Starry Eyes (2014)

Starry Eyes (2014)
directed by:  Kevin Kolsch, Dennis Widmyer
starring:  Alexandra Essoe, Amanda Fuller, Noah Segan, Maria Olsen, Fabianne Therese, Shane Coffey, Mark Senter, Natalie Castillo, Louis Dezseran, Pat Healy          

(out of 5)

      Wow what a film!  First response.  This is one of the those movies for me that I was angry at myself for not watching sooner.  And now also not purchasing it on Blu-Ray.  I have owned this movie for about a year and what an idiot I have been just letting this one sit.  Last time I felt this way was when I watched Blue Ruin.  Which by the way I bought at the same time as this one. 
     The movie follows an actress by the name of Sara who fumbles her way through life in search of a dream.  The dream of course in the Hollywood hills is to become an actress.   Sara wants nothing more than to quit her job as a waitress at Big Taters and become the next Marilyn Monroe.  She has a small group of friends she rolls with and all of whom have similar dreams but Sara is different or so she thinks.  She auditions for a part in a new horror film called the Silver Scream for a big time horror film producer.  Soon it seems the whole casting is too good to be true.  Something begins to happen to Sara's body soon after meeting with the head producer and she frantically begins searching for answers.  The movie really can't be critiqued a whole lot in my opinion script wise.  The pace moved right along and the dialogue held natural from beginning to end.  I loved the end I really cannot go into a whole lot without spoiling it for the people out there like me who have not sat down and watched it yet.  I will say that Sara finds what she's looking for but soon she realizes that there is more here at stake than time and money for rent.  Spectacular story telling.

     The actors in this one were all so perfect for their roles I never really came out of the film once.  This is one of those movies that just pulls you in and never lets go.  Alexandra Esse, Amanda Fuller, Noah Segan, and Maria Olsen most especially knocked it out of the park.  One fine thing in particular was during some of the more violent scenes in the film.  The actors portrayed the pain they were receiving.  This is a giant pet peeve of mine in any film.  When a person is stabbed etc they cry out, the freak out, they tremble, shake, etc.  I'm sure some people will go into shock etc but really in a film I generally want to see the feeling of what's going on, not an excuse of shock to cover up the fact that my actors can't act.  Definitely not the case here.

     The effects on the blood and gore were old school no cgi flubs taking me out of the film either.  Usually this happens with blood splatter but this one for the most part all around were practical effects which in my opinion always looks more real.  Sara's body goes through some changes in this film including color changes and what a job the effects artists did with her.  There have been a couple films I can compare this to, Thanatomorphose and Contracted but only in parts and pieces and mostly due to the fact that the women leads in the movie slowly go through a lot of violent body changes. 
     The movie definitely left me wanting more and thinking hard about what just transpired during the entirety of the film itself.  I loved it.  Sheer masterpiece of modern cinema.  Do not pass this up as I did for so long!