Starry Eyes, directed by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer, is a surprisingly effective horror film in the tradition of Black Swan and The House of the Devil. Like the former, it tells the tale of a mentally unstable young woman who forsakes her innocence in the name of her art. Like the latter, this is a slow burn affair with a wham-bang ending and a retro vibe. 

Starry Eyes follows an aspiring actress named Sarah, who lives with a few of her fellow actors and works at a fast food restaurant called Big Taters. She is barely able to focus on her job because her number one passion is acting, and she is constantly on the phone scheduling auditions. We watch her go from audition to audition, pouring herself in to every one and often failing. 

And when things get too stressful, Sarah literally pulls her hair out in clumps - a disturbing habit that plays a large part in the film. Every instance is cringe-inducing. 

One day when Sarah is at the end of her rope, she auditions for a role in a horror film called "The Silver Scream", which is being produced by Astraeus Pictures, a company that is long past its hey day and is desperate for a comeback. The people at Astraeus are incredibly odd and more than a little spooky. After Sarah's first audition, it is clear that she is the girl for the job. 

But it will come at a large price. 

I don't want to reveal any more than I have to. Half of the fun is not knowing what is going to happen next. I will say that the third act of the film is extremely gory and pretty damn horrifying. While it's not the classic that it could have been, this is still an above average film and deserves to be seen. If you are a fan of the films of Ti West, I think you'll have a good time. Also, Alex Essoe (who plays Sarah) is a revelation. She's going on to bigger things, trust me. 

Every now and again, I come across a movie that I absolutely wish that I had not seen. I mean, you look at the film from a technical and artistic standpoint and you know that there was obviously a lot of talent involved. However, by the end credits, you wonder why a cast and crew would want to waste that talent on a film like Alyce Kills.

Alyce Kills is a horror film from The Collective and Bloody Disgusting. And, yes, it is bloody disgusting - so disgusting and vile that I toyed with the notion of cutting it off early. The plot is very simple, with awkward nods to Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" sprinkled throughout. I can only assume that this device was used because the filmmakers thought that it was clever, and at times it works, but it would have been far more effective in a better horror film. As I said, the plot is very thin. It involves a young girl named Alyce who goes out one night with her best friend to party and get high. Her friend picks up some ecstasy at the club, and the two girls climb to the top of a building and start hallucinating. Alyce attempts to pull a prank on her friend, and accidentally pushes her off the top of the building. She takes a hard fall, but does not die. When Alyce is confronted by the police about the incident, she denies that she was involved. A few days later, the weight of the guilt becomes too much for Alyce, and she succumbs to a dark world of drugs and sex. She takes a dive into a nasty rabbit hole, and before you know it, she has lost her mind.

This is all a set-up for scenes involving necrophilia and an extremely long - and unapologetically gratuitous - scene of dismemberment. There is also a random scene where Alyce masturbates to news footage on the War in Iraq, which will leave many viewers scratching their heads. Gorehounds are the intended audience for this film, and yes, they will get a kick out of it, but at the end of the day, that's all that the film has to offer - gore. The film doesn't even work on a "so bad, it's good" level.

I didn't enjoy it at all. And that's sad, because this one could have been a lot of fun, not to mention that Jade Dornfeld is actually quite good as Alyce.