When I first saw Stanley Kubrick’s movie ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ over 20 years ago, I was mesmerized. The film has a kind of dream/nightmare quality to it. A sense that you are seeing everything and nothing at the same time. And that you may not be understanding what it all means but knowing, on some level, that you do. This would be Kubrick’s last film. He died only days after the first screening.

Over the years, it has been used to peddle some unhinged conspiracy theories which attempted to use its imagery as proof of adrenochrome-guzzling elites hiding their dungeons in the basements of DC pizza parlours.

It is sad that it was demeaned in this way, because now, with the Epstein revelations, Kubrick’s dark film offers a way of grappling with the machinations of the wealthy and powerful in a far more nuanced and realistic manner.

The movie isn’t without its problems. Some of the scenes appear a bit jejune. And Kubrick himself is a problematic man, with legitimate criticism for his own misogyny, abuses and sexism.

But aside from these very serious concerns, it is a masterpiece. The imagery that is used not only speaks to the masks we all wear in society at different times and in different places, but the impunity and privileged separation that the ruling class enjoy in this world.

Kubrick didn’t inject the supernatural into the film, although some of the rituals might seem that they lean that way. This wasn’t a movie about satanic possession. There were no demonic forces or evil ghosts lurking about.

The sinister came from a particular protected class in society. It came from human beings who possess an unprecedented amount of power over society, and who delight in exerting that power over the most vulnerable and impoverished. It came from a portion of society who are untouchable, both in law as in culture. It came from men. Powerful and wealthy men.

‘Eyes Wide Shut’ wasn’t a warning about Jeffrey Epstein, or Donald Trump, or Bill Clinton, or Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. It was a glimpse into the mirror of our society. It focuses on the rich, but it is really about all of us.

It is about men and women, boys and girls. It is about the messaging and conditioning boys get from an early age about how to see girls. And it is about how class insulates. How it divides principles and ethics along hereditary, racial, gender and monetary lines. How it operates within circles and networks most of us have no concept of.

‘Eyes Wide Shut’ is one of the most unflinching portrayals of our situation than any other work of art. And it is because of this, that it has been lampooned, mocked, abused for conspiracy theories and warped into some of the most convoluted mental pretzels of our age.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, February 2026