Inde Navarrette Breaks Down Obsession Ending as $15 Million Deal Lifts $750,000 Horror Film
Updated
Updated · Hollywood Reporter · May 16
Inde Navarrette Breaks Down Obsession Ending as $15 Million Deal Lifts $750,000 Horror Film
6 articles · Updated · Hollywood Reporter · May 16
Navarrette said Nikki could have been open to Bear if he had confessed honestly, framing the film’s tragedy as a wish-driven distortion of feelings that might otherwise have led somewhere real.
26 days of shooting and practical effects shaped her performance, she said, with director Curry Barker effectively choreographing Nikki’s movement and Navarrette supplying the screams, facial shifts and most of the voice work herself.
She confirmed the plea for death comes from the “real” Nikki breaking through, and said the ending turns on Bear’s failed attempt to survive after swallowing pills before Nikki’s counter-wish overtakes him.
TIFF audiences saw a more graphic cut, she said, including longer head-smashing and gruesome aftermath sounds later trimmed to avoid an NC-17 rating.
The interview comes as Obsession rides strong buzz after Focus Features bought the Toronto-premiering indie for $15 million, with Navarrette saying Nikki survives as a traumatized “final girl” rather than dying.
Is Obsession's Nikki a true horror 'final girl,' or a victim left to face the legal system alone?
After its box office success, will the gorier and unrated TIFF cut of the film ever be released?
How did a $750k indie film launch its director onto A-list projects and become a box office sensation?