LORCARNO FILM FESTIVAL 2023 REVIEW! Witchcraft and witch trials have served American cinema forever. Drawing inspirations from the ancient witchcraft folklore and the infamous and treacherous Salem witch trials, the horror genre has developed features and shorts of all themes and experiences. It has even spurred sub-genres and stories about occults, satanic abuse, and much more. Falling Stars has a science-fiction approach to folklore, which is presented as more of a psychological drama instead of an outright horror flick.
Not that there aren’t any general tropes from the genre. Witches, rituals, a harvest for an offering, and spooky tales of witch encounters constantly go over the radio in the background. Falling Stars sets up the intentionally spooky premise with a corresponding vibe to begin with. There are PoV shots of protagonists walking through a desert that instills ideas from The Blair Witch Project, a sheer tension in dialogues that hypes up the narrative and the idea, and a constantly amplifying suspense. Practically, there is a lot here to like. But, when these elements amalgamate with apocalyptic sci-fi elements, combined with mediocre performances and some unexplained aggravation of the plot’s mysterious origin convolutes the story to a large extent. And that’s why Falling Stars is an underwhelming feature, though it has potential and visual proof of the team’s talent behind it.
“Adam is one such curious youngster who wishes to learn more about the witches and the harvest…”
Falling Stars opens up with a textual explanation that suggests that the witches exist for real in this world if I am to explain without spoilers. Drawing inspirations from Wiccan mythologies and manuscripts that tell of herbalist rituals, Falling Stars help us settle in this unknown reincarnated world where the experiential reality of an otherwise myth has caused chaos of curiosity and incomprehension among people. Adam is one such curious youngster who wishes to learn more about the witches and the harvest his brothers Sal and Mike are preparing for them. The eldest, Mike, then takes his brothers to visit his friend Rob, who happens to have seen and buried a witch. Digging the witch out for his brothers to see, Mike, along with Rob, accidentally desecrates the deceased creature, leading to a witch’s curse that now dwindles upon the brothers.
It is an interesting premise for a ghostly yet psychological horror drama. But the intent is not where Falling Stars is flawed. The troubles are more with the visual recreation of what Richard Karpala has penned down. The close-up shots, the ambiguous conversations, and the shaky camera pans take much away from the visual experience. The story has strength, but the screenplay could be executed better. The characters talk of curses, their aftermath, disappearing individuals, and sacrifices – but immersing oneself in those references doesn’t lead to any climactic conclusion in Falling Stars. That, in turn, causes these ideas meant to induce thrill, eagerness, and anticipation to seem incomplete and dissatisfactory.