Complete Monster: The producer of Astraeus Pictures seems to be a sleazy creep who abuses actresses in exchange for granting them roles, but he's revealed to be something far darker. The leader of a cult that worships the being Astraeus, the producer not only rapes young starlets while promising them fame, but he also subjects them to vile Body Horror and Mind Rape that slowly corrupt them into loyal cultists. To solidify their servitude, the producer has the women carry out "sacrifices" and murder several of their loved ones. The producer does it all in service of sheer hedonistic ambition, and ends the film having turned Sarah Walker into his latest convert.
Harsher in Hindsight: As pointed out in this article, the premise of the film is eerily prescient in light of the Hollywood sex abuse scandals that burst open in 2017. To elaborate: a large number of the reviews for the movie's original run treated Sarah's decline and eventual transformation as if it were something that she somehow invited or brought on herself by consenting (in the most dubious sense of the word) to be humiliated by and to perform oral sex upon the producer, despite her obviously being pressured well past the point of desperation and despite her transformation being manifestly something she didn't consent to at any point and could not stop once it had begun. After it became apparent that a large number of real-world A-list actresses had become successful only after submitting to exactly the same grotesque treatment that Sarah did consent to, critics began reevaluating the movie and treating Sarah more as an innocent victim who genuinely was transformed into a monster against her will.
Narm: Despite the scene being effective and the score being awesome as always, the cult leaders holding up smartphones looks... silly.
by Jonathan Snipes, arguably one of his most affecting works to date.