Studio: Indie Entertainment
Director: Lee Cummings, Mitchell Altieri
Writer: Mitchell Altieri, Adam Weis, Jamal M. Jennings, Andrew Mardirous
Producer: Jeffrey Allard, Mitchell Altieri, Cheryl Staurulakis
Stars: Scout Taylor-Compton, Rahart Adams, Cameron Johnson, Liana Ramirez, Garrett Westton, Chandler Rachelle, Hagan Mills, Tiffany Shepis, Kevin Jiggetts, Bret Roberts
Review Score:
Summary:
An unexpected encounter with an unusual pop singer sets up a troubled teen and his friends for a terrifying night of supernatural slaughter.
Review:
Following are a few overdone items I can do without seeing in a horror film ever again. “Star Light” employs all of them and then some.
People fleeing outside only to supernaturally circle back to the location they started from. (Now that “You Should Have Left” (review here) cemented this tired trope in mainstream thrillers too, it ought to be put on ice until, let’s say, at least 2025.)
A psychopath played like an overconfident cartoon wolf who smugly smirks every time he delivers dialogue. (Though I would be willing to watch actor Bret Roberts cheese it up as Steven Tyler in an Aerosmith biopic.)
Anyone stupidly assuming the coast is miraculously clear after someone/something butchers several people before inexplicably vanishing. “Star Light” includes one such scene where, seconds after suffering a bloody assault, two teens recover a gun and turn around only to discover their attacker disappeared. “She’s gone,” says one of them. The girl then checks, repeats her statement, and swiftly turns her back to the spot where a creature stood barely ten seconds ago. Guess what happens next?
Scout Taylor-Compton playing beneath her ability or, more bluntly, beneath her age. (She was born in 1989, yet her character claims to have “never kissed a boy before.”)
I will concede that “Star Light” doesn’t appear explicitly meant for me, a man who grew up in the 1980s. The film not only features teenagers as its primary people, it seems to be targeted to that demographic too.
Discounting the flash-forward prologue that’s only included to “start with a bang” since no real action occurs for another 20 minutes, “Star Light” opens on troubled teen Dylan. We’re intended to sympathize with Dylan’s woes of having a widowed mother who “just doesn’t understand” as well as mom’s condescendingly confrontational new boyfriend who disapproves of anything Dylan does. We know Dylan is really a good kid because when he isn’t down in depressing dumps, he visits his father’s grave for anniversary mourning and affirms his commitment to being a teetotaler.
Before fully polishing his halo however, Dylan suddenly does start drinking beer when he storms out of his house and over to see his good buddy Nick. Nick is hosting a party for the promiscuous provocateur in a tank top and short shorts, the good girl who has been Dylan’s confidant since they were neighborly kids, two indistinguishable jocks, and an assortment of classmates who raise red Solo cups and whoo-hoo when Nick screams, “shots!” Playing underneath these scenes are a few imitation pop songs to complete the whole high school vibe.
It’s not this setup that puts a thorn in “Star Light’s” side. Teens partying while parents are away has been a cinematic standard since who knows when, particularly in horror. The weird thing is “Star Light” baking its entire aesthetic like an episode of “Degrassi” on Teen Nick instead of like a fright film, with the music, melodrama, and character types that primarily appeal to people who presumably see relatable interests reflected everywhere onscreen.
Except that’s a strategy that mostly works for large outfits like Blumhouse on majorly marketed releases. Those teen-centric thrillers become date night opportunities at the multiplex, evergreen rental options for slumber parties, and momentarily trending topics to be buzzed about in popular social circles.
Filmmakers can and should make movies for a wide variety of audiences. But during a decade dominated by TikTok clips, Twitch streams, and other digital media platforms, what teens or twenty-somethings are trolling direct-to-video channels looking for indie horror features to watch? “Star Light” might not be meant for me personally. But I am the kind of person who actually consumes these low-budget DTV fright flicks. Maybe it’s not such a strategic idea to cater to a contingent that simply isn’t interested in off-the-grid genre entertainment.
“Star Light” stays messier as a narrative than as an overall production. Technical elements like lighting, cinematography, and such are unremarkably serviceable. Acting, editing, and structure on the other hand? Ay, there’s the rub.
The movie wobbles and weaves between subplots and dead ends like a driver after downing a bottle of Boone’s. Without reading some sort of summary first, there’s no way to divine what’s even going on until the story starts solidifying over one-third of the way into the runtime. Not because of any intriguing mystery that develops but because the loopy tale is told sloppily.
A bearded weirdo in a suit has an odd interaction with Dylan while the teen plays an arcade game in a gas station (what year is this?). Afterward, Dylan chills outside a Laundromat of all places and hears a car crash. As chance would have it, that car contains Dylan’s celebrity crush, pop singer Bebe A. Love. The car’s trunk also contains a creature of some sort that never really gets explained.
Dylan takes Bebe back to Nick’s instead of to a hospital or to the police. Paranormal activity starts wreaking havoc on the house. Is it coming from Bebe or from the bearded weirdo stalking her outside? Maybe the sultry sexpot can find out when she dumbly runs out the door. Nope, she ends up possessed instead. Wait, who is the bad guy in all of this? Who are the good guys? Does Dylan’s mom even matter? What was the point of his abruptly ended makeout session with the one girl?
The film’s conclusion comes about just as clumsily. Magical powers inexplicably transfer from one person to another, someone improbably ends up pregnant, a survivor is unceremoniously offed in an out-of-nowhere manner, and the quickie solution to tying everything together involves a mass suicide/occult ritual explanation. Three writers and a fourth person credited with the story concocted “Star Light.” I’m not sure if knowledge of that number explains jumbled fiction repeatedly crashing into itself, or if it should be shocking that not one of them could find a way to smooth out jarring bumps.
More experienced hands are able to tap into Scout Taylor-Compton’s talent. Here she only acts with a single expression of mousiness, tucking arms tightly toward her torso and pouting while flexed eyebrows practically touch each other through the scrunched skin of perpetual worry. I worry too many undemanding ‘money job’ roles will transform Taylor-Compton into a day-playing slouch whose name value sinks to where faded B-movie veterans like Lance Henriksen and Eric Roberts now swim.
“Star Light” marks the fifth consecutive indie horror film featuring Scout Taylor-Compton that I’ve reviewed unfavorably. It gives me no pleasure to say this, but we’re past the point where we can add her inclusion in a cast, especially when she is the only notable name, to a list of red flags warning to proceed with caution, if you choose to proceed at all. Considering how Scout Taylor-Compton’s reputation has been blown up by these bombs, maybe a manager from Hell would do better than whoever holds that job now.
Review Score: 45
If you want to see impossible amounts of blood explode crimson colors like the world’s worst version of a gender reveal, well, “Abigail” at least has that.