March 14, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Mark Anthony Green
Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City and in Green River, Utah, the horror film “Opus” features a predominantly white group of people (with some African Americans, Native Americans and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A music journalist and several other people are the targets of deadly terror when they go to an exclusive listening party at the isolated compound of a mysterious pop star, who says he’s coming out of a 30-year retirement.
Culture Audience: “Opus” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, but this horror movie fails to do anything interesting or clever.
“Opus” starts with an unoriginal horror movie concept of people experiencing terror in an isolated area. It goes downhill from there. Yet another campy and weird performance from John Malkovich (as a reclusive pop star) cannot save this misguided movie. “Opus” seems to want to make bold statements about the dangers of obsessive celebrity worship, but it’s really just a substandard slasher flick that takes too long to get to the horror part of the movie.
Written and directed by Mark Anthony Green, “Opus” is his first feature film. “Opus” had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. The movie takes place mostly in Green River, Utah, and partially in New York City. (“Opus” was actually filmed in New Mexico.) Several characters are introduced and then are left underdeveloped. And there are too many plot holes to ignore. “Opus” is like a song that spends too much time on an intro, pretends to be original, but is really just a slipshod ripoff of better previously released work from other creators.
“Opus” begins by showing a snippet of a concert performed by music superstar Alfred Moretti (played by Malkovich), who goes by the name Moretti. His face is not revealed until later in the movie. As the movie’s opening credits roll on screen, individual concertgoers are shown in slow-motion as they dance and look ecstatic. The movie has visual effects that make it look like Moretti’s most star-struck fans have glints in their eyes like glowing stars.
The movie’s first scene with dialogue takes place in the New York City headquarters of an unnamed print magazine whose specialty is music coverage. During a staff meeting in a conference room, 27-year-old journalist Ariel Ecton (played by Ayo Edebiri) pitches an idea to do a feature article on the possible comeback of a legendary singer named Tamara Camden, whose two most recent albums have been flops.
Ariel’s editor boss Stan Sullivan (played by Murray Bartlett) rejects the idea. But then, he quickly changes his mind and assigns the story to a male writer. Ariel is hurt by this rejection because this type of snub has happened to her before at this magazine where she has worked for the past three years.
Ariel is then seen having lunch with her friend Kent (played by Young Mazino) and complaining that she’s not respected at her job. Ariel wants to do articles about celebrities because she thinks that will bring more attention to her. She has yet to be assigned this type of article. Kent tells her with brutal honesty that Ariel probably isn’t respected at the job because she comes across too average, too boring and too inexperienced in life.
Kent bluntly says to Ariel: “You’re middle as fuck,” meaning that she’s too “middle-of-the-road.” This is the only scene where anything is mentioned about Ariel’s personal history. She grew up in a stable, middle-class home with her two married parents. And she has a hard time letting anyone get close to her. These are all things that Kent says out loud to Ariel.
When Ariel goes back to the office, her co-workers are abuzz because Moretti’s flamboyant publicist Soledad Yusef (played by Tony Hale) has posted an online video announcing that Moretti is coming out of a 30-year retirement to release his 18th studio album, titled “Caesar’s Request.” A select number of people (about 50 to 75 guests) from around the world will get invitations to an exclusive listening party for the album, with each guest getting an all-expenses-paid trip to the party. Moretti is hosting the party at his sprawling compound in a very remote desert area in Green City, Utah.
It’s explained that before Moretti “disappeared” into retirement, he was the biggest pop star of the 1990s. He had 38 No. 1 singles and the highest-grossing concert tour of all time. His retirement was abrupt. He has not done any interviews since his retirement. And he has rarely been seen in public. However, he still has a devoted fan base.
The trailer for “Opus” already reveals that Ariel and Stan are two of the people who received invitations to the listening party. Arrangements are made for them to get flown by private jet to Green City. When Ariel and Stan arrive in Green City, they are greeted by Moretti’s chief assistant Jorg (played by Peter Diseth), who is welcoming but has an intensity about him that is unsettling. Jorg dresses like he was given throwaway clothes from “Star Trek.”
Ariel and Stan are then told that they will go on a tour bus called The Debutante to go to Moretti’s compound. The other people on the bus are tabloid TV host Clara Armstrong (played by Juliette Lewis); paparazzi photographer Bianca Tyson (played by Melissa Chambers); social media influencer Emily Katz (played by Stephanie Suganami); and an entertainment journalist named Bill Lotto (played by Mark Sivertsen), who is a competitive rival to Stan. Later, it’s revealed that Moretti has a grudge against Bill for a very petty and uninteresting reason.
On the way to the compound, these six guests see Moretti fans who weren’t invited to the party but are camped out as close to the compound entrance as they can get. When the guests arrive at the compound, a tall and imposing staffer named Najee (played by Tatanka Means) tells the guests that they are required to hand over their phones during the trip. Later, Ariel finds out that her laptop computer was taken without her consent from her guest room. A note is left behind, saying that her laptop computer was taken to “ensure your comfort,” with the promise that she will get her computer back at the end of the trip.
Once at the compound, Moretti makes his big entrance (his wardrobe is a combination of 1970s Elton John and New Age guru) and almost everyone does some type of celebrity worship of Moretti. Ariel gets caught up in it too, but not to the extent that she sees other people excessively fawning over Moretti. She notices that Jorg and other Moretti employees refer to themselves and Moretti’s other devoted fans as Levelists, with each person having to attain different levels to get closer to Moretti.
Stan mostly ignores Ariel because he is more interested in schmoozing with Clara and seeing if he can be the first person to interview Moretti at this party. And so, at the first big group dinner, where everyone is seated at long tables, Ariel is by herself when she is approached by a friendly girl named Maude (played by Aspen Martinez), who is about 8 or 9 years old. Maude invites Ariel to sit next to her at the dinner.
Maude is one of the few children in this group of people. Who is Maude and why is she there? Don’t expect any answers to that question. Later, Moretti is seen holding Maude’s hand like a parental figure. There is no mention of Moretti being a parent to Maude. Where are Maude’s parents? Don’t expect the movie to answer to that question either.
In another scene, Jorg tells Ariel that Jorg used to be a music teacher in Charlotte, North Carolina, but he suddenly left it all behind when he got a surprise phone call from Moretti, who asked Jorg to work for him. Jorg tells Ariel, “I was on the plane the next day.” Jorg says part of his job is to teach music theory to Maude, but whatever musical skills Jorg might have are never shown in the movie.
Ariel sees many other indications that Moretti is the leader of a cult. People obey his orders, no matter how strange they are. All of the people at the first group dinner are expected to eat from the same loaf of bread by biting into the bread loaf. By the time the loaf gets to Ariel, it’s lumpy and sticky from other people’s saliva. She hesitates to take a bite, but she gives in to peer pressure and does it anyway. The guests are also given specific schedules for their activities during this trip.
Later, Ariel and the other guests are each assigned a “minder,” who is supposed to keep them under surveillance, 24 hours a day. Ariel’s minder is a scowling Levelist concierge named Belle (played by Amber Midthunder), who follows Ariel almost everywhere. Ariel is given some privacy (Belle stays outside Ariel’s room when Ariel is in her room), but the movie never explains how Belle can really watch Ariel 24 hours a day, as if Belle doesn’t need to sleep. (“Opus” is not a science-fiction movie where the Levelists are really surprise non-human creatures.)
There’s too much build-up and not much payoff happening in “Opus.” At least half of the movie is about showing Ariel getting increasingly uncomfortable about being at the compound. Something that really raises alarms for her is the fashion/beauty makeover that she and the other guests are required to have before the listening party. It has already been decided for all the guests exactly what their makeovers will entail.
An employee Levelist named Rachel Malick (played by Tamera Tomakili), whose perky personality seems very fake, oversees Ariel’s makeover. And let’s just say that the grooming is too close for Ariel’s comfort. Rachel tries to shame Ariel into thinking that Ariel is being too uptight if she refuses any part of this makeover. “Opus” repeatedly makes the point that people will overlook and excuse a lot of uncomfortable weirdness if it mean pleasing someone who’s rich and famous.
One of the biggest failings of “Opus” is that it tells nothing about who Clara, Bianca, Emily and Bill really are, even though they are all put in the same group as Ariel and Stan for various activities at the compound. Clara gets the most dialogue with Ariel and Stan, but Clara is ultimately shallow and has nothing interesting to say. Bianca’s presence in the movie is unnecessary because Bianca has absolutely no bearing on the story.
For most of “Opus,” Ariel just exists to react to the bizarre things that she experiences, including witnessing extreme oyster shucking in a sweat-lodge tent; hearing Moretti tell a weird story about Chuck Norris and Muhammad Ali competing with each other backstage at a 1980s Mortetti concert to see who could slice up a mosquito the most with his bare hands; and watching an offbeat puppet show called “The Tragedy of Billie” about Billie Holiday. (Rosario Dawson has a voice cameo role as Billie Holiday.) As a journalist, Ariel has lousy investigative skills and not much common sense. But then again, horror movies often rely on characters to make less-than-smart decisions. Edebiri gives a serviceable performance as Ariel, who is likable but dull.
Malkovich’s performance as demented creep Moretti might get mild chuckles from viewers, but Moretti is not scary enough or funny enough to be an outstanding villain. As for Moretti’s songs, they are mediocre electro-pop tunes written by Grammy-winning writers/producers Nile Rodgers and The-Dream. If you waited your whole life to see Malkovich gyrate to bland pop while pretending to be a pop star, then “Opus” is the movie for you.
Most horror movies are not expected to be masterpieces. But the best horror movies should get viewers interested enough to care what happens to the main characters. Unfortunately, “Opus” fails to deliver, in terms of characters and a story that can be engaging. The last awful 15 minutes of “Opus” drag like a strand of toilet paper clinging to a toilet bowl before being flushed down the toilet. And that’s probably the best way to describe how this derivative flop film wasted a lot of opportunities to be a better movie.
A24 released “Opus” in U.S. cinemas on March 14, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on April 1, 2025.
