and he's like looking at Nikki
and the music plays
and it's just like, oh, I love this girl.
Like, she's such a great girl.
Like it did make me feel a little bit
like it's not great writing.
It's kind of stiff.
It's kind of typical romance, I guess.
But that for me worked really well with.
I think that conversation really
like permeated a lot of the movie.
When they're talking about, she's saying,
I want to feel
what love is, you know, and I want to it's
a love story that I'm trying to write.
And he's like a romance
and she's like, it's the same thing.
And she's like, it's not.
And that's where she seems very.
She looks out the window and like her,
like, lets it linger to where it seems
like she's very kind of disappointed.
Like he doesn't understand.
He doesn't understand
the difference between
he doesn't understand
what she's trying to write.
And so I think a lot of
like those early scenes,
it feels like kind of like a cheesy,
awkward,
not quite natural romance of somebody
telling themselves the romance or,
you know, when she's
then getting out of the car and he's like,
remember
when I didn't have my mouthpiece and band
and she just cuts him off and she's like,
you were going to get in trouble. Like,
I got to go to sleep.
Basically.
She just like, yeah, like it's not.
I feel like curry barker.
Like it's that kind of funny thing where
it's a guy who is building up that story.
And from the opening scene
when he's telling the waitress and like,
I always had these feelings
and all this stuff that in his mind,
he's creating a narrative
that is not true.
And it's also boring and cliche, you know,
like, it's just so I feel like for me,
and I don't know if maybe necessarily
all that stuff was coming directly.
Curly Barker wanted us to take it
that way, is like,
this is almost like a cheesy
kind of romance.
But I felt like there were a
lot of moments in the movie where like, it
starts dipping its toe back into that,
and then the horror comes back and lets
you know, like,
that's not what this story is.
You know, when he's after
you get home from the party and Nikki,
she's like, I can be Nikki,
I can be Nikki, you know?
And he's like, Nikki wouldn't say that.
So he knows, like, this is not real.
Like you're not Nikki.
And she he says it's not real.
And I think it's a line where she's like,
bear, I love you in every universe, right?
And for me, I'm like, that's not a great.
That's like a cheesy kind of.
But he calms down and he gets this
big smile on his face like,
oh yeah, you do love me,
you know, like it's.
And then she starts, you know,
moving backwards and being weird again.
But I really appreciated moments like that
where it just feels like
he is so susceptible to the story
he has told himself.
And then once she fits back into that
narrative, he's okay with everything
that's been happening.
Such disturbing,
terrible things have been happening.
Like they just went to a party where she,
like, smashed herself in the face.
You know, everybody's really upset.
Oh, the story that. She told. Yeah.
The consulate. Gretel.
That made me really shrink into myself
that way.
Yeah, that. Was God. Make it stop.
Like. Yeah.
And I think that enough of the film
because, as you know, Nicole,
what you were saying was like,
the way the music, the music changes,
the way the camera kind of,
you know, does those long lingering,
you know,
almost like fuzzy edges around the shot
where you're back in this rom
com and you're like, no, we're not.
But to me, those are all purposeful
decisions like those are made.
If it was only 1 or 2 things
and then I was throwing in the other ones,
I would say, yeah, it's kind of like kind
of knew where he wanted to go but didn't.
But it kind of felt like,
I mean, it's all there in that sense.
I'm looking forward to watching you again.
I should ask you guys
because I didn't notice anything.
And sometimes horror movies, they they can
press on this button way too much.
When they first started kissing,
like early in the movie when they're
at his house and she freaks out and says,
there was something behind you,
did you actually see anything behind him,
or was it because you can take it that
like she was literally
just seeing the other person coming?
You know, that other
being like starting to press and all that,
or actually the being was seeing
the real Nikki try to press herself out.
But did I miss anything?
Was there like one of those one frame
insert of something actually behind him?
Not that I noticed.
I didn't remember. Okay, I didn't
you know.
I don't I couldn't, I don't
I didn't think of it.
And then I kept on to that
and it did happen
one other time
when she said something to that effect.
And that time I was looking for it.
And I don't think it was there either.
But she must.
It was just the other Nikki
and the real Nikki.
Kind of like bumping into each other.
Okay. All right.
Just wanted that verified because.
Yeah, maybe this would have solved
a lot of my problems,
actually, is if we understood.
And I guess we're just coming off
of talking about oddity and hokum
and, like, I don't need more explanation
about whatever
the magical things that are happening or
the supernatural things that are happening
in those film explained to me, I'm
not that kind of person like,
and I didn't need it for oddity and hokum.
I didn't think they needed
any more explanation
about the supernatural
stuff happening in them.
For this
movie, though, I was like,
I don't understand why we can't.
You can't read the file.
Like,
why can't we get a shot of the fine print?
Why can't I understand that?
Like, we don't understand
the wish mechanism for most of it, but
when we get to the point where bare walks
is, everything's shit has hit the fan.
The Sarah's been murdered.
Brutally murdered
now by the entity of Nikki.
And he.
He goes back into the shop
that he bought the wish Willow from.
And he's talking to the guy
and he's like, well,
it has a bunch of warnings on the back.
Like, you have to read the fine
print before you use it sort of thing.
And I think that was an opportune moment
to then
tell us how this wish system works,
because not everybody
is getting demon Nikki's
when they make wishes, right?
Like so. That's why I was like,
is it the the monkey?
Poor thing.
It won't. We're not,
I guess, absolutely certain.
Maybe it is a monkey, poor thing.
Where if you know the monkey poor
short story, it's like the three wishes.
Right on this monkey.
The cursed monkey poor.
And something bad has like happens,
though,
when you make the wish, you can't
just get the wish free and clear.
Right?
So I'm like,
is this a monkey paw situation?
Is this because.
Because then there's the guy at the shop
who's like, yeah, I made my wish.
And he seems perfectly fine.
Like nothing catastrophically awful
seemed to happen to him.
I don't know, he and nothing
catastrophically awful seem to happen
to Ian, the best friend, except for
he gets shot.
Right on the head. Yeah.
After after he gets $1 billion.
But we don't know if that's
because of Nick.
The the wish from bear with Nicky
or if you know.
So I just think that like,
I don't understand the mechanism
of the wish and most of the time like that
wouldn't bother me.
But for this film it bothers me.
So I don't know if.
What are your guys feelings are on that?
Well, Curry Barker has said in interviews
that he does not consider the one wish
Willow the whole system cursed,
but that bear made a cursed wish.
He's like what he is wishing for
is a bad thing, that he believes
that there's people make wishes
and they don't have these terrible things
happen like you brought up the clerk.
You know, the other clerk
at the beginning.
She says to him like,
don't come back and complain.
He's like, well,
why do people complain? People?
Yeah, like some people,
I guess, make wishes that are shitty.
And, you know,
I've seen a lot of discussion too,
about like the phrasing of his wish.
And this is where then I guess it comes in
where people are like, well, bears,
not the villain, because he didn't think
the wish was going to work.
And it's like, yes, obviously
he didn't know the wish was going to work.
It's everything that happens after that.
Then he continues it. Yeah,
that he keeps going. Right.
But even the phrasing of The wish,
it's like coming after this moment.
He's so frustrated with himself,
he should be frustrated with himself
that he cannot just tell her.
But he doesn't say, like,
I wish I could tell her, you know,
he says, like, I wish that Nikki
and that not I wish Nikki liked me.
I wish Nike liked me back.
I wish Nikki.
Anything. In the whole world. Right.
And he sells anyone, right? Yeah.
More than any. Any more.
I think anyone in the whole world,
anyone or anything
and like that, that to like
I do take it as.
But I agree with you actually that like
maybe there could be just like another
like a little more specific thing of like
even the clerk saying to like,
like
I've said people all the time, you know,
and like I'm fine or like, what did you,
you know, what did you wish for?
I do think that we get that kind of,
though, from that phone call with the guy
when he calls, like customer service,
basically that he's like, oh, okay.
Well, yeah,
I mean, it's like that sounds pretty bad.
And I guess you kind of owe it to her
to stay with her.
You know, like,
I think that this scene is kind of funny,
but it also then,
you know, like, like you said, like she's
screaming on the phone at the end
and it.
Seems she should have killed himself right
then. Right?
Yeah. And he can't.
And then I thought it was so interesting
too, like I was reading behind the scenes.
And one being that initially
when they filmed it,
that in the script bear takes the pills
and then Nikki breaks the thing
and he goes out and dies.
He doesn't try and make himself throw up.
But after they film it, that Mike Johnson,
the actor, said to Curry, Barker
like, what if he like, what if he try,
you know, because he's a coward.
Like when he try and throw up? Yeah.
And that creates.
I was so happy that he did that.
I was too.
But Curry Barker was like, let's roll
the you know he's like, let's do it again.
Like he was like
yeah yeah like that's great.
And then Nikki two at the end
that she doesn't die.
That the original ending
was that she does.
And they only filmed one take with her
screaming like that and she survives
and that after that they were like,
oh no, that's
got to be the ending actually,
because that's a lot more horrific
that she's just like left
with this, right?
I did I did read that you could apparently
see the blood on the back of the wall.
Of what the takes
that that she kills herself.
Yeah.
Of is in the the last take.
Well that would have been even more Romeo
and Juliet then like the worst possible.
Even though I know the
I know we've all discovered
finally people discovered
that Romeo and Juliet.
It's a weird story.
Congratulations to the people who read it
over the last 5 to 10 years.
No one else put that together. Before.
We never thought
there was anything wrong with it.
No one ever read that.
It was. Like, called the tragedy.
It was just a tragedy for no reason.
You figured it out. Thank you.
You also pick it out anyways.
I do not need to know mechanics
behind this.
Personally, I and I'll tell you right now,
my biggest fear
is that we are going to get more of these,
and I'm going to get
way too much information
into something that doesn't need it.
He made a shitty wish the other.
And again,
like this jump between funny and horror
that this movie likes to do
and does it effectively when he's like,
I want $1 billion and money
just starts raining from the ceiling.
That is fucking hilarious in the middle
of all this, because that guy,
he put as much like thought into
this is going to work as Baird did.
But his wish
was also incredibly like selfish.
But it doesn't affect anyone else.
Like, right?
Although you could
if it was a truly evil contraption.
Someone saying I want to get
this much money could happen because
a death of someone
else and the money gets passed
over to him, you know,
or some like wild series of coincidences
that winds up with him gaining money.
The fact that the money just seemed
to run out of the ceiling and it's the man
would have just stayed home.
Nothing he.
Wouldn't have. Fine. Yeah,
he would have been fine. Maybe.
I like that idea, you know that.
There's this.
You know, if if you're careful, careful
what you wish for, literally.
And if not, this person on the other
end of the line
has been doing this for millennia
in different forms throughout history,
throughout all of mankind.
And, yeah, you know, it was
that sounds like it didn't work out.
You could, like, kill yourself
and that'll be that'll that'll fix it.
That reaction to that is great.
So I don't
I don't want to know a little more.
Also I'm wondering
and I'll guess I'll watch it again.
Also they do sell those things.
They're sold out right now.
But they do sell them on the obsession
website for 699.
And I'm assuming all the fine
print is literally on the box.
And you could.
Read it, which would be funny to then read
and see if it actually, you know.
But he bought it thinking it was a joke.
You know, it's like anyone else.
Like if I buy x ray glasses from the,
you know, from a, you know,
from Spencer's 20 years ago,
I'm not going to read the instructions
like I'm just.
No, no, I'm not saying that
you should have read the instructions.
I was just
I just thought it was an opportunity.
Yeah.
I just thought it would have been.
An. Opportune moment.
For him to then read it.
Right, because, like, after
that would be a shit.
What does this say?
It would be funny though.
Like in that moment where he is
freaking out if he was like.
Yeah.
Oh well, shit, that's where I went wrong.
I think it does say on the bar
I saw somebody that like, had bought it,
I guess off the website. It's
got to be a freeze frame in the movie.
But I think that someone was saying that
on there it has that listed specifically
is something
that you're not supposed to wish for.
And I saw someone doing a deep dive and
I'm like, oh, I didn't notice that at all.
But like during the trivia night
that somebody asks a question
that's obviously supposed
to be about Aladdin,
it's like this animated movie
and like a blue genie.
And I think that maybe on the box,
it is like those three kind of rules
that are in the Aladdin movie.
Like if you watch Aladdin, that it's
you can't wish for more wishes,
you can't wish for somebody to love
somebody else.
Yeah. And you can't wish somebody back
from the dead.
And I feel that does keep coming up
when the movie, you know,
something like Sandy, too.
And I definitely think Sandy
the cat that I didn't realize at all
that I saw someone being like Sandy,
like sandwich.
And I was like, oh, like,
we should have known.
But that that to for me, like,
that loops back to the cat thing
where like I kept coming up in the movie,
but I guess then that's
like another version of like a curse
kind of a wish thing,
which we're all familiar with.
It's like,
you can't bring people back from the dead,
and you can't make people love you
just because you want to,
and they don't really love you.
And I like that
deeper message of the movie.
I think those two things,
that it is consistent, that he's cowardly,
that he's not dealing with those things
you have to deal with in life.
Like you have to take a risk, maybe face
rejection.
He just wants Nikki to love him without
having to, like, risk and be like, I like.
You any of the.
Yeah, he's not with the cat.
He's not really dealing with.
I think the biggest thing with the cat,
and it's at the very beginning
of the movie, is like,
how did this cat die?
Like it got into these pills
that a child has a child, right?
So he didn't just leave the pills out
like he left the pills out.
He left the top off.
Oh, right.
Yeah. Open. Yeah. It's really sad.
And then me, as a cat lover
to at the start of the movie, I was like,
that was terrible. Right away.
I was like, like seeing the cat.
They're dead.
Like, actually,
probably about the same way.
I was like, this is awful.
He clearly is very upset about it.
He's sobbing about it
and he still goes out that night.
He's still considered that he he said
he wasn't out because he wants to go out.
He wants to see him.
But he but he doesn't tell Nikki
that his cat is dead.
That's another thing.
Like, how are you supposed to have
a good connection relationship?
He tells Sarah. And yeah, he tells Sarah.
But also he doesn't tell Sarah
that it's his.
He just says that his cat died
so he gets the sympathy.
So I took that then too is like
she keeps bringing the cat back as well,
that it's it's
like you have to deal with one this grief,
you know, like the cat is dead.
And to your accountability, you know, he's
not with that at the start with the cat.
And he's not dealing
with the accountability of,
like, this whole thing with Nikki.
He is then actively making a choice
the rest of the movie
that he is just going along with it
and he knows that it's not really her.
Yeah. And yes, it does.
Then kind of just play into typical
maybe like crazy woman stereotype of like,
I cooked your cat and now you're eating
and it's not so upsetting.
But like even the fact to like
he knows that he can't then tell anybody
what she's doing.
He can't tell Sarah in the moment.
She's like, oh, that's funny.
What does that
mean? He's not going to tell Sarah.
Like, oh, well, remember
I told you my cat died
like Nikki dug it up and then, like,
made it into a sandwich
because then Sarah would be like,
what the fuck is going on?
You know, like, that's another thing.
He just lies to all of his friends.
And also then it makes this is another
like one last I guess thing.
We can continue on forever.
I think about the little things
that are happening in the movie
that signaled to something, but
like the friend group is kind of terrible.
They're all kind of terrible
because they don't know Nikki.
Like they're all just assuming
they must all not know Nikki very well,
it seems,
because Sarah seems to be like, I'm
just very concerned about you bear
and her taking advantage of you.
She doesn't like Nikki.
She likes bear. Yeah, that's fair,
but you.
You still.
Get the guy that he likes. Well,
it could also be.
That could also be a girl stereotype,
then.
Like, women don't like each other.
Like she wasn't really friends with Nikki.
Well, I don't know.
I think that's, you know,
I think you're bringing that
in a little bit, but I also think.
Like, probably.
But I kind of just threw that out there
to be because.
Why do you hate
other women? That's awesome.
Got her.
Yeah.
Well, no with with Nikki and Sarah.
You know, like I
it is interesting as well.
I've seen people point out
like both Sarah though, and Ian
seem to know that she doesn't really have
a close relationship at all with her dad.
So they're like, why would she, you know?
But he doesn't seem to know that,
you know?
So it seems like even if maybe,
you know, she's letting feelings
because she likes bear get in there.
She seems mildly concern
Ian specifically to is like,
you just told me that you felt like
she was having a breakdown the other day,
and now you guys are, like,
having a perfect, happy relationship.
Ian. Ian brings it up.
Yes, Ian for sure brings it up.
I just I do think that it's it's
kind of strange that, like,
no one really seems to be super concerned
for Nikki's erratic behavior.
Like, hey,
I mean Ian does briefly, but like,
if we were really friends with this woman,
this girl, like, we would bring,
at least for me, I, I'd be like,
we need to bring her to a hospital
for mental health help like she is.
This is a mental break.
She she needs serious help.
Especially after gouging her eye
with the glass.
And, like, now she's acting
like she's never acted before.
Like,
I don't know how you just as friends,
you just blinders on, and instead
you're pissed because she's with the
the guy that you want to be with,
or you're Ian and you're
you're pissed or whatever
because you were hooking up with her,
like, I don't know,
I just don't think those are very friend
like reactions, even if you have
those romantic interest in those people.
Sorry, I just that's not.
I mean, I, I agree with you.
I agree with you to a point,
but these are friends in high school.
I mean,
I remember my friends in high school,
I don't give a shit about them.
I didn't really care about them
at the time either.
And I was only going to do like so much
if it was something like that.
Like,
I don't know, I, I get what you're saying.
I also think it was like the next day
when everyone winds up dead, right?
Or am I missing the timing on that?
Maybe it was one extra day,
I think after the the party night thing.
With all the same night. Actually.
I think it's like the next into the next.
Day he brings to the hospital.
She doesn't
want to go to the emergency room,
but then again, a person who is behaving
like that could easily, I think, of been
committed for her behavior,
at least held for a few hours or so.
I mean, I don't know the,
the legal legality
of of how long you can hold somebody
if they're mentally unstable,
you think they're going to hurt themselves
or hurt other people.
But your parents can do that.
Well, they're college.
They're not sure.
So they aren't high school.
They're college.
Oh, they're getting into college.
They just graduated high school.
No, he says, like seven years later, like,
these people are college aged.
Yeah.
So the girl is. Oh, yeah.
Okay. Okay.
Yeah. Like they're all.
Supposed to be like, I thought,
because the one girl was already.
She was trying.
I know it's it's confusing again.
Like, I would assume
that they were high school people.
Like, I don't blame you for
for thinking that. Yeah. No.
But like they mentioned, like,
oh, it's seven. Years old.
He goes seven years post prom
and she just hasn't gotten in to
she now wants to get into some kind of
college, Sarah, to like,
not be working at her dad's music shop.
Yeah. Anyway, I mean, again, like, these.
Are Andy Richter.
That showing up?
Yeah. He lost all his employees.
Nobody's gonna. Yeah. No, no.
He has a massively successful music
show, too.
If this took place in present day.
Because that's a lot of employees
to have on staff all the time.
Sure.
And depending on, like, who goes to check
on Ian first, maybe he's a billionaire.
That's true.
But did the money disappear
because he's dead?
Oh. That's a good point.
Does the wish go away? Oh, yeah.
There's the wish becomes.
Well, like, the thing. Is,
because of that.
I have to rewatch it for that too.
Because I saw it with.
My partner and he was like, no.
He's like,
I could swear that when he comes in
that he's holding some of the money,
and then when he gets shot, it disappears.
I'm like, I don't know, I don't remember.
Oh, that would be fun.
It would be. Yeah.
I didn't notice that.
Yeah, but I think it's.
Supposed to be, you know, Like
when you die, then the wish goes away.
Because then I saw people being like,
yeah, maybe Nikki goes to his house
and she's on the run
and she gets the billion dollars.
And I'm like,
I don't think the money's there anymore.
Come on, I don't.
Come on. It's a
that's a more hopeful anyway.
It's not that type of movie.
I mean, she's completely destroyed
and she's murdered people.
Now she's going to have to deal with it.
No, it's the worst possible ending.
I don't think she deserves
that kind of ending.
I mean, I thought
I thought it was a good ending, but, like,
yeah, I don't
I think it's completely awful
and miserable
that this now she's snapped out of it.
We don't.
I mean, I guess we can assume that she,
she knows every experience
that the entity Nikki has.
Oh, I don't think so. No. No.
We think that there's. Only.
Of clarity and lucidity.
Yeah, I think it's only like
when she breaks through
and maybe has an idea, but, like,
I don't think so.
I don't think she knows the extent of
everything that she just got dropped into.
So that's
why her reaction everything. Right.
And I mean, there's nothing about deserves
I mean, I don't think he's trying to say
like she deserves this or anything.
It's just a lot of
people have horrible things happen to them
that they do not deserve.
And what happens in the movie, it's
fine to me.
Yeah, well, no.
But it's fucking dark.
No, I'm just saying this is a it's a very
dark ending for a character that has to.
That's done nothing wrong. That's all.
I guess I'm not saying I don't deserve
isn't the right word at all.
I'm just saying that now she's she's left
with this kind of this mess,
this awfulness that she didn't start
and she had nothing to do with,
which is, you know,
I guess a pretty big statement, right?
Or what you're trying to say
is like, selfish person fucks
everybody up like, yep, ruins everyone.
Yeah, yeah.
One person can suck up numerous lives
and still themselves not be something
brave enough to end it themselves
because he would have just kept going
along with it.
Yeah, I do like the one movie.
Oh no, no.
He pauses. Yeah.
Well.
Because he pauses
and then he hears the snap.
Yeah, well, because then she we entity
Nikki makes the wish.
We can assume that she makes the wish
that I wish he loved me
more than anyone in the world.
And that's where the humor,
I guess, comes in, right?
Because that was a very funny moment
where, like, now, both entities are like,
oh yeah, or is this
we love each other equally now?
It kind of reminded
me, do you guys see the movie together?
No, I still have to see it now. Yeah.
You should check.
You should check together out.
Another movie that has a lot to do.
Well, I mean, different, but it's,
you know, a lot to do with codependency
where this isn't codependency.
This is insane,
you know, destroying of one's life. But
that has a lot
about to do with codependency.
And there's some similarities
in the ending
that are
there are funny mirrors to one another.
Yeah, I have to.
It is on the list. I will see it.
I might need some kind of
like palate cleanser after all this.
All the horror movies I've watched,
I've been like, just straight.
It should be straight horror.
And I'm not the type of person
that is usually always watching
horror movies like I.
I hate actually
going to see the good horror movies, and I
have to be fed all these shitty horror
movie trailers beforehand, like,
this is the only time that they play
these trailers, for the most part.
And I'm like, fuck, I don't watch these.
All these other shitty horror
movie trailers I'm not interested in.
But so,
I mean, yeah, you guys make
that's the thing.
Everyone's making very valid points.
I agree with them.
I, I think that it is a smarter movie
maybe than I thought
when I walked out of the theater,
but I think that it does require
a lot of this kind of discussion to like,
I don't know, flesh it out.
The film.
You're the first people I spoken to about
this.
I haven't like a couple
other friends have seen it.
I have not talked to him about it yet.
But yeah, I don't know.
Yeah. I'm happy.
I mean, I'm,
you know, it's always interesting
to hear someone else's reaction to it,
but my reaction was not that I needed
to flesh it out with other people.
Personally.
I maybe not fleshed out
just a bit more again.
Yeah, I guess I just have to harp on the.
Can we come up with more creative ways
to make her crazy?
I think it could have been.
It would have worked better as a actually
a scarier,
more psychological thriller film.
If we we get more of of weirder things
Nikki is doing that are a little
not just insane entity things like,
I think we just replace
Nikki as a character with the entity
and call it a day.
I think I would say that like.
One example of that because I do, I,
I think I agree with what you're saying,
that it's like, yeah, a lot of the like,
this is how crazy she is.
Let's show how crazy she is,
that there might have been something
that was a little bit more specific,
a lot of bit more unique.
A moment like I think stands out to me
is when she's standing there
and she pees on herself.
That to me is like something
that's like a little bit different,
a little bit creepy.
You know, when he comes back
and she's been sick or whatever.
So I will, I will agree with you on that.
And I do think that maybe that is the kind
of thing that maybe an older perspective
he would have, maybe other ways,
other techniques of showing that.
But I will say that I
and I don't think it's projecting.
I'll say the more thinking about it,
because I got worried about it
during the week.
I was like, am I just seeing something
that's not there,
but that it was a lot more?
It was a lot deeper
and that there was more nuance on it
than I was expecting,
I will say, and I think that
there were certain choices that definitely
were purposeful choices on his part
that really had me thinking days
after I saw it.
Yeah.
I mean,
I guess there
you can't rule it out entirely because
it would be a different conversation.
So it's not like full projecting onto what
the movie of what you, you think
is happening or what he's trying to say,
because then you it would be
all crazy stuff.
That's also just part
of seeing the movie, though,
because you bring in your own baggage
and your own experiences,
and then when you see something,
you take it one way.
It may not be the intended,
but as long as it isn't like,
you know, I watch Superman
and now I want to murder children
like, that's, you know, like,
if that's a takeaway that you got, it's
because you're insane, you know?
But like, you know, as long as I think
it's totally like part of the saying,
you know, when you read a book,
you're going to pull out
your own experience
that might be slightly different
than someone else's experience.
And that's just normal.
I don't
I don't really think it's projecting.
I think it's you interacting
with someone else, telling you a story.
You know,
if you see it exactly as they say it,
which is possible to cool, it's,
you know,
if you pull something out, you know, it's
maybe the intent, maybe not.
But as long as it's like within the same
vein, it's not like, you know,
I don't think it's anything that's
just normal in my opinion, I don't know.
Yeah, yeah.
And I guess I'm bringing my perspective of
why would if even if you did love
somebody more than anyone
in the whole wide world or whatever.
Why would you be acting
like a crazy person?
I don't. That doesn't necessarily.
That doesn't necessarily
make you act behave crazy.
You know.
I know that this is an entity.
That takes over.
I think that people who are like, obsessed
with somebody,
that I love you more than anything
in the whole world, that is
crazy.
But that's guilty.
That level in drive someone crazy.
Like, there are literally
like hundreds of people right now
who are being murdered in the world
over someone's love of the other person.
So I don't I do see that, you know.
But that's not a love
that's like. A perversion. Of love.
That's the thing. This thing doesn't know
what love is, right?
It has no idea. It's not a person.
It's no concept.
Any other lovers? Sorry.
Just like the genie in Aladdin isn't Robin
Williams.
It's not a person. It's a something else.
And this other thing
doesn't really understand what love is,
or understands it completely, and thinks
that this person who made the switch
is getting exactly what they deserve.
But I took and they don't have, you know,
they don't have compassion for what
it's going to affect other people.
Because again, like, for all you know,
this has been going on since
the dawn of time, you know,
and they've they don't
have that empathy or anything.
It's just like okay that's what you want.
Cool.
Go ahead and have it.
But that's where we don't know
how the wish mechanics work.
Yeah, we don't need to.
But I think you need you to know
that much.
Like, why would every I don't know, maybe.
Every wishes that way,
the way that it is with this.
Like I took it as that.
I'll call her Willow. Nicki.
Okay. That she like.
Is sort of.
You don't want to say Nicki. Like.
I don't agree. Nicki.
No, I want to say Willow. Nicki.
But that she's kind of mirroring him.
She's trying to figure out what he wants,
you know?
And like, you're saying,
like she's not a person.
Like, it seems like,
you know, she says even
just things that happened to him
that, you know,
when she says something about her
cat dying and he's like, no, my cat died,
you know, and she shows. Up in.
Yeah, she's wearing.
The red dress and she's like,
I didn't know what to wear,
you know, like that too, where she's like,
okay, guys like red dress,
you know, like, she changes her,
you know, the clothes change a lot.
And then obviously she starts
dressing like Sarah, like,
so she's not actually,
I guess like a person.
Yeah.
So I but I see what you're saying.
Like, we don't really have
the mechanics of the wish.
I didn't take it that with
every situation, this is what happens.
Even if somebody had maybe a similar wish
where it was like a love kind of a thing,
it might not be exactly like this, right?
I just so.
One last point and then we'll we'll wrap.
So it's interesting you should say that
because I thought that.
The concept of loving somebody
more than anyone in the world,
and where she started confusing her,
what is happening with a bear
with her in the very beginning,
I thought that actually
was the most interesting concept of like,
well, if you love somebody
more than you love yourself, like,
do you really, truly like you take out
any human ego and selfishness of
like the survival instinct of humans, of
how much we care about ourselves then?
Yeah.
You would only think about you would think
their life is your life, right?
I think.
It's like it's understanding
what I'm trying to say there.
Yeah. No no, no. Yeah. Like she. Yeah.
There's no she hasn't,
she has really like no care for herself.
That's why she can stand there.
And this thing has no care for itself.
That's why
it will just stand there cycling itself,
waiting for the person to come back.
Right.
Yeah.
It's you know, I took it
as it's a manifestation of his obsession
with her, you know, and so he's
so put off by it and it is so discussing.
But that is just him.
And there's numerous shots in the movie
where like he's looking in a mirror
and he makes that connection, it seems.
But he doesn't want to
make the connection,
but it's just her being obsessed with him.
But that's just really
how he felt about her.
And he doesn't really know her
and he doesn't really love her.
He just wants, wants, wants.
And and again, like just towards the
mechanics and that you you're looking for.
Most of this movie very, very much
except for like
some cutaway shots where we stay on Nicki
an extra second after he's left the door.
It's his POV,
so we know as much as he does
and he doesn't care.
He just wants her to love him.
So there is a shot in the film
where you can read
the rules on the back of the box.
He doesn't, so we don't. Right.
And I like that, and I don't think later
I don't think he cares.
Still, I think he cares when like Stacy.
Was that her name? Sarah. Sarah.
Sarah. Sarah wouldn't say.
You know, like,
that obviously has a big effect,
but he still,
after that twice could kill himself.
And he doesn't even have to swallow
the pills.
He's about to choke himself,
and that's when the thing breaks.
And he wants to.
Go take another wish.
And it's the wish of.
Can you wish?
Just take this wish away,
wish this wish back.
Or even he wants the alter, the wish.
And like the guy who runs a shop,
I don't trust him either.
For a line of people.
That shop are hilarious.
They're like the what?
The first woman who's just on her phone
and she knows exactly like they clearly
the two shop owners have an idea like,
oh yeah, this thing actually does work.
Yeah.
And she sells it to him
like he was buying one of those fake
rocks, which, who knows,
maybe the rocks are real.
You know, this, this, this energy rock
that she wanted to sell him.
And then the guy at the end is just like,
get someone else to do it.
It's just so funny
how they're so nonchalant about it.
Because, again, I think that
if once you go deeper into it,
which I fear, I and I don't love
doing that, but I'd be surprised
if this was the only obsession film
that we ever made that ever gets made.
I wonder if there's something
to those two shop owners,
you know,
because they 100% know what they're doing
and what they're selling and how it can go
one way or the other, like,
hey, don't come back here
with your bullshit.
What, like what a wild thing to say
to somebody instead of,
you know, if you do this wrong, like,
it could be really, really bad.
But he wouldn't have listened to that
anyway because he would believe them,
right?
Right.
Like, no one believes that shit
when you buy it. No.
So that's also a lot of fun is the idea
that there's so many people out there who
just like him,
God knows what they said
and caused in actual reality
because they didn't
actually believe it was real at all.
So that's
that's where it could be very funny.
Like that could cause
for some really funny things to happen.
All right.
I mean, kind of like with a in oddity
and hokum.
It's the people who are open to it
that see
the ghosts, that see the hauntings.
I mean, this bush works no matter what.
It's just whether you see it.
And I think that's the same thing
with oddity and hokum is actually like,
the ghosts are there, whether you
see them or not, they're there.
I really hope someone out there
jokingly said,
I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
and broke that wish it.
Fell down on top of them.
If it does, like with $1 billion.
Like on Christmas Eve,
we just cut to them on Christmas
Eve and a fucking hippo
like falls onto them.
I will last for a day
if I get to see that in a movie.
So anyways.
Yeah, well, I think you guys did change
my mind about it a little bit, I think.
Yeah, reading about it,
I see all these things
and I'm not going to be so, you know,
this is my opinion of the film
and that's it.
And I'm going to seek out
only opinions that agree
with me about these certain things.
So we got it.
We got it. You hate the girl.
I. Hate lemon. I. Love demons.
The demon did nothing wrong.
How rude.
Demon.
We don't know if it's a demon.
Have some entity.
The jinn, the gin.
He did nothing.
Wrong anyway.
Well, thank you guys for for this.
Talking about this for me.
I know the next.
I think back rooms is coming up soon.
2020 ninth, 20.
29th. Okay.
Other than that, like I don't I'm trying
to think of any other films that
I might be seeking out
in the coming months.
If you want a palate cleanser,
maybe I'm going to go see
I Love boosters, the new Boots
Riley movie.
Yes. Yes, I've. Seen that tomorrow. Yeah.
Seeing that tomorrow. Yeah.
Yeah that's a good that's a good one.
So I will definitely be going
and check that out.
And yeah maybe
that will be our next conversation.
Thanks everyone for listening.
I really appreciate it.
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