Inde Navarrette in “Obsession.”
Focus Features
The freaky version of Nikki from the summer blockbuster Obsession is coming to Halloween Horror Nights as Universal Studios Hollywood.
Written and directed by Curry Barker, Obsession is one of if not the biggest surprise movie hit of the summer, earning $475.4 million at the worldwide box office since its release in theaters May 15. The film was made for a minuscule $750,000 before marketing costs.
In the film, Bear (Michael Johnston) has a massive crush on his co-worker Nikki (Inde Navarette), but out of fear that she will leave him in the friend zone, he makes a Faustian bargain with a One Wish Willow. After wishing Nikki would love him more than anyone in the world, Bear soon finds that Nikki becomes dangerously obsessed with him and will go to deadly extremes to protect her love for him.
Obsession was released by Focus Features after it acquired the film at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival for about $15 million. Focus, of course, is the independent film subsidiary of Universal Studios.
Universal Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights’ creative director and executive producer John Murdy announced at Midsummer Scream in Los Angeles Sunday night that the Obsession character was a late addition to this fall’s lineup.
“I can’t give you all the details …. But Nikki is out there somewhere — you need to get into a Where’s Waldo?-type mentality,” Murdy told the crowd, which screamed during the announcement. “She might be looking for her next obsession, and I’ll leave it at that.”
What Version Of Nikki From ‘Obsession’ Will Appear At Halloween Horror Nights?
John Murdy didn’t specify whether Obsession’s Nikki would only appear at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood, or at Universal Studios Orlando as well. This year’s annual event begins on Friday, Aug. 28, in Orlando and Thursday, Sept. 3, in Hollywood. Both of the park events end on Sunday, Nov. 1.
Nikki is a complicated character choice for Halloween Horror Nights in that she’s not a monster, but someone who had no control over a path that was chosen for her. As such, Halloween Horror Nights describes Nikki, per Attractions Magazine, as “the latest victim of the One Wish Willow’s terrifying curse.”
For fans wondering what iteration of Nikki they will get from the film, Murdy told Inside Universal, “It’s a specific choice of which version of her we wanted to really focus on, and it’s the version at the very end of the film where she’s all bloody, she’s taken her friend’s dress, and she’s drawn the tattoos all over her body.”
Discussing Nikki’s fate after the events of Obsession, Inde Navarette said in a Zoom conversation in May, “Ultimately, it’s up to [Curry] where that [storyline] goes, but he did drop a little Easter egg in his next film. 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.”
Curry’s next film, Anything but Ghosts, is expected to be released in 2027. Also starring Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless and Andy Richter, Obsession is still playing in 186 theaters nationwide and is streaming on premium video on demand and on Peacock.