When a naïve college student becomes fixated on the leader of a notorious literary magazine, he risks getting lost in a world of decadent brutality and stylized murder.

SYNOPSIS:

College first-years Stephen and Ron receive a copy of unofficial campus literary magazine The Pit. Tagging Charles Baudelaire and Oscar Wilde, it espouses “The New Decadence.” Stephen and Ron are hooked. Stephen is particularly interested in the magazine’s President, Devon, so he and Ron gather information about Devon and The Pit around campus. Stephen’s girlfriend, Viola, helps Stephen track down Devon. Stephen waits for Devon alone the next day and witnesses Devon’s driver hit and kill a young woman. Devon walks away from the accident, and Stephen chases him, asking for an interview—and begging to learn how to walk away from death so easily. Devon grants a rather disturbing interview and invites Stephen to a party.

Stephen tries to bring Viola and Ron to the party, but only Stephen is admitted. Most party guests enjoy regular drugs; some enjoy absinthe and opium. Devon gives Stephen a mixture of MDMA, Valium, and Viagra before taking him to more exclusive rooms. In the first, spectacles of public sex look to Stephen like rape. In the next room, Stephen helps The Pit staffers Jason and Candy cut a “scar tattoo” into the torso of a young man drugged to incoherence on ether and nitrous. In the third, Devon has Stephen look at partygoers on security monitors to choose one to “disappear.” The next day, Devon takes Stephen off campus and raises suspicions that “disappeared” means “dead.” In the woods, Devon seduces Stephen. Soon after, they come upon a woman and her little boy picnicking. Before Stephen comprehends the situation, Devon has killed the woman, and Stephen has killed the boy. Devon is full of congratulations: Stephen is now ready to join The Pit.

As an initiate, Stephen gets his first trip to the “Nest,” home to the real parties and the real Pit. Not long after Devon and Stephen arrive, a bus full of drugged high school kids—“party favors”—arrives to entertain the Nest’s older, masked Revelers. Viola and Ron, hoping to save Stephen from his descent, have followed the bus, and they infiltrate the Nest. As the Revelers prepare the kids for private abuse in the Nest’s “entertainment” rooms, Devon locks down the Nest and performs the “First Spectacle,” the public torture and murder of a girl who then gets tossed in the Pit. Viola and Ron are captured, and Stephen decides he must help them. In the ensuing struggles, Ron dies, Stephen and Viola kill Jason and Candy, and the Nest catches on fire. Stephen realizes that, for Viola to escape, he must surrender to Devon. He does. Devon unlocks the Nest, and by the time he and Stephen leave, Viola is gone. Safely outside with Stephen, Devon reseals the Nest, leaving his “friends” from the magazine and everyone else inside to burn. Four months later, Devon and Stephen enjoy fine dining and discuss starting a new magazine. Devon is still in command, and Stephen is still his fawning admirer.

Idolatry won Best Feature Script at the Hollywood Horrorfest, 2023, won Best Horror Feature Screenplay at the Austin After Dark Film Festival, spring 2021, was a semi-finalist in the Hollywood Dreams IFF, 2021, was a selection in the LA International Horror FF, 2021, and received an Honorable Mention from the WriteMovies Fall 2020 Screenwriting Contest.