To watch “Opus,” the muddled semi-satire starring Ayo Edebiri and John Malkovich that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, is to witness a movie go from promising to punishing.

"Opus" pairs one of Hollywood's hottest young actors with a living legend in a treatise on fame, the music industry and cults of creativity.

He’s played by the great John Malkovich, who actually sings several of the songs featured in the picture. This is reason enough to see this film or at least to be intrigued by it. Malkovich never really left his theatricality behind when he broke through into movies in the 1980s;

In Mark Anthony Green's debut feature, also starring Tony Hale, Juliette Lewis and Murray Bartlett, a young writer scores an invite to the remote compound of a legendary musician.

Playing a cross between Bowie, Kanye, and Manson (Charles, not Marilyn), the legendary actor nearly saves this muddled, satirical horror movie. Nearly.

This A24 debut by a former GQ journalist stars Ayo Edebiri of "The Bear" as an ambitious writer who tries to survive the assignment from hell.

In A24's 'Opus', Ayo Edebiri stars as Ariel, a young journalist inexplicably invited to the compound of pop legend Moretti (John Malkovich).

A remote location. A group of unsuspecting, idiosyncratic hopefuls. A murderous plan that would eliminate them one by one. The formula is nearly a fool-proof one to pull off an entertaining horror-thriller,

The trailer for Opus, an upcoming horror film from A24, gives audiences a taste of John Malkovich’s unsettling performance as a pop star cult leader. While establishing the movie’s eerie tone, the preview also provides an overview of the basic premise.

The pic is a trippy genre movie that follows reclusive rock star Moretti ( John Malkovich ), who emerges after being decades away to invite a group of journalists to his cult compound.