We all know the world of Hollywood can be cut throat, but that is literally the case in ERIC TROOP and JIM LANE’s new horror film Deadly Famous.

Daniel O’Meara (John Carter) plays Alan Miller, a struggling actor who is slowing losing his grip on sanity after constantly getting rejected throughout his acting career. Things take a sinister turn when amateur actress Pamela (Jackie Moore) moves in as his roommate.

You get a sense of what you are getting into right from the outset of this film, we are instantly introduced to Alan’s unhinged world and the violence that accompanies it. I was initially worried when I saw that a lot of the scenes were filmed using handheld cameras in the style of found footage but was quickly put at ease by the reason for this. The character Alan is so absorbed by the film/acting world he insists on filming absolutely everything, the filming slowly becomes increasingly erratic as he becomes more and more disturbed. This acted as a frightening trigger and gave a viewer a slight warning when things were about to get crazy.

Another surprise was that this film was presented in a mockumentary type style with various people who had come into contact with Alan narrating and giving statements as the film progressed. This was a great decision because some of the Hollywood casting characters were hilarious and very believable.

I had a few issues along the way with some of the sound levels on the lesser characters or when characters were further away in shot,  however this could have been a microphone issue or just my version of the film. The pacing of Deadly Famous was pressure cooker-like, you could really feel  it was all building up to a big finale. This worked well for the most part but I felt there were sometimes one too many filler scenes of Alan spewing rhetoric and other ramblings to the camera, these were effective at first but only stood in the way of the bloody finale as the run time mounted up.

The effects were cleverly and sparingly used in death scenes, blood wasn’t thrown about for the sake of it so when you saw a flash of scarlet the impact was immediately doubled. the film made use of several ‘off camera’ moments which due to just out shot motions and grisly sound effects made for some toe curling moments. Towards to end of the film we are briefly taken down the ‘snuff’ route as the killer holds the camera and abuses his victims POV style, this felt slightly out of sync with the rest of the film but did provide some darker sequences.

Overall Deadly Famous was a very solid indie horror flick that utilised a number of styles and effects to its benefit. certain aspects of the middle section may feel slightly bogged down but once the final blood soaked 10 minutes are over you realise it was worth the wait proving the world of Hollywood can indeed be murder!

Watch the trailer below: