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Run for Your Lives Podcast
Pake and Daphne share a mutual love of monster movies, creature features and disaster flicks and will be taking a closer look at films that make you Run for Your Lives!
Run for Your Lives Podcast
RFYL 262: Obsession
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In this episode, Pake and Daphne discuss Obsession, written and directed by Curry Barker and released on May 15, 2026.
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You are listening to the Wells of Hey everyone, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_00I'm Daphne.
SPEAKER_02And I'm Pate.
SPEAKER_00And this is the Run for Your Lives Podcast.
SPEAKER_02This episode we are talking about the psychological horror film Obsession, written and directed by Curry Barker and released May 15th, 2026. Yeah. Another newer one. One that everybody has been talking about since it came out in theaters. And I'm finally able to watch it and get to it.
SPEAKER_00I know. We do try to make sure that it's available for renting or buying so that people that listen to our podcast can actually see it before we cover it. I know that other podcasts are real quick to jump in and cover things real quick, but we try to wait to give you guys a chance to have seen it before we cover it. Yeah, this one got a lot of buzz. Curry Barker is another comedian who is jumping into the horror and terror realm. And yeah, I also have to say that there were times during this movie that I thought my screen was frozen and or that I had hit pause accidentally because the way that Nikki the character of Nikki and her expressions would just freeze. It just made me think something's wrong with my television, or that I need to unpause something that I didn't pause. So we've been talking about covering this one for a while, ever since it came out. So I'm really glad that we're jumping into it now. It's quite a movie. I wasn't quite sure what to expect with this one. And now that I've seen it, I'm still not sure what I think about it. So maybe us talking about it will help me come to a conclusion.
SPEAKER_02Alright, yeah. Yeah, I get that. I felt the same way, feel the same way about backrooms, which we haven't covered yet. That I still like, I don't know. I don't know. Um so I get that. No, this one, um I I did really enjoy this one. It also enjoy is a word with an asterisk on it. Um, because it was definitely a lot of kind of cringing and being like, what the fuck? Um don't like that, no. But um but in a good way, as a movie is can. Um Twitter's definitely quite the ride. Uh and, you know, again, if anybody's listening to this, we're going to just assume that you have seen the movie so we can talk about whatever. We're not gonna we're gonna spoil things for you uh right away if you haven't. Uh but yeah, uh jumping even just to the end where it's it's not a happy movie. There's no happy ending. It's depressing as fuck. And I like that because I haven't gotten one like that in a little while.
SPEAKER_00I didn't feel like it was a cop-out ending.
SPEAKER_02No. It wasn't a cop-out, and it wasn't like because sometimes even like a depressing one could be like for shock factor, and I feel like this one wasn't really that way either. Like, there really was no other way this can end.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think it came to the conclusion it was supposed to, and I don't question that at all. I think this was the only way it could end. Unfortunately for the character of Nikki, I feel like she got the raw esteal in this entire movie. I just can't imagine what it would be like to be basically trapped in your own body, it seemed like, while someone else took over. I mean, she wasn't possessed by anyone, but was she? I mean, it's like the magic of the willow being broken. She had no free will at all. He made a wish in in haste, I think. I mean, he had an opportunity to tell her how he felt about her and he didn't do it. Instead, he copped out basically and took a present that he had bought for her and used it for himself. And then things just went downhill in a spiral and a ride that yeah. There was one particular scene in the movie. I was calm, I didn't, you know, I had watched the scene and I thought, okay, I'm expecting something here. There's nothing here and nothing here. I'm like, okay, then it's not gonna happen. Phew, that's good. And then it did. And I was just like, no, I didn't need that jump scare. It scared the cat that was sitting next to me. He flew out of his bed. Um because I thought I was safe at in the moment, but no.
SPEAKER_02Never.
SPEAKER_00Never. I loved so much of this movie that was told with shadows, like, or things were darker, and I know people complain about that all the time. It's too dark, it's too dark, we can't see anything. I think they used it in the right way in this movie. Yeah, I think it added to the ambiance and the music too, I thought was really well done. And it just had a different feel, and I appreciate that. I'm glad these comedians are getting into creating these films because we need something fresh and new. And if you look at the movies that we've gotten more recently in the last couple of years, or even the last decade, it's been coming from comedians. They're the ones that are bringing forth some of the best scary movies that we've seen.
SPEAKER_02Teaching great life lessons, of course, Curry Barker and Zach Kreger, both you know, showing us that nothing good can happen when you start snapping sticks in half.
SPEAKER_00I can't.
SPEAKER_02Don't do it.
SPEAKER_00You know what? They're working together to hit that one home.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. We need to let the kids know about that. Don't do it. Bad for you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02Stick snapping is bad. Don't do it.
SPEAKER_00I also would say don't let your girlfriend make you lunch for work. I'm not sure that's a good thing to do. Um, based on Nikki's culinary expertise. Oof, that was rough. I expected it to be worse because I had been told about some of the scenes that might bother me because I have this thing about animals, and I do not want to watch them hurt, but I didn't feel like I saw them get hurt. It was more it had already happened. And I was just glad that I didn't have to see the actual act of the deaths. So it's much better that way because I just get too upset. So let's jump into this the way that we always do. It was filmed in Los Angeles, San Fernando, and Burbank, California. It became the highest-grossing film with a budget of under one million dollars this year when it was released, passing the format number one, which came out 53 years ago. It was Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon. It also passed the Blair Witch Project before it passed Enter the Dragon, which thinking back to when Blair Witch Project came out and what a huge thing it was, because everyone believed that the actors were actually people and that they died in real life until they went on one of the talk shows, and that's when it kind of broke the spell.
SPEAKER_02You can imagine it.
SPEAKER_00You can imagine that um what it would have been like if the actors hadn't done any of the press tour. I mean, people would have been thinking that it was a real found footage horror movie, and it they you know, the Blair Witch project started that whole trend of fan footage.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um but this one has been exceeding expectations everywhere you turn. I already mentioned Curry Barker. He's a YouTuber, he's an actor, he's a director and a writer, and he wrote this script and this whole story, and I found out something that I thought was interesting. He pitched this idea loosely based off a story that was part of Treehouse of Terror 2 that was on The Simpsons. So he kind of got an inspiration from watching that, and so I thought it was interesting how he twisted it into the story that we got. The budget for this movie was $750,000, and to date of this recording, it has grossed $443 million.
SPEAKER_02It's insane.
SPEAKER_00Insane. Um, it's 109 minutes long. Pake, give us a synopsis.
SPEAKER_02Alright. Baron Bear Bailey breaks a novelty charm to force his coworker Nikki Freeman to love him, but the supernatural compulsion warps her mind into violent obsession. Title of the movie, trapping him in a nightmare he cannot wish away.
SPEAKER_00I think that captures it perfectly. If you look at how he actually made the wish and his wording of it, he well exceeded a simple a like a simple request. I'd like Nikki to fall in love with me. No, he made it to love I want Nikki to love me more than she loves anyone else. And I think she was at war with herself the entire time because there was a piece of her in there, but it by the end there was nothing.
SPEAKER_03Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00Until the very, very end. And then I'm interested once we get there, if you think what I think about the ending as far as where she's at with it. But yeah, um, I think Bear is the main character, but Nikki is also a big part of it, so I feel like their stories are intertwined here.
SPEAKER_04Yep.
SPEAKER_00So we'll just go with that. There are a couple of other characters in the movie, Sarah and Ian. I don't really have a lot of notes about them, except I think Ian is an asshole. Um and Sarah I thought was actually a decent person.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I think like Nikki, she's someone who she got a terrible deal, basically. And uh her ending was really sad because she she didn't do anything. And that's where it gets hard in some of these movies, especially when you have someone who's really innocent and they end up being caught in the crossfire, or they end up dying because of of a ridiculous reason, jealousy or whatever. She just was not she was in the way.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I'm I'm with you on yeah, notes are just kind of it was another one where it ended and I went, okay, I'm good. What I took down in the place is where it stays.
SPEAKER_00Uh exactly. I I don't I didn't really reorder anything, I just kind of kept it all like linear as far as what I thought as I went through the movie. Um it was rough to watch in parts. They were just things that oh god as Nikki spiraled further and further into madness and did more and more terrifying things, it just got more difficult to watch. However, I think it's really well done. And the fact that he did that on $750,000, wow. It's amazing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, because it's it's masterfully done. I really enjoyed it visually. A lot of of this was was incredible. Um especially I'm jump a little a little bit just because I have like one note that and you talked about it was the shadows and the way that they kind of especially early on and then closer to the end. Because you kind of have that part in the middle where things seem better and then it's still a little wonky, but then you know it's not as crazy. It was like you get like the creep in and then like the really just spiral out, but they kind of frame her face in darkness or shadows to varying degrees, whether she's like hiding around in the corners or just like standing in a certain spot, or even just like the way that she's like the lighting on her when she's even standing in front of Bear and talking to him. And then there's that like that little light glimmer that's in her eyes that's used to a really great effect. Um then, of course, just like Indy Navarrett, the actress herself, is so spot on with the facial expressions that are just on the wrong side of unnatural. You know, that like Yeah, so good. So well.
SPEAKER_00You know what? It reminded me of Smile.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was gonna say, like, and you might take this as offensive a little bit. I I don't mean for it to be a knock on it, but it's like the smile, like it's like smile, but not cheesy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. Where the smile in smile was over the top and creepy, this was men like you could feel like the undercurrent of menacing that was coming from it.
SPEAKER_02It's almost like she is possessed by some non-human entity that is just driven by this compulsion, love, love, love more than anything. And it's almost like it's trying to figure out how to be a human being at the same time. It's like, is this love? Does this look like love? No, no, it doesn't. That looks horrifying. Stop it.
SPEAKER_00Yes. And at the beginning, we see her snapping back into herself. Like she's like, wait, wait, what? Like when they're on the bed getting down, and she suddenly like says she has a panic attack, she freaks out and jumps off the bed. She comes back, like it's like Nikki's coming back, and then she is okay, but then she loses herself again. And it's kind of like I feel like a war within herself at the beginning that she just couldn't win.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so there's a point later on where she is asking him a question, a very serious question, and we'll get to it. Where you realize that she's just losing. Yeah. And she's just wants a way out because she can't win this battle of what's going on inside her. So that is uh for Nikki. I mean, she didn't ask for any of this. She seemed to want to get out of the job she was in. She she wanted to do something else, and he'd never even told her anything. And she gives him the opportunity to do so before he breaks the willow. Nikki gives him the opportunity.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know, if you were ever gonna tell me, now is the time, and he doesn't.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, he pulls this like, we're great friends, and it's like, you know, I I don't want to use the for like term friend zone because it has all these like negative connotations of like expectations or what men are, you know, deserve from a woman, which is not yeah, but in a way that's kind of you know, there is that, and he's just putting himself there, like he's just leaning into it whenever she gives in the opening, and he's like, Yeah, we're great friends, and it's like, okay, well, you've fucked up your choice chance. Like, there you go. That was that was that. But again, I I don't put any blame on Bear either. Because was he supposed to expect that this thing was real and worked?
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_02Like, that's you know, like now later on, you know, it's it's then you can kind of have that you know argument or conversation about like, did he do everything the right way? Should he have done something differently? Is there and it's like, but I don't know, what are the answers? What do you do?
SPEAKER_00I mean, right from the beginning when he bought it, the girl was at the shop, was basically telling him shit. I don't think he believed a word of it, but she was telling him things that it happened.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00And he didn't hear it.
SPEAKER_02Just like right over there. Anyone who's actually used it, if they're still alive, has been complaining about it. Should be some red flags there.
SPEAKER_00Definitely.
SPEAKER_02Should have just bought the crystal. Would have been a much better choice.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, but I mean, he's just like he's been obsessed with her. It seems like he's known her forever because uh Ian even makes a line about like, you know, uh seven years too late prom posal or something. So it seems like it's you know, they've all went to school together and grew up together and have known each other. They are all working at this music store now, so it's like had this like kind of tight-knit group of friends. She's on his trivia team.
SPEAKER_00So, like I loved that scene. You know that I was just like, yeah, let me be I would love to be part of that trivia team.
SPEAKER_02I did have a question with Daphne. On a scale of one to Ian, how excited are you about trivia on Wednesdays?
SPEAKER_00My excitement exceeds everyone's, I think. Especially this week because it's my birthday party and my birthday party at trivia. It's always so much more fun because more people come and we just kind of have one giant team and it's amazing. Yeah, um, I'm beyond Ian in the happiest, best direction possible.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Because again, I quote his line was I wake up on Wednesday morning with a raging heart on, excited for trivia.
SPEAKER_00So I'm not excited in the same way that Ian is, but I'm really excited to see my friends. And I think I may have mentioned this before. If not on the podcast, I know I've told you this before. During the pandemic, when we couldn't go anywhere, couldn't do anything, I missed going to trivia a lot. And I'm on a very competitive team. We're we're very strong, and sometimes we don't have great nights, but a lot of the time we're very lucky. You've been part of one of those teams. You were on the team when we had a perfect game, which has never happened uh other than the one time that we did it.
SPEAKER_02I can't help it. I'm just that good.
SPEAKER_00You are you know, we haven't repeated it yet, so you're gonna have to come back and we have to do it again. Anyway, what I'm wanted to say is it seemed so much before the pandemic that I was really super, super hardcore competitive. But once we got back to playing after, when things loosened up and we were able to go back, it really for me has been about. My friends and hanging out and having fun and seeing familiar faces and the other teams, it that's what it's about. So while I don't share in sexual um excitement for trivia, I've exceeded the excitement level in a different way, not in a sexual way.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_00If that answers your question.
SPEAKER_02Okay, sure. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I love trivia. It's so fun.
SPEAKER_02Which I love. Ian loves it enough that we're like, he's helping Bear with this, you know, okay, let's make you sound natural and not desperate whenever you do ask her out. Because clearly you're terrible at this. At least we can find a nice waitress who will let you run your insanity out. Um but you know that he's like, yeah, totally. Like, I get it. You've you've been into Nikki for a long time, and you really should go for it. My one condition is don't do it at trivia, don't fuck up trivia, don't make trivia awkward. He's like, that's where that's the magic place, and you keep it outside of there.
SPEAKER_00You know what? I 100% agree with that because those little distractions can really f up your vibe. And you don't want that. You definitely don't want that. I fell for Bear because it's a huge risk if you have developed these feelings for someone that you're very close to. It is a huge risk to yourself, to your friendship. Like things may never be the same if you say the words out loud. And that can be terrifying because you don't want things to change. You don't want the person that you're telling this to to look at you differently after or for it to completely destroy the friendship that you have. So a lot of times people don't say anything because they're too afraid of, oh my God, if I tell him or her how I feel, they're gonna not feel the same, and then our friendship's gonna be ruined because they're gonna think that I'm just crushing on them all the time. And that's yeah, I can see why he was afraid in that moment to not tell her because you wouldn't want to destroy it. I mean you don't want anything to happen. If you have someone that you're close to like that, you don't want to ruin the friendship. You want it to I think you look at it like, at least I have this. And if I risk it, is it worth the risk? Even though the person could feel the same, you don't know. And I'm not sure what she felt for him, other than she friend zoned him in a discussion with Sarah, but it seemed really interesting that she said to him, You could tell me, you know, if you have feelings for me, now is the time to tell me.
SPEAKER_02I think the way that I read into it is she absolutely 0% in any way had any romantic feelings for him at all, whatsoever. That was never going to be an option for her. And so I think, you know, the conversation she had with Sarah was saying as much to where, and then, you know, maybe I don't I think it's because she didn't realize that he had feelings for her. That when people, you know, email, well, yeah, take your girl home, or you know, do this, and she ew, ew, the way she would react, like, you know, we're just friends, don't say that. While in his head, he's being like, Oh shit, like, you know, she really like turned off at the idea of me.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So I I think with her doing that, if you do, you tell me now, was she was like, This is a position, this is a place where we can let any of the awkwardness go, and I will let you, I will let you down gently, and we will be friends and we will move on from it. I think is what she was ready to do.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think that opportunity was a good one for him to get it out of his system or to let it go and just realize, hey, I don't need to say that to her because it's obvious she doesn't have the same feelings. Or she may never have even I mean, in some cases, I think sometimes people don't even think about it. Like the it's just not something that crosses their mind, they're not thinking about you that way. So they don't um so it yeah, it's just not something that they've ever thought about. So I wish he had said something though, because I think even with rejection, it would have allowed him to move on. And it was I mean, Sarah really liked him, and I kind of thought that the way she was reacting about the cat and everything. I I kind of thought that I was like, oh, does she like him? Because the way she's being I I just thought maybe she was into him, and then it all went to hell. It all went to hell and didn't matter.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Didn't matter.
SPEAKER_02No, yeah, he would I feel he felt a little rushed, I think, at that time, because then when he talked to her and she was like, Well, I'm putting in my two weeks, and she he could tell there's like this distance, not necessarily from him, but that like then you have this most like, well, what is she planning on doing? And then you say, Well, was she gonna move away? Is she gonna like do something different? Like, what so then you're like it's now or never. And so he feels rushed, but then yeah, when the moment comes where she lays it out right out to him, like, just tell me, he's still so in his head and so scared. Yeah. That's just like, no. Um, maybe you should have had a couple more pina coladas that might have helped. Then you shouldn't be driving her home. But 'cause hey, pina coladas are great. Don't don't be hating on the pina coladas, Nikki.
SPEAKER_00I know. I don't I don't know what that was about.
SPEAKER_02She was really like It was just like a lot of those things where like she just kind of It was like I think it's just like all these little hints of like they're not on the same page. Past like just being But they're so good as friends. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00She teases the hell out of him about the pina colada, but you can just tell that they get along in vibe really, really well. And there's nothing wrong with that. But I think in his head, he was already thinking if she leaves work, I'm not gonna see her anymore, or every day, and I've gotten used to it, and it's something that makes me happy. And even as friends, that can happen. Yeah, everybody has that small group or friends they can count on one hand that make them happy, and they're the ones that you want to hang out with the most because they're the ones that make you super stoked and excited. And I think he was looking at the future and not being able to hang out with her as much, and I think he was really bummed about that. Yeah. So, and it's a big change. I mean, the four of them working together at that place, I mean. I still don't think Ian was a really good bro, though.
SPEAKER_02I think except for one moment. There was one moment I'm trying to remember because I I have it, and I said Ian is the homie looking out for his uh boy. I think it's the moment where he calls him while they're at dinner on that date and lets him know like she's lying about her dad. Like, no, that's I honestly like it's a good bro move. You do like this might really piss him off and like cause some issues, but like if your friend is in a situation like that, then yeah, no, it's good. Because you can be like, well, that's their business, let me but you don't want to see your friends being taken advantage of.
SPEAKER_00No, you definitely don't. No, that you're right. That was a good thing for him to do.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And even telling at that point, because he told her, told her about that, and then even following that up with like, and I talked to Sarah, and she said she just talked to Nikki, and Nikki made it very clear that you were nothing more than a friend. So this is weird.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Friend zoned, I think was the word. Yeah. Yeah. So it's yeah. So don't you think it's odd that she's all over you? Well, he he started to realize it's the willow, especially because it wasn't a subtle shift. It was like instantaneous. Suddenly, they're in a relationship.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It's a quick turnaround on the returns on that thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like, yeah. As soon as he snaps it, she's like, oh, by the way.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, why don't you come in? Why don't you come in? Wanna lay with me?
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm. There are a lot of things that I did call in advance in this movie. I will say that kind of I I don't I don't I don't know if it's that it was um predictable or if it's just I was on my game today. I don't know. But there's like as soon as she's like, well, my dad is sick, and then immediately I was like, no, he's not.
SPEAKER_03No, he's not.
SPEAKER_02I was like, is her dad really dying, or is it definitely a lie to get Bear to acquiesce to letting her go to his place with him? Like, that's what that is.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02At any cost. Love me. So it's like she's making up these lies and doing things to get that.
SPEAKER_00And again, the way that he made the wish, make her love me more than anyone else, he became everything. He was her number one focus the entire time. She was obsessed. He was all that there was, and it just continued to spiral. And once she got into his house, someone gave her a roll of duct tape and she went to down.
SPEAKER_02So very terrified and confused about getting exactly what he wanted. It's just a little wild. Like, what is happening?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was a lot really fast. Like it there was no downtime. It was this is your situation, and adjust to it because that's how it is.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00She loves you, she wants you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It's a lot for him to just take it once, like, oh, all of this at once. But then on the flip side, and you mentioned it earlier, the really fucked up thing about this wish is that it's overridden Nikki's actual free will. It is. So it is controlling her, and she is non-consenting in this situation. And then so we get those little moments of clarity where she like briefly bounces out of it, like you say, in the middle of them like making out, and then she freaks out just to bounce back to her practically like hypnotized state in a way. In those like little moments where there's like that clarity, and then she gets covered back at sucked back into it. And it's where you realize like she is living in a hell right now.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It's kind of like in get out, where the person like drifts back and is a prisoner in their own mind.
SPEAKER_02She's in the sunken place.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. They don't have any control over anything. And at one point later, she has one of her moments of being back to Nikki. And she asks him to kill her.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And he takes it personally, thinking that she's telling him, you know, that he's a terrible person and she doesn't want, you know. He says, What's so bad about being with me? And she says to him she's never been with him because it hasn't been her. It has been this force that's within her. It has not been Nikki. She's just been along for the ride. She's been a a passenger in this.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's that's an interesting scene. Which I again, I thought I'd seen her, like, heard her voice without her mouth moving earlier in the movie. And then you kind of see that again. It's like, oh yeah, like the real Nikki can speak out sometimes in certain like moments. And yeah, she says she's like begging for death over this, which you can see how that hurts a little. You know, he does have that moment, like, you would rather die than be with me. But also he knows that she's not her and that it's not okay what's going on. Yeah. Like it's not like something that he like the moment that turned him into the villain of the story where he was like, actually, I don't care. Which, you know, some could some movies or some stories could go that way where it's like, well, I'm gonna lean into it now, but no, it just further makes him realize this is not okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Because it wasn't okay. She was trapped, and he did not have a lot of options by the time he started looking for them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And I so I think, you know, again, I don't really put much blame on him because, you know, why would you expect this to happen? And then it's hard to say what you would do in this situation. Not even like uh in hindsight, we're like, well, if I would, you know, if we would have known what was gonna happen, then he should have done this. There's really not even of that, any of that, because there were no good answers. Um, but even at first, like he stays like as a pretty good guy. You know, he gets up and he's on the computer and he's like going on Reddit and being like, you know, does this thing work? And then he's like laughing at himself, like, I'm insane for thinking this is actually what happened. And so he's trying to, you know, he's talking to Ian. It's like, well, she was on Molly, and there's gotta be something that explains it. And then even with all of that, like that first night, he does a really great job of making sure he's like, I'm if she's on something, if something is not right, I'm not taking advantage of her if she's mentally unwell. And you know, again, it's not like he purposely made that wish thinking that it was actually gonna come true. There wasn't an evil intention that he had.
SPEAKER_00Of course not. But it's what happened.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And I just love like those little things like he's talking about Ian the next talking to Ian about it the next day, and then she's just staring at it behind out of focus, and it's just like uh I love the way that they just do the little creepy things. Uh like the music store, which we find out, so that was Sarah's dad.
SPEAKER_03Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02Is the guy that's running it, played by Andy Richter, which that was really fun because I was a huge Conan guy back in the day, so I love seeing Andy always and forever.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Well, they actually use the real Cassell's music for the location, and it was also used in Wayne's World. And they offered the part of Sarah's dead to the guy who owned Cassell's music, but he didn't take it because it had a swear word and he didn't want to swear. So I thought that was kind of clever.
SPEAKER_02It's funny.
SPEAKER_00It's closed now though.
SPEAKER_02Maybe there'll be some new life breathed into it after this movie. Who knows?
SPEAKER_00Well, someone needs to reopen it. It had been in business for like 78 years before it closed. So even before this, there are some really creepy things. Like we kind of jumped to the scene where she's asking to die, but yeah, even before this, there are some things that are there's so many other things that yeah. Be careful what you wish for was the thing that just kept going through my head the entire time.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I mean, because again, that first night was just very weird because it's like whatever this like compulsion that is taking over her was trying to find its footing, like I had said. Yeah. And so, like, the next time that she shows up, it's like trying a new approach. It's like, yeah, I'm sorry, this was weird, and then let's try to make it seem natural. And you like me, right? Well, let's lean into Bear's initial feelings, and that works more, and then that you see the like montage of like, oh, now they're the lovey dovey couple of the century. And it seems like things are going really well at first until Ian makes the call about her dad, and then when he questions her about her dad, then it's like, oh, that's terrifying. Just like in the middle of the restaurant. It's like you mentioned her dad and questioning her lie, and then that sets her off in this unsettling way. So then in his mind, he's like, Okay, cool, I'm trapped in this place where I can never push back. It's like everything seems perfect unless I step out of line. It almost hit becomes him having to walk on eggshells around her to not say or do the wrong thing to just turn everything on its head.
SPEAKER_00More and more and more. And she does things that are so strange.
SPEAKER_02The watching you sleep scene was fucking horrifying.
SPEAKER_00Oh my god. The entire thing. Oh, the sounds and the oh man. Was so weird, so weird.
SPEAKER_02All of the yikes.
SPEAKER_00She made a cat shrine. Like a funeral shrine for his cat, Sandy, and which OD'd. That cat OD'd on medication.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Which I thought was a foreshadowing to later things. And it turned out it was right. I didn't realize it at the time, but at the end, it's like, yep, that was foreshadowing of the situation.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah, that was just creeping and skittering around the room and hiding her face and herself from stuff, and I have bad dreams. Where it's like the you get that like little bit of like a real Nikki coming out, and then like with this other thing, and just crying out and yelling, and then snapping back. And the moment where he tries to like crawl out of bed to go get like a glass of water or something, and she ah he's like, okay, fine. I will.
SPEAKER_00Stay, she's yelling at him.
SPEAKER_02Stay here. Just so much W E T F on everything. Um too much. You know, to where literally he's like, look, I love you, but don't be fucking weird. Yeah, like like that. The two big smile that looks haunted. Yeah, none of that. Um duct taping the door shut, oh my god, peeing on the floor. Like, none of that stuff. That's what we're talking about on the weird.
SPEAKER_00She thought she could keep him at home if if she duct taped the door. Like, oh well, maybe you don't need to leave. You can stay here with me. And it's like the way it was worded, the wish wasn't created the obsession. It really did. And I think the obsession is the non-entity that took over her in this situation. I mean, she makes him lunch.
SPEAKER_02Dead cat sandwiches.
SPEAKER_00Oh, Jesus.
SPEAKER_02Again, what the fuck? Just horrifying. Uh, but then like again, she's gone through stuff because one little scene, one thing that I thought was really interesting is the the photos with the lunch.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02The you and then not me. So it was like there's still some little part of the real Nikki still in there that's like piecing things together or found a way to reach out and like send a message of like, this isn't me. Well, obviously he should know that. Um, but it is insane for like to think about that there she s has these moments where she can 'cause it's before we hear her talking to him while the other one is asleep.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Where it's like there's there is some balance. Like she is there, the real Nikki is there, but can't do anything. But so I guess there was a moment where she snapped out of it, wrote that on the pictures, and was like, Maybe he'll get the message. Cause then even at the party, that's where like she has that moment, and then she's like, It's not me, it's not me. And then like self-harm is like, you know, take me because she doesn't know what's going on. She doesn't know he made a wish.
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_02So like all she can assume is this is some kind of fresh new mental health hell that nobody's ever heard of. So I think her hurting herself at the party was hoping he would take her to the hospital and she could get psychiatric help and figure out what's going on.
SPEAKER_01But something happened at the ER, they wouldn't take her.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was trying to figure out what that was because it was no dialogue or anything. It was just kind of shown. I mean, she gets out of the car and she's like dancing around, and it's like, wouldn't that just add to the fact that she's like under like psychological like duress and you should take her in?
unknownAbsolutely.
SPEAKER_02But like all I can assume is maybe that like she was like not consenting to being taken to the hospital, and so the nurse was like, if she doesn't want to be here, we can't take her in.
SPEAKER_00Oh man. Oh god. Well, even that situation that happened that created the injury. Ian was having a boys' night, or he wasn't, he was having a party. He did not invite Bear and Nikki. Because he knows something's off with Nikki, he can tell. Like he obviously he can tell, because as we learn later, Ian and Nikki had been hooking up.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Which is a lot for Baird, I think, have to stomach because Ian's his best friend and he's hooking up with the girl that he knows he has a crush on.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like that's that's not really okay, or I don't know. I mean, what do you do in that situation?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I don't know, it's it's complicated because it's it also the way Sarah was like talking about it is Ian and Nikki's relationship said it was never romantic, it's just it was just a thing. It was just yeah, just for sex. And so it's like, and those relationships exist and like are perfectly fine. And so I think in a way like Ian's mind is like, yeah, that's great. Like that's just kind of been my thing, but also my friend is really into her, and if I think he should go for it, and like because if Nikki ends up, you know, dating Bear, it's like that's not gonna be a Like bother to him. There's no romantic connection between them. So he'll be like, okay, cool, that's fine.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. But Ian seems concerned about Nikki because Nikki is not acting like herself at all.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. She cut off everything to him, I'm assuming, and is just focused on Bear now. So he's like, okay.
SPEAKER_01This seems weird.
SPEAKER_02Being obsessed with bear is one thing, but also to just fully cut everything off and like act like nothing happened with us is also really weird.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. So he decides, or he rather, Ian tells Bear that he will make it a guy's night and uninvite the girls that were supposed to come, and that he will just have a guy's night. But Bear can't go to it without Nikki. Nikki finds a way to get herself into it. So that she goes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, she's just again, it's like walking on eggshells, or she's gonna freak out. So finally he's like, Yeah, I can't I can't do that. So yeah, the boy's night plan did not quite work out. Which I think, you know, Ian says that he had no intention of doing that. Like as far as the like and uninvited the girls, so they show up and all the girls are still there and stuff. And Sarah said that she was still going and so all that. There is one scene before that that I wanted to talk about for sure, which is when he calls the little help number on the back of the one-wish willow box, uh, which is just insane. The dude on the other end of the line that answers it just Yeah, hey, well, like just so nonchalantly, like, oh yeah, another unsatisfied customer. Hey, what's up? You know, just a typical situation. It's like, yeah, she's gonna be like this until you die. That's kind of how it goes. Can't really cancel it or change it. Because it's like, would you like to file a cancellation? Yes, we can't do that. Sorry. I just it's like, I don't know why I said that.
SPEAKER_00It gave him hope, and then it's like, nope. No, it's not gonna not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And then, do you want to speak to her? That scene.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god.
SPEAKER_02Like that moment in there. I don't know what that was about. Like, there is a supernatural, I because I did give you kind of a little like this is you know, before we started recording, because I said psychological horror movie when I introduced this movie at the top, and she had it marked as supernatural at first, and I was like, Are you sure? And we changed it. But there is something that's in the background there for sure. I'll give you that. Um, you are right on that. For that, like, you know, I'd forgotten about this part a little bit that like because yeah, the guy, I think he's credited as Harry, that is working at the shop when he goes back covered in blood later, knows what's going on. Like, he's like, Yep, that's happening. Like, there is something going on with the shop, with something that like there is a weird supernatural aspect that we don't go into, we don't explain, and I don't think it needs to be. It's just another unsettling layer. But yeah, because it's like, do you want to speak to her? So it's like almost like the guy that he calls on the phone isn't a real person. It's like he called hell. It almost was like he spoke to hell. Because her real self is there somehow, and she's just screaming in like mental agony, because she's not herself anymore. And he like unknowingly, but fully like took her life and everything away from her, and now it almost is like she's in some kind of form of hell or purgatory.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Because he can speak to her spirit, her self on the phone. I wouldn't really call it speaking. Again, she's just screaming in fear and pain and agony. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But I think that over time, this all weighed on him more and more because he did realize it's his fault. Like he caused this. And she is suffering because of it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and it rings in his head a little bit when the guy's like, Yeah, well, you know, the the wish lasts until you die. And he sits there with that for a moment.
SPEAKER_00And so she's living in this hell for the rest of her life unless he dies.
SPEAKER_04Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00And she's getting more and more deranged as we go because they're sitting there playing this Jenga game, which I thought was super fun, like to have things written on it like that. And then you I've done that before. I think that would be so fun to play that. It is fun.
SPEAKER_02Like that.
SPEAKER_00You don't know what you know is gonna be written on it, and you just take it and see. So someone had gotten a switch seats and switch places with Bayer, so the guy could he wanted to sit by Nikki. But then when Bayer went, he pulled his piece, and his piece said to kiss the person to his left.
SPEAKER_02Which again, I absolutely called it. It's one of the things I don't know how.
SPEAKER_01I did too.
SPEAKER_02I was on fire. Literally, I said out loud before he did, he pulled it and looked at it, and I just watching it, I went, I bet it's something like kiss the person on your left. And then he said that verbatim, and I was like, How did I nail that?
SPEAKER_00Because you could tell in his expression, he knew he knew that it was gonna upset Nikki. I mean, you could just tell that she was not gonna be happy about it.
SPEAKER_02He's like, she's gonna lose her shit again. Literally. Because again, when he walked in the house and she'd just been standing there all day, which again I knew. When he walked out the duct tape door and she just smiled on her face as too, I was like, she's gonna like a dog. She's gonna stand there and stare at the door all day until he comes back.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_02And then yeah, so when he walks out, it's like we talked about this, no weird shit. And I didn't think I would have to specify that meant actual literal shit.
SPEAKER_00And yet you needed to specify it. Because it was a mess, and she said she would take a shower and she would clean it up and everything until he starts talking to her through the door and talking about going to this guy's night. And she wants to go, and then she gets really upset. Like he can tell she's really touchy, and like you said, the eggshells. He has to walk on eggshells around her.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, she sure made that party so awkward. Oh, geez. Also, I guess is is she really working on a book? Uh I don't know, it sounds more like a horror than a romance novel or a love story, as she says. Uh it also just kind of sounded like a very thinly veiled threat to bear. Uh I will, you will love me, I'll force you. Uh and she even mentions, you know, like something that comes from the branches of a willow tree in there. So it's like the I don't want to say entity, but in a way the obsession. The whatever like it knows what he did.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02So it almost is something else that's taken over her.
SPEAKER_00I felt like her story was a fucked up Hansel and Gretel with a witch. With Hansel and Gretel being older, and it just because one of the characters' names was Hansel, and so I'm like, are you fucking around with Hansel and Gretel in this story?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that is not the Hansel and Gretel fanfiction I want to read. No. I don't need that version of that ever.
SPEAKER_00No. I I actually called her story Nikki's Latest Brain Diarrhea because honestly, it was just a mess. But she said it so commandingly that it really sounded like a threat. The way that she was saying at the delivery was really intense. And the way that she moved Sarah away from his left and stood there like with kissy lips for him to kiss her. Like, no, that wasn't weird. That wasn't weird. That wasn't weird at all.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's it's too much. I've been at parties where there's never to this degree, but I have seen the the doting partner of somebody who's too attached and too clingy, and it does make everything very awkward for everybody. I've seen it, and it's yeah.
SPEAKER_00You get wrapped up in a relationship sometimes so much that you don't have your own identity, and there are people out there that just become whatever their partner wants, and they're all about that person, and they can't break away from it, and they can't they can't have fun outside of that.
SPEAKER_02Which watching this movie makes me feel very good about the way that I personally uh work in relationships and romance and stuff is the I have like I'm and I've talked to you about this. I don't know if I've ever said this on the podcast, we won't get too deep into it, but like I'm just a very like not like not non-committal as in like a bad thing, but just like very aromantic in a lot of ways, where like I'm just like not interested in long-term relationships, really. And so like that's because I like my personal space and time and and and things a lot to where it's just like when they get that montage of like they're spending every second together. I'm like that right there, because like that's supposed to be the like nice moment for a lot of people watching this movie, and even I'm like, yeah, that's terrible. I need my privacy and my space, I need my alone time. That isn't I don't want that at all.
SPEAKER_00I feel like when I watch that, well, when when does he have time to play a game, or when does he have time to do his any hobbies, or when because that's how I am as far as I'm in a relationship, but I have my own things that I do that I'm very focused on, and uh my life is parts, and I there's not one thing that takes over everything else, it's just these are parts of my life, and I like all of them, and it balances out, it balances me. I can't be one of those people that's all in everything, I have to have a well-rounded life with lots of things to look forward to and enjoy.
SPEAKER_02And it's another one of the things that Ian says that I'm like, yeah, he's right, when they're in the car together, where he's like, just tell her it's a boys' night. And then I mean, it's honestly great advice. It's like if she can't handle you having your own life and needing some time away to do your own things, like if she can't be away from you for a few hours to let you live your life, then like that is a red flag. There is something wrong.
SPEAKER_00I think that one of the things that makes a relationship fun is having those other things so that when you do go do them and come back together, it's better. I don't want to bash anyone who is all about lovey dovey, love, love, love. Um, or seem that I'm against love because I'm definitely not. I just think that it's better when you go and do those things that you enjoy when you come back together you and you can talk about it and be excited about those things, or celebrate the person you're with being into something and getting excited about it. Like that's fun, that's healthy. Having one person be the be all end all is a lot. Like you if something goes wrong, you're devastated because you have I mean you've you've wrapped your whole personality up in one other person and not in yourself, and that's not healthy.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, so after the party, yeah, it's fully crumbling at this point. Like he knows like this isn't real, it's not Nikki, and this is wrong. And so he's kind of playing around with this idea is like, how do we end this? How do we break it off? But this compulsive entity or whatever, then at that point is like threatening to harm itself, to kill itself, which is really meaning killing Nikki if he leaves or if he doesn't comply with love. And he can't put himself in that position. He's like, Well, the real Nikki doesn't deserve that either. Even though she asked for it, but it's still in this place, it's like it would feel selfish. And again, it's like, what do you do in that situation? Because he's like, I could leave, and this thing will end itself, and then I'm out of this situation. But then what has that done to Nikki?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like that's then I have to hold that and let that the weight of that guilt will be on me forever because she didn't choose that.
SPEAKER_00Mm-mm. And the more as the movie goes on, it just gets worse and worse and worse. She won't let him out of her sight, really. I mean, it it's pretty bad. But Sarah messages him and asks him to meet her.
SPEAKER_02Yep. Which one more like totally saw that coming. I I said, R.I.P. Sarah, the second he got in her car.
SPEAKER_00Yep. All I could picture was smile and the car window and the flip top hat that came down. I'm like, something's gonna happen, something's gonna happen. She's gonna come after her in that window. I just knew it, and then it didn't happen, and I thought, oh, okay, I guess I'm safe. And then bam! And I scared the heck out of Dante because I jumped. Like, I didn't need that, I didn't need that.
SPEAKER_02More that they were bonding and chatting, I knew more and more that it was coming. I was just watching the window, like, any minute now, here we go.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_02Um, and that that really sucks because in another world, you know, and another timeline of this movie, if all of this with with Nikki would have never happened, I feel like eventually, I mean, she would have been Sarah would have been Bear's girlfriend that actually loved him, and I think they would have had a great relationship. Me too. She would have been the badass artist, and it just sucks that that's the way that she has to go.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I think her death really bothered me the most because I just felt like she she didn't do anything wrong. She wasn't overbearing, she wasn't pushing or prying, she was being a caring person. She genuinely cared about Bear. And her end was just so depressing because she finally got into the school. You know, she'd been rejected from all these schools, and she finally, the last letter that came, which she saved to open with Bear, he opened it after and found out that she got accepted into the school. Yeah. And that just made me sad because just the biggest gut punch. Yeah, because she deserved it. She deserved to have that life and go to school and be away from her dad and do her own thing. Because I just felt like her dad, in the limited scenes that we did see, I felt like he just wanted her to stay there and he was content for her to stay and be part of his business. And she really wanted to not do that. And so it was a gut punch. You're right, because we all just wanted, you know, all I think anyone watching this movie wanted her to succeed and survive, even, but we didn't get that. Neither did Ian. I did see that coming.
unknownOh yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh my god. Not the part where he made the stupid billion-dollar wish.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Well, it went exactly as it should have been expected. Uh, you know, it's it's hard to think Ian would just believe this whole one wish willow story the way it was. And so, yeah, like I wish for a billion dollars makes sense. Uh, because he's just kind of poking fun at him. He's like, okay, sure, then I wish for a billion dollars. That's what anybody really would do. It's like, well, the wishes work, huh? And then now he had that. And his wish is gone, and Bear still has a murderous obsessive girlfriend monster. So didn't really help him out. But I mean, he had to try something. Uh again, I mentioned the guy in the shop, Harry, who's the credited, fully aware of the potency of the wishes. Uh because he even says, you know, he's just like, Well, I don't know, you use yours. He's like, Well, I already used mine, and whatever he doesn't say what it was, but uh it seems like he's having a much better time with whatever his was.
SPEAKER_00Oh, absolutely. I feel like it was honestly some sort of deal that was made with the devil.
SPEAKER_02It's a very monkey's paw situation.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Like it it really did kind of feel like that. And yeah. I feel like yeah, it it was rough. But then he goes running over to Bear's house, and as soon as he walked through the door, it's like, you're dead, man. She's got a gun right there, she's gonna shoot you in the head. She's erratic, she's crazy, she's not herself. You know this. As soon as you saw the gun, you should have left right away.
SPEAKER_02I don't think he had time to see it.
SPEAKER_00Waiting around was never gonna be good.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, I mean it was. I didn't even take notes for like the whole like last 10 minutes, I feel like, because I was just so drawn in, where like I was just like, put my phone down, I'm like, no, I'm just sucked into this and watching the screen. So then I was like, well, when the movie ended, then I was like, okay, let me then jot down my thoughts on this whole last section, which is just devastating and fucked up in every way. Um because again, then he thinks, well, if she'll do anything that I ask her to, she said that, then he's like, Well, I can talk not Nikki into wishing my wish away, because Ian blew his wish on money reigning from the sky, so you know, she's like, I'll get her to use her wish. Like, I'll I'll make her do that. Why would she ever do that? If her command is to love you more than anyone else, then why would she actively break that? Uh so instead, yeah, she just kills Ian, who followed Bear home, uh, and then again threatens to kill herself if you if he doesn't love her. Um and that's where we leave lead him finally kind of just making that realization of I have no choice but to to kill myself, to end this, and then she's free. Uh so you know, he's going through a lot of that, and it's you know, you can tell that he's not somebody who's ever had those depressive and suicidal ideations because he just doesn't have what it takes or whatever to do that to himself, and he's not in that place, but finally he downs those pills. But then he thinks twice about that and is like, I can't even go through that, and he's trying to like regurgitate them up. But before he gets a chance to do that, not Nicky uses that willow that he brought home, the stick there, to uh wish that he loved her. Again, we don't see that, it's off screen, but we do hear the snap, we hear it get pulled out of the box and the snap, and then you see him react. So, you know. Doesn't take a lot to like put two or two together.
SPEAKER_00You're like, Nope.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. She made the wish that he would also obsessively love her. Uh and then they lived in psychopathic harmony for seconds.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Because he didn't throw up the pills, they took effect and he died.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And then after he dies, she grabs the gun that he had taken and goes to shoot herself. It was very modern horror, Romeo and Juliet is what it made me think of. Is the poisoning and then like the killing yourself because the the person that you are betrothed to has died, but then the only problem is that the the un-Romeo and Juliet part of it was uh nobody was coming back. Um he was dead dead. But yeah, but before she has a chance to do that, he is dead. So the wish ends, as we're told, and she snaps out of it fully. And then again, that's where we get the ending of the movie, which is just very unsettling and depressing, where it's like, and now we just have Nikki back to herself, left sitting in the aftermath of all of it, with Bear dead on the floor, overdosed, her covered in blood, Sarah in the chair across the room that's been killed, Ian laying on the floor by the door, and she's just sitting there taking it all in. I'm like, well, hello, worst trauma ever. And then the end. That's what we can't.
SPEAKER_00And over the credits, you hear over and like oh like over and over, you hear her sobbing and crying. And it's so unsettling. It's just, yeah, it's a lot.
SPEAKER_02And then it's like, I mean, life will never be good for her. I mean, even not just on like the Trauma aspect of everything she's been through, but like then my like logistical brain is like, okay, and then the police show up after hearing gunshots, and there's three dead bodies in this house, and she's sitting there covered in blood. You don't how do you explain that? Well, I was possessed by a wish entity. You know, like okay, crazy lady, let's go to prison. Um it's what do you what do you do?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you're not gonna get out of it. Although they're all in his house. So she could say she came there and found them all. I was trying to think of how she could get out of it. Because I didn't want Nikki to suffer anymore, she suffered enough. I felt like it was too much.
SPEAKER_02It's gonna be hard to explain all of the cuts and scrapes and blood and Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it is. That's too bad. Back when we were talking about the phone call that he made, I wanted to mention, but then we got off to something else. The voice on the phone was Curry Barker.
SPEAKER_02Okay, nice, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02He's yeah, we we've mentioned him as like a YouTuber and in comedy stuff. I didn't recognize him by name. So honestly, when you mention, and he came from comedy too at the top, I was like, what? And I went on Google and I was like, how do I not know? And then when I pulled up, I recognized his face. Like I was like, I have seen his stuff before, but he's not somebody that I've followed or like a fan of, but he's familiar enough to me that I'm like, okay, no, I have seen some of his stuff before because he is part of like a comedy sketch, kind of like Whitest Kids You Know is at Krager. They did a lot of YouTube stuff. But him and Cooper Hamilton, who played Ian, kind of like ran a lot of like comedy sketch stuff on YouTube for years.
SPEAKER_00Well, he's gonna be really busy because he's doing a movie for Universal Pictures, an original, another original horror film. Um, it's gonna be through Blumhouse. James Wan is involved as a producer.
SPEAKER_02Well, I always like James Wan's name on something.
SPEAKER_00Yep. Makes me feel so much better. He's also going to be working on a reboot of Texas Chainsaw Masker with A24, and I'm one, I don't think it needs to be redone again. But maybe it will be done in a different way. I don't know. All the reboots have just not been.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. We'll see how these things kind of like pan out because like these directors, because I mean that's the same thing. Like, I still have very mixed feelings about Zack Kregger doing the Resident Evil stuff because I'm like, okay, I've seen now with Barbarian and Weapons, I've gotten a good glimpse of what he's capable of in this realm, and I like that, but those are his own creations. I don't know if it's a good idea to give him an existing IP and see what he does with it. I don't know, it could go either way, so I I can't pass a judgment on it, but I'm like, if it was just another original movie from Zack Kregger, I would be way more in. But I'm but I'm a little bit more like on the fence because I'm like, okay, but it's not his thing. So what is his voice on something that already exists and has been placed in the Zeitgeist of horror movies and stuff already? Like, how much of him can he put into something that already has its own legs it's been standing on?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. But you can see where he would want to do it. Because you sometimes need to test yourself outside of the bubble that you've created, and I I can see why he would want to do it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Everything that I've seen about the Resident Evil movie has looked really good because it seems different. It doesn't seem like any of the others that have come out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So I'm interested, but it is kind of like Tyco ITT, going outside of the horror realm. One of my absolute favorite directors, and I love all the movies that he did that are all his own creations.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like Eagle versus Shark and Boy and What We Do in the Shadows, and these um, what was that? Hunt for the Wilder people, all incredible movies. I was a huge fan, and then after he did those, and I was like, I love this guy as a director, these like independent films that he's doing on his own are incredible. And then he got hired for Marvel, for Thor. And they're good movies. But in the realm of what the it was like, okay, we like one aspect of what Taiko YTT does. Now we're gonna just copy paste and make him do that on this, so we get a little bit of his flavor, but also it's very, very much Marvel and Thor. And so it doesn't blend as well.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02To where I'm like, it's yeah, he directed it and you get his style, but it's the least taiko YTT that he's ever been.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I can't.
SPEAKER_02And so, you know, how much do those kind of things happen? I don't know why I didn't mention JoJo Rabbit even in those, because that's I know.
SPEAKER_00That movie that movie broke my heart.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh my god. Well, he has another film that he did before this one called Milk and Cereal, and he had a budget of $800 for that one. Yeah, Cooper Tomlism was in that as well. Yeah. Um, came out in 2024. It's something we can cover because the premise is two pranksters as they attempt to prank each other only for the situation to dramatically spiral out of control. Okay, that sounds fine. And he's working on one now called Anything But Ghosts. This is two fake paranormal investigators, Specs and Tucker. No, it's not them, but you know what I mean. Must face actual ghosts while dealing with the deception of their own fraudulent business. That sounds like it could be fun.
SPEAKER_02Yes. I'm very in on that one.
SPEAKER_00I'm I'm in on that one as well.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so yeah, so I mean there's a lot of stuff to be interested in. Then even outside of the comedy thing, then I'm just like thinking of that as like Mike Flanagan, which he has proven to do Stephen King adaptations very well, and so I have no worries for the Carrie series and stuff coming out. However, he is also doing his own take, a remake of The Exorcist. And that one, as much as I love and worship at the Church of Flanagan, I'm like, that's the one that gives me the most pause. Or I'm like, do we need to do that?
SPEAKER_00No, we don't. But we're doing it anyway. Although I will tell you this, Peak, if they just if they announced tomorrow that Flanagan was remaking the Wicker Man, I would be in on it 100% because I trust him.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I know he would do it justice. And there wouldn't be any bees involved.
SPEAKER_03No.
SPEAKER_00So I have a question for you though. Because I feel like we have we've gotten through it all.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I have the following question. What would your wish be if you had a one-wish willow?
SPEAKER_02Well, I'm not playing that game.
unknownCome on.
SPEAKER_02For this willow, this thing to be in the trash can. No, thank you. No. Um. I don't know. It's because it's so easy to like, especially in these situations where you don't think it's gonna work, to just think of something so selfish. Mm-hmm. Because I almost feel like it would the the knee-jerk version honestly is kind of it's Ian. I probably would be Ian. Is I just I think, but then again, it's like you have to be careful how you word it. Cause like I would worry, like, well, I don't want to give like a f exact amount of money that I have, but it's like I I I wish for finances to never ever be a problem for me ever again, and then I snap it and then I drop dead, so that comes true that I'll never be a problem again.
SPEAKER_00No, you know, like what do you and the thing is though, asking for money can be selfish, but also it's what you do with that money.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00Like I would use it to if I had that kind of money, I would use it to help my family and friends. I would donate to charity. There's a lot I would do that would be good with that money. That's what I would do. That's probably what I would do, though.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think it's what Ian went with, but it's it's like the easiest answer, but that is Yeah. As much as you know, money is not the answer to happiness, but it sure as hell helps.
SPEAKER_00It definitely helps. It certainly helps. 100%.
SPEAKER_02When you're not tied down by the stress of financial anything, it definitely does help move happiness and joy along.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. When I feel the most comfortable, it's when I know I have everything under control and I'm not worrying about a bill or a payment.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I mean, like you know right now, you're really the only, like, one of the few people I've like talked about because it's still very early in the process. But for listeners, I am just now starting the process of buying and owning a home for the first time in my life. First time homeowner. And even this, like, I have the money to do this, but also there's this constant fear of like, I need more money. Things cost money. Like, this is gonna, how am I gonna ever financially recover from this? Yeah. But like, it's so scary. But at the same time, it's like I have the financing, I have, you know, there's loans, and there's answers. Like, it's not like I just have to have hundreds of thousands of dollars in pocket right now. Like, right. There's I, you know, and things can be taken care of, but it's still like, oh no, like years of my life are about to be like about the money that's going into this, and it's just like it's it's stressful. It's stressful.
SPEAKER_00And as someone who's gone through it myself, I did it when I turned 40, I think was when I bought my house. It was really scary and stressful, but some of that feeling goes away. Like you don't worry every month, oh my god, oh my god. Just the first few.
SPEAKER_02When you really get into a routine, you get into your figure out.
SPEAKER_00It's a new routine. I mean, when I bought my car recently, I had to get in the habit of, oh, I've I've got to pay a payment. I hadn't paid a car payment in five years.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I just have to be like, well, I can't go to 18 concerts in a year again for a little bit, and I probably can't just drop $300 on fancy dinners all the time.
SPEAKER_00Nope. You probably can't. You're gonna have to pick and choose the things you want to do. But I have a house and I still get to go and do a lot of the things that I love. It's just you prioritize and hope that the economy gets better so that things don't cost as much.
SPEAKER_02Uh-huh. But yeah, so so the money thing is definitely on my mind right now because that's the thing, is because it's like I'm in a financial place. Luckily, you know, I have that kind of privilege to be in that place where like I'm okay, but also just because of this whole process where it's all about money. Like today, before doing prep, today I was just I had a meeting with like, you know, the uh real estate agent uh just talking about well, here's like the upgrades you can get on the house and the premiums. It's like it's gonna cost this much for us to add this, and it's gonna add this, because I'm not just buying a house, I'm building a house. And so there's even more to that.
SPEAKER_00More anxiety.
SPEAKER_02And it's like, so if you want this included and this kind of flooring and this kind of thing, and if you want this included in the it's gonna cost this many thousand more, and it's just a lot to wrap your head around. And so it's And what do you need?
SPEAKER_00Like you have to think about this is an investment because that is what my real estate agent told me when I bought my house. He said, This is an investment. If you look at it that way, you can get past some of the additional costs, but you don't have to have everything all at once.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You can think about what you really want and need and what's more important. Is it more important for you to have the higher priced countertops or have less on your payment so that you can go to more concerts?
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00You weigh it out, or you pick which concerts you go to and have to say no to some that you may have wanted to go to before.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Which is why 2026 is the year of Peike doing as many concerts as he possibly can.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, when I when I said 18 in a year, that wasn't like hyperbole of like some crazy number I pulled out. That's literally the amount of concerts I'm doing in 2026. Yes, exactly.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. And so he is celebrating this year, including the festival that you, me, and Jeff are going to in October.
SPEAKER_04Yes.
SPEAKER_00So, yeah. I've seen the house, like one of the houses that you're gonna have built. So it's beautiful. You're gonna be so happy to be in a house that's yours. It's worth all of the anxiety and stress. It's only a couple of months worth of it, and then you'll be you'll be through it. You'll be through the most of it when I see you in October. Like a lot of like the little stuff you'll be through.
SPEAKER_02So then I'll just be waiting on them to finish building it.
SPEAKER_00And that can drive you crazy because waiting for the keys to move in, oh that's a whole other kind of hell.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh my god, I couldn't wait to have the keys. I think I brought one box the first day that I came over here to my house. I brought one box of stuff just to come in and be like, here it is, it's on the counter, it's mine, this is my house now. It it's yeah, it's a lot. But I think we did it, Pake. We covered this movie.
SPEAKER_02We did. We've gone off on like, yeah, house tangents. I think at this point we have fully we're we're done with the movie at this point.
SPEAKER_00We're done with the movie. We are done with the movie. I think we made it.
SPEAKER_02So before we talk for another hour about houses, uh we'll we'll wrap it up for the listener's sake. Uh oh man, we'll be good. And speaking of the listeners' sake, hopefully they had some thoughts about this one. So uh there's the feedback phone. Right on cue, so we'll see what they had to say.
SPEAKER_01All right.
SPEAKER_02All right, we actually do have quite a good little bit of feedback this week, and I'm very excited about that. Uh, I think we were right in assuming you would be a little obsessed with this movie. A lot of people uh so yes, the obsession on obsession is real. Um so yeah, let's get into it because we got a good little bit. So, definitely, why don't you go ahead and kick it off?
SPEAKER_00Well, we'll start off with Connor, who says, I usually wouldn't say this, but I gotta say, I think Obsession is pretty much a perfect film. What a ride it takes you on. I was feeling so much anxiety and tension watching this in the theater, but it also definitely mixes in the humor as well, which is nice. Gotta say, Curry Barker, I think, has a great future ahead of him. I need to check out his short films. Have y'all seen any of those? Milk and Cereal looks rather creepy. Yes, I believe we talked about us needing to maybe cover that one because it fits.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I I I'll be curious about those as well. Um we mentioned them earlier, but yeah, I haven't checked him out yet, but we should. Um, next one here comes from Alex. Says, one of the absolute best and fresh new movies I've seen in a while. Simple story, amazing execution. Not just that, but it did something amazing in that I saw it months ago, and I'm still wondering about the rules of the one wish willow and how to perfectly ask the question whilst avoiding the pitfalls of the bad luck if possible.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Laura says, Oof, thought it was dumb. I usually like corny horror movies, but this one fell flat for me, not scary. You know what, Laura? I appreciate you. I appreciate you writing in and saying that you didn't like it because we love to get feedback from everyone, and a lot of times it's positive, but we also always appreciate when people who didn't like it write in because it gives us the other perspective of it.
SPEAKER_02Alright. Yeah, that's true. Uh this one comes from Laura, different one. Uh says, This movie was wild! And she says, You have to say that like Nikki screaming stay, which I don't want to be that loud, but I did my best. Um, we had so much fun watching this. The premise was so simple, or yeah, the premise was so simple and the plot fairly straightforward, but rested fully on the performance of the two leads. However, I did get a little thrown off at the end. I did expect that Bear, coward that he was, would opt out on his opt-out plan, but I did not see Wish Nikki using the last wishing one to make Bear fall in love with her, thus saving herself. Justice for Nikki. I just hope somehow she made it over to Ian's house, grabbed suitcases of money, and got the hell out of town. I know.
SPEAKER_00Poor Nikki, she really, you know, she was the victim in this. It just was not fair. Mark sends in, I really enjoyed this and thought the acting was great.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And then Andy just gives us another one with incredible acting. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Kara says, I'm still processing the feminine rage that got riled up while watching this one. You and me both.
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm. And then, of course, Catherine coming through, uh, says, My first watch of obsession was really terrifying. Seeing Bear destroy Nikki's life and causing the death of the few people who were supportive of her was rough, and I wasn't sure if it was up for if I was up for a rewatch, but I did, and I definitely hate Bear more. Even his cat, whom he appears to care for, seems to have died from his negligence. Nicki's few breaks into reality are devastating when Bear completely ignores them. While it's difficult to experience, obsession really is an amazing movie. I'm still a little surprised at the number of people who think Bear is a victim rather than a villain, but at least it's resulted in some good discussions about consent. Yeah, I'm interested what you think about this one, because I know we were very much in that camp as well talking about this. And again, you know, behind the curtain a little bit, between when we actually record the movie and when we record feedback, there's a couple of weeks in between. And I've seen a lot of discourse online about that, that like I don't know, there's been some people very angry at people that take Bear's side, and I'm not gonna say that I take his side, but like I I disagree with the idea of him being just fully a villain. I do think he is a victim in this in some way, but the other side of that where the people who are very much, you know, no, he was in the wrong, he's the villain. I understand that side as well, and like I see where people and so it is a very interesting conversation. So hopefully people won't be too turned off by like our initial like gut reaction of being one way versus well, you know, I've seen now online a lot of people are are different. But yeah, so I'm curious. Keep this conversation going, even with us on social media and stuff too. I'm very curious.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. And then our last piece of feedback is from Tony. I only watched this one once, so I don't have any great insights, but I really liked it. It is so disturbing. Bear is just an awful person. Poor Nikki trapped inside her own body, desperately fighting for someone to help her, and everyone just thinking she is crazy. Yikes. So scary. At the end, what do you think happens to Nikki? How does she even explain to the police what just happened? I can't wait to hear what you both think. Hopefully I can find the time to watch it one more time before Friday.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think we asked some of those questions at the end of our watch, your dark conversation about it, where it was like, yeah, I don't I don't foresee it being great at all in any way.
SPEAKER_00I don't either. I feel for her. I'm with oh yeah, Lara. I'm with you. I hope that she got the buttloads of money and ran away because that girl deserved it. She was the true victim in this situation for sure. Well, if you would like to leave us feedback, you can find us on the Podcastica Discord server. We have a channel there, Run for Your Lives. You can submit feedback via Facebook and Instagram at Run for Your Lives Podcast, or you can email us at RunFo Your Lives Podcast at gmail.com. If you're enjoying the show, tell your friends. We are available on all the podcast players, including Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and more. Go to RunFour Lives Podcast.com for all the links that you're ever gonna need and give us a review on Apple Podcasts. Is the best way to share the love and get us out there even more. We really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely, we really do. And of course, speaking of sharing love, of course, you know you gotta give those shout outs to things going on in the Podcastica universe around us and beyond. A lot of great stuff to check out. Of course, over here on Podcastica, a lot of fun stuff. Uh, Walking Dead, Dead City season three running right now, so you can check out Ben and Alex's coverage of that over on the Walking Dead cast. So make sure to check out that. Um, also, Dragoncast has been running great. So, of course, House of the Dragon season three is over now. Sad. Cry. Uh, but it was another fantastic season, and of course, if you've been listening along, or if you want to go ahead and go back through those, over on Dragoncast, Wendy, Veronica, and Rennie's conversations of the entire season, episode by episode, are over there. And it's great stuff. So check that out. Of course, the finale is out now. You can go check out all of their coverage for every episode. Our good friends over at Still Slaying, still still slaying, still doing some Buffy the Vampire stuff. Penny is joined by Becky this week, covering some uh Buffy the Vampire Slayer uh season five, episode five this week. It's the episode they chose, so go check that out. You're a Buffy fan. And then we have a new podcast launching here on Podcastica. Of course, that is Casting Light. It is uh a new podcast launched covering the HBO series Lanterns, the uh DC series there. Uh so if you are a comic book fan, lanterns fan, definitely check out Casting Light. That'll be Jason, Kirk, and Jim. Uh and before the season starts, they've got an intro episode up now to kind of set the tone, set the stage, and talk about their expectations, their thoughts, their hopes, their dreams, all of those things. So definitely check that out. And then, yeah, as I said, outside of Podcastico, we've got other good friends with some great networks doing some great things. So over at the Pirate Core Podcast Entertainment, or Pirate Core Entertainment Podcast Network. Uh, you can check out the Vampcast with all the coverage of Vampire Lestot, the finale of that also uh out as well. So you can go back and listen to everything there. Lara, Billy, Mark, and Becky on that finale episode. And you can go back and check out the whole season if you're wanting to do that. And then, of course, our friends at TV Podcast Industries always jumping onto the Marvel stuff. So, of course, you know, Spider-Man brand new day is out, so they've got their coverage and conversation about that movie now as well over on TV Podcast Industries. So if you're a Spider-Man fan, go check that out. If you want me and Daphne a little bit more in your ears, then you could check out us on our other podcast, the Buffalo Buffalo Podcast, with our friends Jeff and Jerry. Uh, taking a break from the coverage and breakdowns and conversation about stuff like this, and just hanging out, just being funny, just trying to make each other laugh or groan, whichever one comes more naturally. We figure it out. We feel it out along the way. Uh, play ridiculous games that we all come up with, and we have a good time just hanging out and being silly.
SPEAKER_00I'm so glad. I do think we need to play more games like video games, because we haven't been playing as much, like at all, really. We've just been recording, and I miss some of the silliness of that too. So we need to do that more.
SPEAKER_02It it morphed into the podcast.
SPEAKER_00It morphed into the podcast because Pake had this idea. We should do a podcast. And so we did.
SPEAKER_02Because I don't do that enough.
SPEAKER_00No, you don't. Not really, not anymore.
SPEAKER_02Neither of us do. Uh yeah. Um, but yeah, so go check out all of that great stuff this week, a lot of stuff for you to listen to, and then next week, next Friday, we'll be right back here on Run for Your Live, something fresh and fun and new. Well, not really. The movie's not fresh and fun. Well, it is fun, but not new or fresh. Hopefully it's fun. I don't know, I'm rambling. Anyway, Daphne, what are we doing next week?
SPEAKER_00Well, it's fresher than some that we've done this season. Well, a young couple's lives descend into Terra after a satanic cult attacks their home and leaves behind a sinister presence attached to a vintage doll. We are going to discuss John R. Leonetti's 2014 film Annabelle.
SPEAKER_02Yes, we are continuing on the Conjuring Universe with Annabelle next week. So if you're a fan of those, definitely check that out. Tune in for that. Give us your feedback. We'd love to hear from you.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Yes. And with that, we've reached the end of another terrifying, disturbing, frightening. Well, the episodes aren't frightening, the movies are. Of Run for Your Lives Podcast. Um, thanks everyone for listening. I'm Daphne.
SPEAKER_02And I'm Peg.
SPEAKER_00And if you have to run, you better run for your lives.
SPEAKER_02Bye bye. Bye bye. Bye bye. Bye bye. Bye bye.