Movie · 2025 · Horror, Mystery, Thriller · 1h 44m · R · English
Curator score: 0.9/10 (192.2K ratings)
A once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Overview
A young writer is invited to the remote compound of a legendary pop star who mysteriously disappeared thirty years ago. Surrounded by the star's cult of sycophants and intoxicated journalists, she finds herself in the middle of his twisted plan.
Ratings
Curator score: 0.9/10
IMDb: 5.7/10
Letterboxd: 2.71/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 39%
Metacritic: 42
TMDB: 5.7/10
Director
Mark Anthony Green
Production
A24, Makeready, MACRO
Cast
Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich, Juliette Lewis, Murray Bartlett, Melissa Chambers, Tony Hale, Stephanie Suganami, Mark Sivertsen, Amber Midthunder, Tatanka Means, Aspen Martinez, Peter Diseth, Tamera Tomakili, Rose Marley Meizlesh, Jasper Keen, Young Mazino, Jean Effron, Justin Perry, Aimee McGuire, Chris Highlands
Where to watch
Max
Curator Review
Verdict
A stylish, high-concept cult-thriller with strong performances and a sharp premise, but it leans heavily on familiar satirical-horror beats and doesn’t fully deepen its ideas. Worth a look if you enjoy glossy, paranoid genre pieces about celebrity, manipulation, and groupthink.
Best for
Viewers who like prestige-leaning cult horror and social satire
Fans of glossy, slow-burn thrillers with a remote-compound setting
Audiences interested in fame, fandom, and media manipulation
Skip if
You want genuinely original twists rather than familiar genre echoes
You’re tired of cult-movie allegories about elites and celebrity
You prefer horror that is more visceral or more emotionally layered
Overview
Opus arrives with the kind of premise that practically advertises its own commentary: a young writer, a vanished pop icon, a sealed-off compound, and a crowd of enablers orbiting a dangerous personality. It has the polish and confidence to sell that setup, and the cast helps keep the movie watchable even when the script feels like it’s circling ideas it has already introduced elsewhere in the genre.
Worth noting
The film’s biggest issue is not incompetence but familiarity. It keeps brushing against sharper observations about fandom, legacy, and the machinery of celebrity, yet it rarely commits to the deeper, uglier version of those ideas. As a result, the experience can feel more like a well-composed remix than a revelation.
Bottom line
Still, there’s enough craft here to make it a reasonable recommendation for viewers who enjoy sleek, self-aware horror-thrillers. If you come in expecting a fresh reinvention of the cult-satire playbook, it may disappoint; if you want a polished entry in that lane, it lands as a mixed but competent watch.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Joosh (2★) · 14454 likes
Oh, hey, it’s Blink Twice! I mean, The Menu. I mean, Midsommar. I mean, Don’t Worry Darling. I mean, Get Out. I mean-
Joey Daso (3★) · 6338 likes
This will be Kanye West in 30 years
Bailey Moon (2.5★) · 5652 likes
it’s like when someone is scratching your back and they scratch everything but the itchy part
Joe A (2.5★) · 4626 likes
Yes yes yes, we’ve seen variations of this movie before, but what’s makes Opus truly frustrating is that it only scratches the surface of its thesis or worse, shows no interest in digging deeper. Ayo Edebri is obviously infinitely talented, but even her performance felt a bit stilted here, every line is delivered with a similar cadence, strangely flat and restrained.
It’s a mixed bag movie, well composed and confidently directed, but ultimately toothless.
zoë rose bryant (2★) · 3527 likes
the gays would’ve made moretti’s album chart longer than the tortured poets department