Given the unprecedented box office rise of Curry Barker’s hit horror movie Obsession, there’s no doubt that viewers are asking what becomes of Inde Navarrette’s Nikki after the conclusion of the film.
So, to oblige, Navarrette is giving some answers.
Written and directed by Barker, Obsession defied Hollywood convention over the weekend at the domestic box office by earning $23.9 million from Friday to Sunday, a staggering 39% percent increase in ticket sales over the already impressive $17.1 million the indie film earned in its opening weekend frame May 15-17. Including the film’s Memorial Day take of $8 million, Obsession — which had a $1 million production buget — has to date earned $62.3 million domestically and $22.3 million internationally for an astounding running tally of $84.6 million at the worldwide box office.
In Obsession, an affable music store employee named Bear (Michael Johnston) has a huge crush on his longtime friend and co-worker, Nikki (Navarrette), but he can’t quite find a way to tell her about his true feelings. Frustrated knowing that he is likely headed to the friend zone with Nikki, Bear opens up a novelty gift he intended to give her — a One Wish Willow — and wishes that Nikki would love him more than anyone in the world.
Within minutes, Nikki begins to show Bear signs that his wish has come true, and she becomes romantically interested in him. However, the longer the two are together, the more Nikki — who has lost nearly all of her sense of self-control — becomes dangerously obsessed with Bear and will go to extreme measures, including murder, to protect their relationship.
Note: Spoilers from “Obsession” will be discussed throughout the rest of this article.
In a Shakespearean tragedy sort of way, all of the principal characters — Bear, his best friend, Ian (Cooper Tomlinson), and their mutual friend and co-worker, Sarah (Megan Lawless) — die in Obsession, with Sarah (who is ironically harboring a crush on Bear) meeting a particularly cruel fate at the hands of Nikki.
Bear is the last to die in Obsession after he purposefully overdoses on pills and passes away in Nikki’s arms. At that point, as the company that produces the One Wish Willow promises, Nikki snaps out of the spell she fell under with Bear’s wish and, in realizing the carnage around her, wails in torturous agony as the film concludes.
While it stands to reason that Nikki will be charged with murder over the bloodbath — unless her lawyer tries to introduce a “One Wish Willow” defense in plea of not guilty for reason of insanity — fans of the movie will only be left to wonder, barring a sequel, whether that will indeed be the case.
In a Zoom conversation last week with Navarrette to discuss Obsession, the actress shed some light on what happens to Nikki after the film by saying we’ll get a clue in Barker’s next movie, Anything but Ghosts. The film, which is not related to Obsession — other than it also involves the supernatural — is currently in post-production. According to Navarrette, there will be at least one mention related to the conclusion of the film.
“Ultimately, it’s up to [Curry] where that [storyline] goes, but he did drop a little Easter egg in his next film,” Navarrette said. “In the background [of a scene] on the news, there’s a girl being charged with three counts of homicide, so that’s kind of the direction.”
Of course, whether the scene in Anything but Ghosts — which stars Bryce Dallas Howard, Aaron Paul and Barker’s longtime collaborator Tomlinson — is just a one-and-done reference to Obsession or develops into something more is yet to be seen.
While Navarrette didn’t mention it, one other possibility is that Nikki somehow turns up in movie that continues Obsession’s “be careful what you wish for” trope, although Barker noted for Variety, “I don’t think you’ll ever see a movie with these characters again, but it would be cool to expand this world with different characters.”
