Warning: this article contains spoilers for Opus.Mark Anthony Green’s directorial debut Opus is a thrilling peek inside the dark consequences of an extreme obsession with celebrity. The movie follows Ariel Ecton, played by Ayo Edebiri, a young journalist hoping to make a name for herself who shockingly gets invited to an exclusive album listening party. Upon arriving at Moretti’s (John Malkovich) compound, Ariel quickly realizes that she is surrounded by the pop star’s cult, the Levelists. The A24 movie sees Ariel fighting for her life as the cult gets weirder, only to end with a shocking twist in the final moments.
Opus comes in the wake of similar modern horror comedies that poke fun at celebrity culture and the tastes of wealthy elites. Moretti and his cult are both horrifying and slightly hilarious in their ridiculous practices, and his guests are equally troubling. Aside from Ariel, who views the experience as a way to advance her career, the rest of the invitees are all too willing to go along with Moretti’s antics and seeming hospitality, not questioning his actions or why they were each invited until it is too late.
Bill Lotto
Bill Lotto Is The First To Die
When Moretti’s invitees receive their invitations and gather together on his tour bus, the other recipients express their surprise at seeing Bill Lotto there. As the newcomer to the group, Ariel quickly learns from Clara that the reason it is so surprising for Bill to be invited is that he and Moretti had quarreled years ago after Bill made fun of Moretti for having his dog stuffed after it died. Though the initial reason that Moretti seems to have invited him is to let him know that he’s no longer upset, the real reason is much more sinister.
Ariel later discovers Bill’s taxidermied head while running from the Levelists, creating a parallel to the reason he and Moretti were feuding previously.
Unsurprisingly, bad things start happening almost immediately at Moretti’s cult compound, as Bill is shown being attacked while receiving a mᴀssage. The next day, he does not attend any of their planned events, but only Ariel seems to notice. Audiences later find out that the Levelists have decapitated Bill and hidden his body in a shed with taxidermied animals. Ariel later discovers Bill’s taxidermied head while running from the Levelists, creating a parallel to the reason he and Moretti were feuding previously.
Emily Katz
Her Influencer Lifestyle Is Not About True Art
Like Ariel, Emily Katz’s invite seems a bit strange since she is not old enough to have known Moretti personally before he left the public eye like the older invitees did. Instead, her invite seems to reflect the fact that she is an influencer who has a large follower base whom she would be able to share her thoughts on Moretti’s new album with. Additionally, she proves herself to be quite a big Moretti fan early in Opus, even sharing which of his girlfriends was her favorite.
Similar to Bill’s death, Emily’s death from an allergic reaction caused her to become swollen and grotesque in a reversal of what Moretti sees as her cardinal sin, her vanity and obsession with fame rather than making real art.
While Emily’s level of fandom does seem like something Moretti would like since his cult members essentially worship him, Moretti had also always planned to kill her. During his first listening session, Emily begins to have an allergic reaction to something unknown and is taken outside. Moretti tells the rest of the group she is recovering, but she later reappears at the children’s puppet show, completely swollen, and she eventually dies. Moretti’s reason for targeting her is slightly less clear, but it likely stems from the fact that she was not a true creative, which he values above all.
Bianca Tyson
The Famed Paparazzo Had A History With Moretti
The invites of Bianca, Stan, and Clara all make sense as they knew Moretti and covered him in their respective fields 30 years prior. Additionally, unlike Bill, none of them had any clear problems with the pop star. Bianca is introduced as a notorious paparazzo who has pH๏τographed all the top stars and presumably was invited to get a first look at Moretti and take flattering pictures of his return.
However, this turns out to be far from the truth as their phones, laptops, and cameras are confiscated upon arrival at Moretti’s compound, completely isolating them. Then, during the same puppet show where Emily is discovered, Bianca is brutally murdered by the Levelists at Moretti’s behest. In Opus‘s ending, when Ariel visits Moretti in prison, she reveals that she found old, unflattering pH๏τos of him that Bianca had taken, indicating those were the petty reason he decided to kill her.
Stan Sullivan
Ariel’s Boss Pays The Price For His Hubris
Opus first introduces Stan as Ariel’s frustrating boss, who pᴀsses her over for writing ᴀssignments that she had pitched in favor of giving them to more experienced writers. When they learn that both of them have been invited to Moretti’s listening part for his new album, Caesar’s Request, he relegates her to the role of note taker, while he is free to relax during their stay and will then use her notes to write the article later. Though Murray Bartlett undoubtedly plays Stan as a smarmy, unlikable character, he has not wronged Moretti in any clear way.
Instead, like Moretti’s other old acquaintances, Stan is invited for a tiny slight many decades in the past. At some point in his writing career, he wrote or published an unflattering piece about Moretti. Given that Moretti sees himself as a perfect artist and even a God, anything he sees as disrespecting him is subject to an extreme response. Like Bianca, Stan is stabbed and killed by the Levelists during “The Tragedy of Billie” puppet show.
Clara Armstrong
Clara’s Invite Stems From Her Comments On Moretti’s Appearance
Perhaps the most nonsensical reason for inviting any of the guests is Moretti’s reason for inviting Clara. Like the others, the invite seems normal at first, since she is a TV personality and knew Moretti in the past. However, Ariel reveals at the end of Opus that Moretti targeted Clara because she had once made a comment about the fact that he is bald. While making fun of someone’s appearance on TV is certainly mean, something as silly as commenting on someone’s hair, or lack thereof, should not be grounds for murder.
Interestingly, as with Bill and Emily’s deaths, Clara’s punishment is somewhat related to what Moretti sees as her slight against him.
Interestingly, as with Bill and Emily’s deaths, Clara’s punishment is somewhat related to what Moretti sees as her slight against him. Clara wears several different wigs throughout Opus, and at one point she remarks about how the new wig the Levelists put on her is slightly too тιԍнт. Clara is seen adjusting her wig a few times since it is beginning to hurt her. When Clara is finally attacked by the Levelists, her scalp begins to tear because the wig will not come off, creating some sort of twisted connection to her comments about Moretti’s baldness.
Ariel Ecton
Ariel Gave Moretti The Perfect Writer For His Story
Ariel’s invitation is seemingly completely random, since she is a young writer with no connection to Moretti. In the movie’s ending twist, it is revealed that she was chosen specifically because of her inexperience and desire to climb the ladder. From the outset, Ariel is introduced as an ambitious character who wants to become a famous writer but is given little opportunity by her boss, and Moretti takes advantage of this. Before inviting her, he and the Levelists studied her work and attempted to gauge her personality and how she would react to the events of the listening party.
Ariel’s decision to write a book about what happened is exactly what Moretti wanted her to do. After escaping, she realized that sharing the events would allow her the fame she always wanted, but she did not stop to think that it would also bring more attention to Moretti and the Levelists. Thus, Opus ends with Ariel’s jarring realization that she was just another pawn in Moretti’s game and gave him exactly what he wanted.
