Starry Eyes

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source: Starry Eyes

Saw "Starry Eyes" last week @ The Cinefamily and I can honestly say it was one of the most thrilling theater experiences I've had. The film has everything I love. Humor, horror, depth and heart. Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer have made a piece of work that I can place on a shelf in between my David Lynch collection and my favorite horror films. That's a really big deal for me. I'd highly recommend this film. Head to iTunes and see a film that will launch a lot of careers. Director/Writers Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kolsch are sure to be around for a while with their brand of twisted psychological horror. Alex Essoe is a star-in-the making...you'll see. And Travis Stevens seems to be a champion of smart, edgy material that will stick in your head for days after viewing.

Starry Eyes is an ambitious movie with lofty goals, giving a dark, sinister edge to show business. It's unfortunate that it doesn't completely follow through on it's promise. Sarah (Alex Essoe) is a young waitress trying to 'Make It' as an actress in Los Angeles. She gets an audition for a horror film titled 'The Silver Scream'. Sarah is an emotional wreck who resorts to a strange form of self-harm (She rips her own hair out of her head) After blowing the audition, she does just this in the bathroom, which catches the attention of the casting agents, and she is asked to re-enter the room and do just that. After this, she has a call-back, which goes disastrously when she finds herself unwilling to "Do whatever it takes". After a third attempt, she begins her descent into madness and decay, and so does the plot. Where this movie fails is in setting up even any loose logic as to why everything is happening. There's obviously a cult involvement, but there is absolutely NO explanation as to what they do, or how they do it. I'm not saying that I need everything spoon-fed to me, but completely ignoring any context altogether isn't surreal, it's frustrating. There are some very effective performances, namely from the film's lead. Noah Segal is also serviceable as Sarah's aspiring hipster filmmaker friend, and Marc Senter is criminally underused as the assistant casting director. The special effects are also of note, which become both fantastical, clinical and down-right disgusting. The crisp, clean cinematography also enhances the effects, sparing absolutely no detail. All in all, it's a decent movie, despite it's shortcomings. It's nothing overtly special, but it's engaging enough to keep you at least watching, even if you're not always terribly invested.

What a piece of garbage! this is the worst movie i have ever seen in my life! it makes absolutely NO sense, it's just a bunch of blood in gore in the second half, the first half is mind numbingly boring! i seriously almost turned it off a few times, the whole thing was just completely stupid and had no point to it, it sucks! there goes an hour and a half of my life i'll never get back! DO NOT BELIEVE THE POSITIVE RATINGS! they're a scam, probably people from the movie trying to up the rating and fool people into watching this piece of rubbish! don't waste your time, watch ANYTHING else but this, this is the worst movie i have ever seen! seriously, and i've seen a lot of movies so that's saying a lot. THIS MOVIE FLAT OUT STINKS!!!

Disturbed young actress rejects the people who care about her and makes a pact with the devil to be cast as a star. This is pretty slow and confused, and ends up as a slasher. I agree with another reviewer - a psychological drama gets horror shoved into its orifices. The horror set up is so slight it could be dismissed as an hallucination, even at the end, but the mental decline of the heroine is well done. Sort of like The Babadook, which also failed in this combination. Y'know, sometimes reality is horror too. The themes are interesting - the price of ambition, the hopelessness of college graduates in the USA, the abusive power of an older generation. In that way it's a serious story, so the horror is even more out of place. The writing for the bitchy character was good - all those little remarks delivered with concern but designed to undermine confidence. The lead actress has the figure of Nicole Kidman. The music is some guy with a keyboard pressing buttons.

"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? What is it worth to you? It's these questions that the film tackles, and the universality of the film's themes gives it an accessibility in spite of how utterly fantastical it becomes. There is a lot of appeal as well to generation Y and millennials here, as the film meditates on the lostness of young adulthood and the struggle to "make something" of one's life in the twenty-first century. Sarah's trendy group of filmmakers, other aspiring actresses, and artists— her only conceivable "friends" to speak of— highlight this, and are positioned in contrast with her inflating aspirations leading into her eventual sacrifice. On one hand, it's easy to see Sarah's frustration over their pretentious artistic ennui, but by the end of the film you'd be hard-pressed not to sympathize with them on some level. As I was watching the film, I was especially taken aback by how much it echoes the work of other genre filmmakers, visually and musically. There are tinges of "Rosemary's Baby," body horror ala David Cronenberg, and heavy Dario Argento influences— the architectural elements of the film studio and its eccentric employees are unabashedly reminiscent of "Suspiria," and Alex Essoe sure looks like Jessica Harper wandering down Sunset Boulevard in a remarkable nighttime montage. My point here is not critical, but rather that the film is very obviously made by people who know and appreciate the horror genre. Written and directed by team filmmakers Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer, it is a film that is patently made by fans, for fans. As things progress, the film goes less the route of Illumaniti-inspired media cult (something I expected it to elaborate more on), and rather goes along the lines of aforementioned Cronenberg territory before cutting loose into full-fledged splatter mode. The violence in the last act is truly horrific and realistically presented; enough to please gorehounds and to disconcert the squeamish. 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. Fans won't want to miss this. 9/10.

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, *, modern media, drug abuse and such. A crude version of an age old story that will pop up anywhere near and around high concentrations of power, money, showbiz, what have you. Does it work? Partly. The cast do a decent job, Alex(andra) Essoe first of all. But of all the many crazy representatives of evil throughout the history of film, Louis Dezseran is not one who leaves a lasting impression. His two casting minions are much better, even if memories of David Lynch' 'Mullholland Drive' and 'Inland empire' immediately come to mind... The story is supposedly a slow burner (reminiscent of 'The house of the devil', which is much better), but it takes way too much time to my taste to get to its point. On the drama level, it did not get under my skin somehow; the group of friends who want to become actors or otherwise involved in the world of film, are pretty much an uninspiring bunch, I suppose. And to really get (and stay!) connected with the 'wanderings' of Sarah, was yet another problem. And then there's the gore, which makes the movie what it truly is: a horror movie - but that takes a while. In the end the violence réally takes off, even if there are just a few moments here and there earlier on. The moment where one of the girls falls flat on her face causing Sarah to expose a sadistic side of her, was one of the rare moments that fully worked, actually. 5 out of 10; certainly not the intelligent horror some reviews caused me to anticipate.