this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2026
60 points (95.5% liked)
memes
22456 readers
3609 users here now
Community rules
1. Be civil
No trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour
2. No politics
This is non-politics community. For political memes please go to !politicalmemes@lemmy.world
3. No recent reposts
Check for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month
4. No bots
No bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins
5. No Spam/Ads/AI Slop
No advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live. We also consider AI slop to be spam in this community and is subject to removal.
A collection of some classic Lemmy memes for your enjoyment
Sister communities
- !tenforward@lemmy.world : Star Trek memes, chat and shitposts
- !lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world : Lemmy Shitposts, anything and everything goes.
- !linuxmemes@lemmy.world : Linux themed memes
- !comicstrips@lemmy.world : for those who love comic stories.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I watched with my girlfriend and we felt really weird after. It really played with stereotypes like the "crazy girlfriend" and the "poor nice guy". He is portrayed as the victim most of the movie, which we found very strange. The movie is very well made with some nice effects and new ideas, but it really felt odd for 2026.
Edit: as you are describing the movie things come to my mind again, I could originally only recall that "feeling" it left me with. Of course he is portrayed as the villain, I was wrong with that take. Yes we have the hotline call, the "please kill me" scene and the end scene. Still I felt the female perspective was totally underrepresented in the movie. Nikki has not a real back story, she is just the crazy bitch for the guy wishing the monkeys paw wish getting wrong.
I know, it is a horror movie and it's for entertainment, but I found the male/female stereotypes boring. In the end for me it is a male fantasy movie and I find the message very shallow.
He is the villain. He's not pure evil, he's just a bit of a loser and lacks self confidence, but many times he is given a choice to do the right thing or the thing that benefits his own wants, he makes the selfish choice.
That's why he's the villain. Little by little he knows things are going wrong, but he's a "nice guy" and surely he deserves something he wants because he's "nice."
The movie is a fantastic depiction of what is wrong with NiceGuys™ and that they actually don't care nearly as much about the other person as they think they do.
The director himself said it best, "The One Wish Willow isn't cursed, the shop owner is meant to demonstrate that you can make your wish and live a fine life after. Bear is cursed because the wish he makes is cursed."
I think if you watch it again you’d realize he is meant to be the villain. The scene where he calls tech support and doesn’t want to cancel his wish, just tone it down a little. Followed by him hearing her screaming in pain knowing the girl he’s with does not have the soul of the girl he had a crush on.
Even after that call, he’s trying to salvage this thing. Knowing what he knew, he would live the rest of his life with this thing so long as it toned down the weirdness.
I loved that the movie didn’t bash you over the head with this message, but it’s 100% in there.
Hehehe Didn't bash us in the face over it, eh?
I'm so sorry 😔
There are many scenes which make it clear that in fact she is the victim. Theres a permament latent layer of meaning which shows that his only problem is her strange behaviour and not her suffering, he adressed that in many scenes. Even when she talks to him with clear mind in her sleep begging to just kill her all he answers is "is it so bad to be with me". Also when the one whish willow hotline askes if he wants to talk to the in the background crying and suffering " real nikki" he just denies. Pretty much every scene has these two layers: the classic horror where the crazy nikki hunts her victim and the layer of bear clearly knowing he just trapped this girl against her will for selfish reasons. It shows very subtle in the beginning of the movie and gets more obvious in the further course... I didnt recognize many of the more subtle signs in the first third of the movie until i saw it a second time, i can really recommend to do this (if you two find the time) and rewatch with another perspective, its very well done! Also after i saw it the second time i watched some analsysis and it showed even more details i didnt see the second time, i love how much love went into the details and the social relation between the four friends and what happens in the (sometimes blurred) background.
He knows the girl he’s with is not Nikki. He knows she’s an unstable psychopath. He still goes to the car to talk to Sarah and even shared a romantic moment with her.
He has caused so much pain and suffering with his wish for “love”. And here he is being even more selfish and stupid. Sarah’s death was his fault.
I (unironically) love how your comment gets longer and longer every time I refresh this thread.
Haha yeah i had many edits. I come to correct a typo and stay for another add on. I admit this movie hyped me more than i thought, it haunted me e few days after i saw it and from time to time i still think about it, what i barely do after movies.
genuinely baffled how you got this. it was immediately clear to me & my partner that he was a selfish, feckless loser who brought it on himself.
He’s definitely played as a tragic villain for the entirety of the film. I’ve gotten to the point where I’m questioning if commenters like this ever watched the movie.
I think the movie was very subtle about these things. It’s 100% there, but if you’re not in the specific mindset to notice then, it’s easy to miss.
Especially if you think wishing a girl loved you should work. If his wish is reasonable, then the rest of the movie is unfair to him.
Exactly my thoughts. Yeah, you can argue that he wasn't aware how his wish would play out in detail but that's pretty much the only point that redeems him.
He would have had a realistic chance to be with her if he had just actually talked to her in the beginning. Instead he completely ignores the entire concept of consent, uses a supernatural artifact to make her feel things against her will and while she still acts more or less normal, he shows exactly no remorse. He only gets interested in reversing the wish when there are negative consequences for him. He doesn't care for her feelings at all.
He's toxic, he comes as close to being a rapist as you can come and the film makes a point of showing us that the real Nikki is still somewhere inside the remote-controlled shell that he has created and is very much not okay with what is happening.. How can anyone see him as the victim?
Yeah, that was a wildly poor take from the previous commenter. Even if you only had a fraction more than a superficial glance at the film, the roles are very clear.
yeah, the only thought i had during and especially at the end of the movie was "and now that poor girl is traumatized for the rest of her life and will most likely be in prison for double homicide for several years just bcs this dude wanted to get his dick wet"
You may find this video essay by Jessie Gender to be enlightening - https://youtu.be/Ta51v9tW3CA
Yes, it's 3 hours long. Yes, it's worth it.