Stephen Dorff stars as the eponymous character and leader of the group, with Alicia Witt, Adrian Grenier, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Michael Shannon co-starring as the rest of his gang of filmmakers.

The film, whose title (also the name of Dorff's character) alludes to director Cecil B. DeMille, is loosely based on the 1974 kidnapping of Patricia Hearst, who has a cameo role.

Hollywood A-list actress Honey Whitlock publicly presents herself as a sweet and considerate woman, but is actually a profane, unreasonable, and demanding diva.

Each of the Sprocket Holes has infiltrated the staff of the theater where the premiere is to take place; they subsequently kidnap Honey as she concludes her speech on stage.

Honey is introduced to Cecil's crew of followers, each of whom wears a tattoo of a noted filmmaker and reveals unique, individual quirks.

The group's first location is a movie theater playing Patch Adams: The Director's Cut, which they storm with guns and smoke bombs before leaving with their footage.

The group crashes the event and Cecil orders Honey to jump off the roof of a nearby building, which she does without safety measures.

As Honey seems to become more comfortable with her situation, possibly developing Stockholm syndrome, she watches a television special discussing her disappearance.

The website's critics consensus reads, "The idea behind John Waters' latest has much potential, but the movie ends up being too sloppy and underdeveloped in terms of script and direction.

"[11] In a 2021 review, Will Sloan of Screen Slate wrote, "As a filmmaker, Waters's flaws and virtues are so densely intertwined as to be indistinguishable.

"[12] In a 2022 review, Scout Tafoya of RogerEbert.com wrote, "Cecil B. Demented may lack some of the immediacy of Waters' early experiments in transgression, but it's one of his most personal statements.