One of 2014’s best horror films comes to one of Brooklyn’s raddest little screening spaces tonight, May 9th, with directors Q&A moderated by Shock’s Sam Zimmerman.
Spectacle Theater, the DIY (and BYOB) screening space at 124 S. 3rd (off Bedford) in Williamsburg is a consistently weird and wonderful locale. Spectacle specializes in the strange, the significant and the obscure, screening everything from Andy Milligan movies to Der Fan to Part Time Work of a Domestic Slave to hosting the Druid Underground Film Festival. Tonight, as part of the ‘Terror of Production’ series, they highlight 2014’s occult-laden Hollywood horror, Starry Eyes, the feature debut from filmmaking pair Kevin Kölsch & Dennis Widmyer. Twice!
The directors will be skyping in for a Q&A post the 7:30 showing, and then intro’ing the 10:00 p.m. (with myself as moderator). And then you can stick around for Karen Black in The Pyx. If you’ve yet to see Starry Eyes, suffice to say the film is alternately alluring and grotesque; a strobing, pulsing portrait of the actor’s life and the ultimate sacrifice for fame. Below, you can read Spectacle’s program notes, as well as find their now regular custom trailer (though if you haven’t watched the film that might reveal too much).
See you tonight! The show is only $5!
Ever get the suspicion that Hollywood is controlled by unseen forces that lurk behind the curtain of every big-budget production? STARRY EYES wont do much to divest you of that opinion. Sarah (Alex Essoe, in a true star-making performance that brings to mind the hysterical physicality of Isabelle Adjani in POSSESSION) is a down-on-her-luck young actress, living in LA, hoping to achieve the dream of stardom, but also working in a fast food restaurant with a lascivious boss. With no prospects, a crappy job, and friends who are succeeding faster than her, Sarah goes for one last big audition for a horror film. Her acting doesnt impress the casting agents, but her brutal self-injurious behaviour does. From there, its a trip down the rabbit hole through creepy auditions, tests of faith, and a contract Sarah cannot and will not refuse.
Part of the American independent horror renaissance of the last few years, STARRY EYES is a tense, intense, gory look at how the sausage is made in Hollywood. Directors Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kolsch paint a portrait of Sarahs degradation in LA so that we cant resist, or really even argue with, the choices that she makes on her way to the top. Complete with a spare, creepy synth score, STARRY EYES harkens back to a creepier day in horror, when whats inside each and every one of us was scarier than anything else.
STARRY EYES (Dennis Widmyer & Kevin Kolsch, 2014) from Spectacle Theater on Vimeo.
