Starry Eyes

Co-directed by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer on a crowdfunded budget, Starry Eyes is a nasty piece of independent filmmaking and a prime example of the body horror genre. Starring Alexandra Essoe as a desperate young actress with a mind-numbing day job at a Hooters-esque fast-food joint, the film shines a glaring spotlight on Los Angeles’ creative class. Essoe’s Sarah and her friends all struggle to get hired, suffering through demeaning auditions by day and drinking together nearly every night. They congregate regularly in a shared apartment complex, stressing over petty grievances in a claustrophobic setting. While the friends hope to strike it big as actors and filmmakers, they also realize the realm of success is geographically within reach yet practically unattainable, which leads the more optimistic members of the group to work on no-budget projects of their own. But Sarah has dreams of becoming a star at any cost, and this is where Kölsch and Widmyer are able to flex their muscles, taking the great unknown of the Hollywood machine and turning it into a satanic sex cult. Playing with imagery inspired by Anton LaVey and Charles Manson, the writer/directors have spun a story that is both fantastical and bracingly realistic, placing familiar and contemporary characters on the cusp of a psychotic, magical La-La Land.

Sarah first encounters the cult at a humiliating audition for a horror film, where she retreats to the bathroom to throw a fit and rip out her hair. It’s a habit of hers to self-harm whenever she gets overly frustrated, working herself into a dramatic frenzy. This catches the attention of the casting director (an imperious Maria Olsen), who is loitering in the bathroom and then grants Sarah re-entry into the audition room. A measured descent follows, punctuated by Essoe’s frenetic performance, and Sarah is ultimately drawn into the cult of Astraeus Pictures. After begrudgingly participating in some nefarious sex magick, she becomes violently ill, initiating a wild and sickening bodily transformation. There’s nothing like a truly skin-crawling body horror sequence, and Starry Eyes boasts several slimy, hair-raising set pieces. Having lost her physical autonomy, Sarah gains a successful career, selling herself to the devil and leaving her friends in the dust. It’s a simple but effective film, spinning casting-couch rumors into something utterly diabolical. Kenneth Anger would have appreciated the premise, a 21st-century tale of Hollywood Babylon, that proved to be a critical success for Kölsch and Widmyer, who went on to direct the 2019 remake of Pet Sematary for Paramount Pictures.