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It’s a tale as old as time: Be careful what you wish for.
In Carrie Parker’s supernatural horror film maniaNicky, played by Indi Navarrete, becomes the object of dangerous desire when her shy boyfriend Bear (Michael Johnston), desperate to escape the friend zone, wishes she would love him more than anyone else in the world. To his surprise, it worked, but not in the fantastical way he had imagined. Instead, Nikki’s love turns into something violent, possessive, and terrifying.
As Nikki transforms from an ordinary young woman into a troubled force willing to do anything to keep Bear for herself, Navarrete delivers a smooth, chilling performance that quickly establishes her as one of the most exciting new talents in horror.
A big part of maniaParker’s influence also comes from Parker’s new voice as a writer and director. Following its raucous premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Focus Features film earned $750,000 for its $15 million cume, with critics and audiences praising its bold take on supernatural horror. But at the heart of it all is Navarrette, whose bravura turn turns the film’s shocking premise into something both heartbreaking and haunting.
“I think the horror world will be very happy,” Navarrete says. Hollywood Reporter For Parker’s future in the genre. “It would be much better with Carrie in it, because it’s a new, specific sound.”
Read on to find out how Navarrete pulled off this crazy performance, whether Nikki and Bear could have worked if he had just told the truth, how she uncovered this devastating death call and what she thinks is really happening to Nikki after the film’s shocking twist.
I don’t know how much I’ve watched online, but everywhere I look, people are calling this one of the great horror shows. What Was it like getting into horror in such a big way and actually getting that kind of response from audiences, especially horror fans?
It feels very surreal. I try not to look at too many comments, just because I really want to enjoy every moment. I mean I’m doing a press gig for the first time. I’m doing a bunch of stuff for the first time. So, I really want to be present, but it seems really crazy. I mean it’s nuts. It feels really good.
The chemistry between you and Michael is key to making this story work. Was that an immediate connection when you first read together?
Yes, I felt like I understood Nikki more when I read opposite Michael because the responses I was saying, and the lines written, became real and made sense. There is a different meaning to them. It was like a conversation between two people versus two actors repeating what was on the page, and the chemistry between us was so immediate and specific. We have brother and sister chemistry, which is great, because then you look at them on screen and see that they shouldn’t be together, and it feels gross and wrong on so many different levels. But one of the specific things is that Michael and I have a chemistry that’s not romantic, so I think that really adds to their relationship.
Early on, Nicky and Bear’s relationship seems complicated and confusing. One could argue that she’s sending mixed signals, but when Bear downplays his feelings and says they’re just friends, Nikki looks like she’s genuinely disappointed. If Bear had been honest from the beginning, do you think Nikki might have been open to something more?
I totally think so. One of the things that Carrie and I talked about in the beginning is that since the entire movie is from Bear’s point of view, we never let go of that. We played with this idea: Bear doesn’t know how Nikki feels. Bear only knows that he really loves her. So we played with the aspect of Nikki’s performance, where she made it very mysterious. Does she really like him? Isn’t it? Because that’s exactly how Bear feels. But I think, as the person who played Nikki, she definitely would have been open to the conversation if he had just said something, but he didn’t.
Nikki is a very free-spirited person, because she talks about quitting smoking, she talks about leaving, she talks about wanting to be a writer. I think Nikki loves, and she loves to love. It was a little disappointing that he also thought they were friends, because I think it felt off.
Your physicality in this film is unpredictable – sometimes terrifying, sometimes darkly funny – and some moments reminded me of classic possession shows like The exorcist. Did you look to any iconic horror shows for inspiration, or was Nikki’s action something you wanted to build from scratch?
The Nikki movement was something Carrie and I built from scratch, not because we didn’t want to take any inspiration. Once we were connected to the project, we really started pioneering. It was a fast track. We shot it in 26 days, and it was an independent film on a limited budget, so we didn’t have a lot of things at our disposal. But this created this organic movement for me. I mean, I’m not a fan of movement. I’ve never really done that before. I was dancing, but Cary was standing on the other side of me, mimicking something with his body, and then I was kind of doing it, and saying, “No, no, like this.” Thus we will mirror each other. Technically, the choreographer will be Carrie Parker. (He laughs.)
Your voice work and facial expressions are annoying at times, especially in scenes like the party sequence. Was all that screaming and vocal transitions really you, and how did you craft Nicki’s voice once she started changing?
Yes, everything in the film, whether it’s the facial makeup or the singing, is me. We did not use any artificial intelligence, or CGI. It was all very practical. I know some things were set up for effect, to be in harmony with the sound design. But Carrie and I had a lot of fun making the sounds. It was terrifying, especially during that very long monologue. That was a testing scene for me. I just remember saying, “I’m going to have a lot of fun with this, because who cares?” Either send it in or don’t enter it at all. I remember auditioning, and my goal was to make everyone as uncomfortable as possible, and [thinking]“How does that come out and what do you do?” So this sound came from wanting to try to make everyone very uncomfortable.
The moment Nikki appears asleep, but Bear hears her asking him to kill her. How did you interpret this scene – was this what Nikki really hacked into herself?
Yes, this was really Nikki’s breakthrough. If I look closely during this scene, my body convulses. There were many times when there was a physicality to Nikki that my body added to as well. It was as if my mind and body were completely separate, like Nikki, and I was experiencing really deep vibrations. Especially in this scene, you can see my body shaking, because you feel the physical anxiety. She begs to be killed, because she knows that the person who should protect her and love her, her friend who was good to her, listens to her. And in the bar scene, she comes back to him and says, “No, you were saying something.” She really, really cares about the bear. How painful it is to watch him do everything he does. This scene in the movie really shows how much it affects the real Nikki, how damaged she is and how traumatic this experience is for her. She just wants to end it all, because she has no other choice.
When she becomes more violent as the film goes on, do you think it’s because she has some deep resentment toward Bear for making this wish?
I never thought about it, but I love when things like that come up, because I mean, we never clearly tell the audience what to feel. We allow them to feel what they feel. And it’s great to hear the feedback, because it makes sense. It makes perfect sense, but also at the same time, Nikki is always a 10 from the second act onwards, so whenever she gets jealous, what does a 10’s version of jealousy look like? I mean there are crimes of passion, there are murders of passion and Nikki is very emotional. (He laughs.) I think there was a split between the two, but I don’t think the violence stemmed from resentment, because Nikki So In love with a bear. She’s obsessed with it, so it’s only the high versions, and what does that high look like?
The third act of the movie is really intense, but I know the TIFF clip was more graphic before the removal Some materials are used to avoid NC-17 classification. How different is this previous version, and what can you share about what audiences didn’t see in the end?
Honestly, it’s no different. It’s just that when I kill Sarah, we reduce the number of headshots because they were too long. I really liked the response at TIFF, because people really liked how long it was and how aggressive Nikki was. It shows how obsessed she is, what she is willing to do for Bear and to what extent she is willing to do it. It’s just really intense. Also what was cut was after that. Carrey wanted to play with the idea of what the human body does after that kind of shock, like a gurgling chest, so there was gurgling, there were human sounds that might be too horrific for an R rating, so they kind of scaled it down. Sure, TIFF got a really terrible copy, but they seem to like it. Yes, they definitely got a sneak peek. (He laughs.)
What is your reaction to the ending and Bear’s decision to sacrifice himself to undo the wish? How did you deal with this for Nikki, and was there talk of her passing as well?
When I first got the script, I tried not to read any scenes Bear had on his own, because I really wanted to see this entirely from Nikki’s perspective. So, the first time I saw that scene was at TIFF, and I started crying, because I was like, “Oh my God, he goes from being this innocent boy to making a wish out of desperation, not knowing if it’s going to work, and then it works, and then he gets what he wants, but then he realizes how much he’s hurting her, and he doesn’t want it anymore, so he makes this decision. But what I thought was great was Michael asking Carrie if he could try puking up the pills after he swallows them all, because he’s such a coward at the end of the day, no He wants to die, he thinks to himself. So, the moment he actually goes to throw them all away, and then she hears Nikki wishing he would become more in love with her, that’s why he died, because he actually doesn’t have time to throw them all away, because then he’s overcome by desire.
In terms of what would have been my death scene at the end, the original ending was that I was going to choose that I didn’t want to live this way anymore, after all the trauma and pain. At the last second, they were like, “Let’s just try this thing,” and from other people’s perspective, which is a huge compliment to me, and I really, really appreciate it, they did one take, and they felt like it was magical and energetic, and they knew that was the end. At the end of all of this, it was like releasing everything I felt Nikki was experiencing out of my body. I’m really glad she didn’t die. I’m really glad it’s considered the final scary girl, I think that’s the silliest title ever.
Do you have a horror icon or scream queen that you look up to?
Oh, my God. Well, I’ve never said this publicly before, but I really like him a lot Jennifer’s body. I think Megan Fox’s performance in this movie was groundbreaking, and it was completely different from anything she’d done before. I love her performance. It’s really misrepresented. Now that I think about it, the roles are very similar with a certain ENT part. So, I would say Jennifer’s body She is a scream queen which I absolutely loved all the time. The more modern version of that is I’m in awe of Mia Goth. I think it’s so great in the horror genre, because it’s incredibly grounded and human, which adds another layer to the horror that I love.
Once Nikki returns to herself, she still suffers severe trauma and consequences, given that the possessed version of herself killed two people. Where do you imagine it goes from there?
I think she started a grieving process. There’s a joke about her going to prison, because obviously, where is she going to go? (He laughs.) I kind of did it all, and no one thinks the desire is real. But I think in her personal journey she started to grieve. I mean, we all go through traumatic events, and so I think, like with Nikki, you just start the grieving process.
Since Nikki’s future is left so open, it seems like there is more story to tell. Could you see yourself revisiting this world for a sequel?
I would definitely do that, but I really like the idea of just kind of leaving it there. It’s like memory, when you look at yourself like 24, 23, 22, these are all parts, and they start and end at a certain point. I think it’s similar to this story. It begins and ends, and then it’s the new Nikki, so to speak. (He laughs.)
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mania Now playing in theaters. Check all Hollywood ReporterCoverage here.
