Nobody saw Obsession coming. Produced with $750,000 by first-time feature filmmaker Curry Barker, the supernatural thriller has now earned over $400 million at the global box office and is an internet sensation. It is a word-of-mouth juggernaut that has transfixed audiences worldwide, and deservedly so.

Obsession, which is now available to watch at home, follows a shy seemingly nice guy named Bear, who is unable to ask Nikki (Inde Navarrette) out on a date. When he comes across a One Wish Willow, he makes a wish that has terrifying consequences. Warning: Spoilers below.

While Barker’s brilliant script provides the chilling framework, the film’s staggering success rests squarely on the shoulders of its breakout star, Inde Navarrette.

Case in point: There is a moment early in the psychological horror hit Obsession where the atmosphere shifts from a tense modern romance to something altogether chilling. It happens in the transition right after a dinner date and cuts to another scene while Nikki’s face is completely, unnervingly still.

“I had the creative choice during that moment to keep her face still,” Navarrette says with a warm smile that sits in sharp contrast to the psychological puzzle she brings to life on screen. “I wanted to play with the idea of if Bear doesn’t perceive Nikki, does she exist? If a tree falls in the forest, can anybody hear it? I really wanted, in a split moment, for the art to convey to the audience what is happening with Nikki.”

It’s this level of artistic instinct that makes Navarrette the breakout star of the year, turning a genre feature into a sharp commentary on agency, identity and horror.

What separates Navarrette from her peers is a rare, bone-deep self-awareness, a perceptive maturity that allows her to sink entirely into a character’s skin without losing her own artistic compass. For Navarrette, stepping into Nikki’s shoes was an act of radical empathy. It was the first time she felt she understood a character completely, a connection that grew directly from her own nuanced understanding of human duality.

“I feel like we’re all multiple different people,” Navarrette muses. “I’m very different when I’m home with my family—even with the Mexican side of my family versus the Australian side—or at my dad’s house versus my mom’s house. I really loved that I was able to have a character where she had different sides. I call her a Rubik’s cube, because I could just play with so many different things.”

Navarrette constructs a terrifyingly brilliant balancing act that could easily trip up a less seasoned actor. As Nikki, she is deeply unnerving to watch; her presence commands a visceral dread. Yet, simultaneously, the audience desperately sympathizes with her. We are hyper-aware that she has zero agency, completely locked out of control over her own body. While Obsession markets itself as a horror film, Navarrette ensures that the true, suffocating horror is the claustrophobia of what is happening inside Nikki’s own reality.

The core of Obsession hinges entirely on the thin line between “Wish Nikki” and the real Nikki trapped beneath the surface. “I never wanted the audience to lose sight of what was happening underneath it all and I feel like that was a double-handed thing,” Navarrette explains, breaking down the mechanics of a psychological tightrope she makes look effortless. “I had to play Wish Nikki very specifically; everything that Wish Nikki did, she had to believe was true and wasn’t manipulative, and I had to play her in truth, like Wish Nikki could never think that what she was doing was wrong, and that way, both of them are telling the truth because Wish Nikki doesn’t understand that it’s a wish, it’s true and real for her, and then the person that’s underneath is feeling all of it and living in that very unfortunate and horrific truth.

“So I really had to let both of them live in that and you could always see Real Nikki in Wish Nikki’s eyes, and that was really important to me. It was just at what level you could see her that I would play with,” she said.

It is exactly this uncomfortable, fractured truth that Navarrette believes makes audiences so uniquely transfixed by the film. While she has her own theories, she is fiercely protective of how the audience interprets the nightmare.

“I really love what people are doing and taking this as their own,” she says thoughtfully. “I think that’s why it’s so successful because a lot of people feel seen and heard and understood. There are a lot of times where my generation and younger generations don’t feel fully seen, and I kind of wonder if this is a moment where they did. Of course, it’s up to them to tell me, but that’s just a curiosity of mine.”

Remarkably, that piercing, unhinged “Wish Nikki” look wasn’t born out of hours of mirror practice. In fact, Navarrette admits she completely ducked out of that homework assignment from director Curry. “He asked me to go home one day and try it. I tried it for five seconds and was like, ‘I don’t like this.’ I lied to him and said I did it! It freaked me out. My eyes are in my head, I’m not supposed to see myself. Curry would just place me with the choreography, and I did it for the people.”

The film’s brilliant execution of human psychology and modern dating dynamics has ignited a wildfire of fan culture online, sparking everything from deep-dive TikTok essays to wild theories.

“The wildest one is where people think she’s possessed by Sandy the cat,” Navarrette laughs. “I was cackling at that. Nothing loves you more than a cat – which isn’t true, I have cats and they’re just like, ‘Please go across the room.’ But I love the girl online who acts as Nikki’s attorney, saying, ‘I’d get her out of this, she would never go to jail!’ Love you, whoever you are.”

The conversation around Nikki’s fate almost looked entirely different. In the original script, Nikki didn’t survive the film. The devastating, triumphant final sequence we see in theaters was a game-time decision made on set.

“I think the original ending would have been too tough,” Navarrette reflects. “The audience needs something. I love the fact that Nikki is left to deal with things that weren’t her fault – it’s the perfect ending because it’s very real. We decided on the day, and when I tell you I could film that scene every day for the rest of my life… I crave scenes like that. I hope there’s a scene in every movie where I just get to wail.”

As for Nikki’s counterpart, Bear? Navarrette doesn’t mince words about where his downward spiral begins, pointing to an early scene where Bear explicitly lies to Ian right after Nikki spends the night for the first time. “It’s little mini red flags that lead to the big one. That’s the first inclination that he’s on a slippery slope with his morals.” And don’t expect to find him on any dating app: “Bear wouldn’t be on a dating app. He’d be too scared.”

With horror operating as one of the most vital spaces for cultural and psychological commentary today, Navarrette is using her momentum to seek out complex, multi-faceted roles. Far from being a one-hit wonder, she is ready to cement her status as a powerhouse.

“I got bit by a bug in Obsession with characters that have more to them than just one thing,” she says. “I really want to prove to audiences that Obsession wasn’t lightning in a bottle. I want to gain the audience’s trust that I’ll do something they like, and work with directors I’ve always idolized.”

While she hesitates, quite fairly, to create immediate headlines with a wishlist of directors, she can’t help but voice her admiration for a few visionaries. “Of course, Christopher Nolan – I’m so stoked to watch The Odyssey this year. And I think Zoe Kravitz did a really good job with her directorial debut Blink Twice; she would be lovely to work with. If I like the art and the script, I want to work with you.”

If Obsession is any indication, Hollywood’s best auteurs will be lining up to work with her, too. Navarrette is already touted for Best Actress for awards season, and I can see her nominations coming through.

Obsession is now available to buy or rent at home and on Blu-ray/DVD July 14.