Starry Eyes

Plot synopsis:
Sarah (Alex Essoe) is a hopeful young woman suffering from trichotillomania, who is desperate to become famous, but is stuck waitressing at a Hooters-esque restaurant named Big Taters. Her boss Carl (Pat Healy) is frustrated with how Sarah's auditioning occasionally interferes with her job but is unwilling to fire her. Her friends are generally unsupportive and selfish; Erin (Fabianne Therese) is constantly trying to undermine Sarah and steal her roles, and the others are lackadaisical about Sarah's efforts and Erin's actions. This is partially because they are overly involved with themselves and partially because Sarah purposely distances herself from the others. The only people who appear to be interested in her well-being are Sarah's roommate Tracy (Amanda Fuller) and Danny (Noah Segan), an aspiring film director and photographer who seems to have a romantic interest in Sarah.
Her prospects at stardom look dim until Sarah takes an audition for the film The Silver Scream, which is being held by the powerful production company Astraeus Pictures. Her audition is met with a lackluster response by the casting director (Maria Olsen) and the assistant (Marc Senter), and Sarah is summarily dismissed from the room. Upset, Sarah enters a nearby bathroom in the building the auditions are being held in and proceeds to rip her hair out, a move that gains the interest of the casting director. Wanting to gain the role, Sarah returns to the audition room and reluctantly acquiesces to the casting director's demand that she rip her hair out again in front of them. Once this is completed, Sarah is dismissed again, much to her confusion. She then quits her job to pursue her chance at the movie. She is overjoyed when she gets a callback to a second audition. She eagerly returns to the building and is caught off guard when she is now commanded to disrobe. Sarah again reluctantly agrees to their demands, and after being told to open herself up to the potential to "transform", she experiences extreme euphoria and undergoes a trance state, during which she notices that the casting director is wearing a pentagram necklace. While in this state of euphoria she begins to show mild erratic behaviors, like laughing when one of her friends breaks her nose.
It is only when Sarah is called to a third audition that she balks at the demands of Astraeus' employees, as she is now expected to have sex with the producer (Louis Dezseran). Sarah refuses and runs home, where she confesses the night's events to Tracy. Humiliated, Sarah has to beg for her job back from Carl. Danny asks Sarah to be the lead role in his movie and she accepts. To celebrate, they have a pool party. Sarah is surprised when she sees Erin kissing Danny. Angry, Sarah returns to the producer's house, where she performs oral sex on him. During the following days, Sarah shows increasingly erratic behavior even while her body begins to deteriorate. This causes her to lose her job and attack several people, including her friends. Sarah eventually has a heated argument with Tracy and retreats to her room, where she sees the casting director and has a vision of herself as a beautiful and glamorous movie idol. She awakens from the dream and goes to the bathroom to vomit, where she finds that her hair and nails have almost completely fallen out. Sarah climbs into the bathtub, where she vomits maggots. With her last bit of energy, Sarah answers her cell phone. The producer taunts her and tells her that she can either die or she can embrace the transformation and become like him. Sarah embraces the transformation and goes to Erin's house. Sarah and Erin argue until Erin turns on the lights and sees Sarah's disfigured face. Erin tries to persuade her to go to the hospital but she accidentally slices her cheek with a knife. Sarah accepts what she has done and proceeds to violently stab Erin. She then goes to Ashley's room and smashes her face using a dumbbell. Poe witnesses this and he runs away but he slips on a puddle of blood. Sarah stabs him as well. Sarah realizes that Erin is still alive and suffocates her with a plastic bag. She then goes to Danny's van and kills him. After that, the production company Astraeus, which turns out to be a secret cult worshiping a god named Astraeus, conducts a ritual whereby Sarah is reborn from a mound of earth with a healthy, hairless body. Sarah returns to her apartment and kills Tracy by sucking the life out of her mouth in a kiss. She puts on the presents that Astraeus left her, a gown and a wig. The film ends as she admires herself in the mirror.

Tags: cruelty, murder, allegory, cult, violence, flashback, satire, sadist

Review:
It's also because Starry Eyes sheds a dark light on Hollywood and on human nature itself by exploring the most vile, revolting aspects of both.The movie is heavily reliant on atmosphere, and it definitely gives off a David Lynch and Requiem for a Dream vibe throughout.
If you like Lynch-esque movies that make you think but also make you feel unnerved then you'll definitely get some chills and thrills from Starry Eyes.
Since it's still on Netflix, everyone who enjoys horror movies should take the time to watch Starry Eyes.
Not a slow-burner so much as a strong build up, once "Starry Eyes" gets where it's going, the film becomes explosively violent and shocking.The story is not uncommon, but its execution is grand.
The film balances Hollywood satire and splattery gore in a way that's both fresh and inviting, taking a typical struggling actress and exploiting her story with everything the horror genre has to offer.
Horror fans should also watch out for the Directors, Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer, and especially for newbie, Alex Essoe, who delivers a truly star-making performance (pity it was in an indie that might not bring her just recognition)."Starry Eyes" may take a little while to get there, but once it does you'll realize that this diabolically offbeat journey of debauchery, ambition, and masochism was worth the payoff..
The mood borrows from elements of Rosemary's Baby and Eyes Wide Shut but the setting is in a much more realistic environment, which works to great effect as the story progresses.A word of warning to those who think this is going to be a drama with edge - it's not.
The movie gets pretty twisted in places and you might be advised not to eat whilst watching!One of the best films I've seen in a while..
Beyond that, I have to admit, I watched the entire thing (resisting the urge to turn it off many times) because I wanted, hoped for, the ending to bring everything together in some redeeming way.
The movie was difficult to watch all around but not because of horror elements - it's hard, for one thing, to feel invested in a story when you can't empathize with its protagonist - admittedly there are exceptions to that but this isn't one of them.
Indie horror can be hit or miss, oftentimes a miss, but Starry Eyes is a surprisingly well acted story that sways toward the "hit" side.Los Angeles, California – the land where bright eyed beautiful people go to try their hand at stardom.
Some are lucky if they get a national commercial or a guest spot on a television series, most resigned to locally produced indie flicks that will only be seen by their inner circle.Starry Eyes takes the brutally competitive and unmerciful Hollywood atmosphere and couples it with the darkest desire, the blind ambition to seize success.
Hopeful for her big break, Sarah grapples with making a deal to enter into the dark and occult world of the elite.Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer split the dual role of screenwriter/director in Starry Eyes but produce a cohesive vision in their film.
They perfectly capture the pompous, self-serving atmosphere rife with deceptively two-faced phonies who talk more than they 'do'.Starry Eyes is a surprisingly successful and effective film and horror.
Weirdly poignant and meta, I hope Alex Essoe's performance in this role garners some attention from producers in the right place, for she has talent.Check out our website for all the horror releases reviewed in FULL..
Amazing Movie 8.5/10, this is up there with Susperia, House of Tears & Rosemary's Baby (Orig) Fantastic rendition to the witch genre!A great story with rich acting and camera work, the transition of scenes was flawless.
Starry Eyes is a very competent horror film, whose main attribute is the potent metaphor it brings us about the proverbial "road to fame" many people aspire to tour.
Sure, that's quite a common subject, and I think Mulholland Dr. is the best film about that topic so far; however, Starry Eyes has pretty much to offer, mainly because of its perverse screenplay, which properly handles horror, suspense and satire, with a fallible but endearing main character, who makes many mistakes and never reaches the noble and pure standard of the "final girl" we are accustomed to see in the genre; however, Alexandra Essoe's performance is so intense and credible that we totally comprehend the chain of events which takes her character to the brutal ending.
In conclusion, I wouldn't consider Starry Eyes an excellent movie, but I think it's quite a good horror film, that is equally disturbing for its gore and its satire about Hollywood, that "dream factory" which is more appropriate for generating nightmares.
What do you do when you come to the conclusion that the film you just started watching, probably will end up in your top 10 of the most vexing and lousy movies ever?
Not that the core of the story has never been used in a film before, but its impact and the way it evolves, made sure it was yet again a unique experience.Sarah (Alex Essoe) is an actress who apparently can't manage to get a role in a film.
Until one day Sarah needs to do an audition for Astreus Pictures and she is willing to do anything to achieve her goal.In short you can summarize "Starry Eyes" as follows : a sort of "Rosemary's Baby" (but in another sinister way), with the terrifying consequences as in "Contracted" or "The Fly" and this mixed with the better slasher work from horror films in the 80's.
The conflicting sides of her psyche have several wince-inducing bouts as her frustrations lead her to literally pull her hair out.Having yet to get a role, and wanting to prove that she is better than those around her, she dives headfirst into an audition with the enigmatic Astraeus Pictures for horror movie The Silver Scream.
The film deals with desperation, paranoia and the most deadly of desires, ambition, and showcases the extreme lengths that the soul will go to to reach that ultimate goal of perfection.A film of this type has the risk of going too far and becoming a parody of itself, but thankfully STARRY EYES dodges this pitfall, and it is all thanks to the performance of leading lady Alex Essoe.
Segan plays Danny, another dreamer living out of his car hoping to make it as a movie director, who takes a shine to Sarah.With STARRY EYES, directors Kolsch and Widmyer showcase LA and the Hollywood scene in a very bleak, but honestly realistic way.
In Hollywood, the Big Taters'waitress Sarah Walker (Alex Essoe) is an ambitious aspiring actress that suffers from hair pulling disorder.
What will she do?"Starry Eyes" is a disturbing horror film with potential to be great.
Overall, this is a truly unique and one of the most surprising, stylish, unnerving, and ambitious horror films this year that reveals the dark and scary side of being an actor in Hollywood that you just hope it's not based on a true story.>>A-<<.
The movie is about Sarah (Alex Essoe), a young wannabe actress who has her sights set on fame.
I didn't read the reviews for this before I saw it, so when it turned into a horror film, I was like "what?" They were doing such a good job with what is a sad reality for those wanting fame in Hollywood, I think they should've left out the horror storyline, because it detracted from the movie.
Those who addicted horror movie like me this warn is for you, DO NOT WATCH, DO NOT WASTE YOUR PRECIOUS TIME.
Even if much of the horror is derived from one young girl's desperation to make it to stardom in Hollywood and the lengths she'll go to.Bored of waitressing in a seedy café (primarily frequented by men – if you know what I mean), xxxxx feels she gets the break she's been waiting for when a well-to-do producer offers to make her the star of an upcoming movie.
Starry Eyes has been on a lot of 'Best Horror Movies of 2014' lists, but I couldn't help feel disappointed (maybe that's how a ton of people felt in regards to The Babadook, which I absolutely loved).
The movie is obviously a slow burn that builds up to a heavy gore fest at the end of the film (which like I said, I was okay with).
Starry Eyes starts out like most people would think, a girl goes through a few bizarre and strange auditions before going completely nuts at the end of the movie in hopes of achieving fame.
I've heard "Starry Eyes" was one of the best horror movies last year.
The rest of the cast did an average performance, doing what was necessary but without adding much more than that.The film uses some scenes in which the actress appears half-naked, but I don't think this was bad, or a call to the "sex sells" formula.
Maybe there's mental issues that fit with what the "organization" was looking for but either way, it gives you many questions at the start and does a good job at keeping you interested.Alex Essoe(Sarah in the film) does a better job than I originally thought.
Kevin Kolsch & Dennis Luidmyer's Starry Eyes centres on Alex Essoe's (Sarah) conflict of sacrificing her morals and sensibilities in order to make it in the movie business.An impressively directed picture with clear nods to Dario Argento era horror with a suitably 80s synth score.
Once Sarah becomes more embroiled with the production company things take a satanic turn involving a David Croenburg esc body horror transformation.Unfortunately these ideas I never considered fully realised, once Sarah makes her decision and the impact that has on her vacuous housemates, I lost any real sympathy for the character not having enough to fully understand her decision.
When we see the young aspiring actress - someone who yearns to transform, to shed self - coaxed to writhe on the casting room floor funneling real damaged self into immersion of its performance, and soon after finds herself entranced in a dark room, being lulled to bare herself by the seductive eye of the camera.Both scenes - about nakedness of self, about damage of its fixation with that self - deserve a much better film than one where selling your soul in corrosive Hollywood is rendered with actual demonic powers at play that demand literally that, where the quest for transformative art is capped off with an actual rebirth from soil into elegant beauty that of course now lacks all humanity.As I shift back into the horror context I realize I have seen way worse and we horror fans may have a small classic here.
The acting was great in the film especially the lead actress Alex Essoe..
Alexandra Essoe does a fine job of playing an aspiring actress in LA who thinks she has found her big break but once the creepy movie director places his hand on her knee it's just the start of a truly horrific nightmare.
The film did a good job portraying the sinister side, however it was a snap shot of the creepy behind the scenes devil worshippers and more of a character study as we watch Sarah transform.
The saving grace for Starry Eyes is the performance by the lead actress, Alex Essoe as Sarah, a young waitress working at a Hooters type of restaurant, who aspires to be a Hollywood star.
Struggling young actress / Big Taters waitress gets an audition for a production company of some renown, but ultimately must choose to sell her soul or stick with her friends - with room to consider secret (film) societies, porn, modern media, drug abuse and such.
Starry Eyes is such a great horror film.
Plus, it pays tribute to Argento, Goblin (I would LOVE a Starry Eyes soundtrack on LP) and Lynch without stealing that much or being weird for weirdness' sake, The acting is much better than other horror films and I liked how the lead's job at a "tater" place was like working at Hooters and how she felt like she was selling out anyway.
The movie would have also been good without excessive gore, though this film builds up old school with the suspense and character development, so I can forgive the hand weight scene.
However, when Sarah auditions for a role in a movie called "The Silver Scream," her life (and appearance) begin to change drastically as she discovers how far she'll go to secure her place among the famous.
"Starry Eyes" follows aspiring actress Sarah (Alex Essoe), a young woman in Los Angeles who desperately wants to become a famous actress.
After countless auditions, Sarah finally grabs the attention of two very bizarre talent scouts from a moderately well-known movie studio who are making a horror film.
Turns out that a good performance isn't all she'll need to bring though, as she finds herself wrapped up in the workings of an elite cult who has big plans for her.I think the main reason that "Starry Eyes" has such an appeal is because the crux of the plot is quite straightforward: What would you do to achieve your dream?
Overall, "Starry Eyes" is a truly fantastic modern horror film, supported by talented actors and moulded as a true love letter to some of the genre's greatest contributors.
Alex(andra) "Passion Play" Essoe is diabolically perfect as the aspiring thespian, Sarah, who willingly sells her soul to be a movie star; her dedication to the role very nearly makes you wonder if this is how she got cast in the first place.That's a joke, albeit an easy and a poor one, but I suspect many viewers will wonder anyway.
Affectively chilling yet relatively predictable horror flick about a naive young actress in Hollywood (Essoe gives a tremendous performance out of a tricky role) whose blind ambition gets the best of her when she is offered a too-good-to-be-true role of a lifetime (and then some) with horrific end results.
The somewhat scattershot screenplay (does it want to be a quasi-satire/metaphor about careers in show biz or a nifty demonic monster movie?) by filmmaking team Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer has a hit-and-miss factor namely the expendable (yawn-worthy) supporting cast of characters (the actors do the best they can in paper-thin cookie cutter archetypes: i.e. the ponderous filmmaker wanna-be; pretentious poetry slam hipster; the bitchy frienemy) yet arguably makes up for it in spades in the final act with some gruesomely awesome graphic violence (kudos to the make-up and visual effects of Hugo Villasenor and Matt Falletta, respectively) and a spooky score by Jonathan Snipes.
But this movie does do well on its own in different ways.Alex Essoe has given a powerful performance as Sarah.
To put it bluntly.I didn't really enjoy it,in fact the story was so dull that it didn't really grab my attention until after about 50 minutes into the film.The acting,from most part was quite poor.I think Alex Essoe did a fairly decent job as the main role of Sarah,but other than that,these actors were talent less.The cheesy music,along with the cheesy tone,and of course the bad acting kept making me forget I was watching a film made in 2014,rather than 1998!
Definitely 'less is more' works charms in this movie with the subtle direction and vulnerable acting on behalf of the fresh Alex Essoe as Sarah who resents her pathetic life and loser friends so much that she sells herself to the Devil in order to achieve fame and be a big super star.
Paying the price for her transformation besides herself is her friends whom she ends up killing all and that plays as an extreme exaggeration of how she felt for her friends or more specifically her roommate's friends who never done anything helpful for her, one is always a bitch to her, always cunning and envious, and Danny who is constantly changing his mind about making her the lead role of his movie or choosing Erin whose always jealous of Alex and patronises her, and one time you feel he is emotionally interested in her than you see him in bed with Erin.
"Starry Eyes" is a horror movie, but its dark side sneaks up on you.Sarah Walker (Alexandra Essoe) works at "Big Taters", a fast food restaurant.
Sarah has achieved her starring role and transformed into a princess of darkness."Starry Eyes" comes together as long as you don't question things too much.
Aspiring actress Sarah Walker (an appealing and outstanding performance by the fetching Alex Essoe) desperately wants a coveted lead role in a film that could launch her career.
Yes, in places there are the cliché's that you would expect to see in a film based on a story about a struggling waitress/ wannabe actress in LA, who would just about give anything for a starring role in a movie.
Her rage attracts the attention of the casting director who's not played by a terrible actor and she's asked to replay her fit, only with epileptic shaking.By the time a disheveled Sarah walks the streets while synth music plays, two things have become obvious: the movie will follow the same Halloween- inspired horror nouveau template than features like The House of the Devil or Girl Walks Alone at Night, and it will neither be great or awful.
Some of this goes back to the lack of depth in these characters in the first place as they are mostly just nameless victims for the "monster".The gore is pretty good in this movie once it gets going and I found the effects to be much better than a lot of recent horror movies which tend to go over the top with their effects.
So she ends up returning to the producer and getting the starring role in the movie they make.