EXCLUSIVE: Melissa Bergland (Matlock), Westly Heart Monroe, Corin Liall Douieb (Tiny Romances), Milanka Brooks (Black Mirror), Frankie J. Mitchell (American Primeval) and Aggy K. Adams (The Witcher) are starring in the indie psychological horror film Sweetie, which just wrapped production in Los Angeles.

Sweetie, which marks the sophomore feature for writer-director Robert Lang, follows a young woman named Sweetie (Bergland) on a disorienting descent into the heart of Hollywood’s dark promise, driven by a yearning for fame and meaning. But the city, which is on edge with a serial killer on the loose, reveals itself as a shifting dreamscape that blurs the line between performance and identity. In the end, fame is offered to her not as a reward but as a total, consuming and irreversible transformation.

Monroe plays rising drag queen Choker Darling. Conr Kinman, David Todman, Hannah McBride, Kris Alexandrea, Ianthe Mellors, Shaina Rae, Matthew Brown, Anna Newell and Conor Copley round out the cast.

Lang, who is also Deadline’s photo editor and Arts & Culture writer, is producing under his banner Monkeys Wedding Productions alongside Marshall Arts Media.

Sweetie serves as the follow-up to Lang’s feature directorial debut, the 2024 indie mockumentary Mind, Body and Soul, which starred Kinman, Bergland and Eric Wu and notably secured an endorsement from the Satanic Temple. Indican Pictures acquired North American rights to that pic, which Lang adapted from his short film about a recently exiled Satan (Kinman) who invites a documentary crew into his West Hollywood apartment to help rebrand his public image.

The film was released with a limited theatrical run before rolling out on VOD.