Title: Star Light
MPAA Rating: Not Yet Rated
Director: Mitchell Altieri, Lee Cummings
Starring: Cameron Johnson, Scout Taylor-Compton, Rahart Adams
Runtime: 1 hr 30 mins

What It Is: Dylan (Johnson) and his friends are on the cusp of graduating high school. After a fight with his unkind mother, he heads over to a house party in an attempt to loosen up, only find the famous pop star Bebe mysteriously unconscious and wounded in the street from an apparent car accident. When he and the crew decide what to do with her and she urges them not to tell the police, a creepy man in a suit and paranormal characteristics pursues Bebe on a treacherous and deadly hunt.

What We Think: The technical and artistic effort is not lost upon me in this “B-movie” type horror flick. It doesn’t look bad; the mistakes that movies like these usually make aren’t present, which is lovely for a change. The force of the cast is also not lost, as Johnson lends as a relatable and grounded and believable protagonist; his performance in spite of certain things about the script is strong. Nearly the same can be said for most of the supporting cast, where you would usually find obnoxious stereotypes of teenagers buzzing it up, vanity, social media, “living life”, and all that Netflix original jazz; they tone it down some to where the teen characters feel more like real people (though there are some characters that are instantly recognizable and predictable, for example, the trashy backstabbing hot girl who sleeps around and seemingly only ever breathes through her mouth). Other than our leaders and a few of his friends, the rest of the characters tend to be rather forgettable, if not straight-up bland. The villain of the movie is literally just some guy who can mandate his own red-eye effect. The whole paranormal mystery that the film teases all throughout turns out to be less than anything surprising. All in all, many of the story elements were weak, hardly able to support an already slow-paced, conventional premise.

Our Grade: D, It’s like Run Sweetheart Run or The Babysitter (for real, the houses in this flick and the latter look really similar), but much more toned down and much more forgettable than either. Though there are some saving graces, you could very well say this a purer form of the genre that deserves parody. Dip in this shallow pool if you’re looking for a bland, scattered story with an unsatisfying ending that makes little sense. To be honest I’m not even really sure why the movie is called “Star Light,” other than Bebe being… a pop star.