Falling Stars, the feature debut of director/producer duo Richard Karpala and Gabriel Bienczycki (featuring an original screenplay by Karpala and cinematography by Bienczycki) is a film about curses. With a focus on the things not to do with a witches’ body, it is both exciting and, as it is a great example of effective low budget cinema, it’s a lesson in how to lean into a film’s limitations and produce something fresh, alive, and certainly worth revisiting . . . especially around Halloween.
Because witches, it turns out, are very real. And as they fall from the sky, some people mistake them for comets. Most people don’t see them, but they do exist and, as detailed here in this thriller, the only way to see a witch is dead and up close . . . just be really careful with the body.
Building a rich sense of mystery early, Falling Stars is set to take fans of thrillers by surprise when it is released on October 11th from XYZ Films. The horror film is as close to perfection as regional paranoia can get. Because, building on a whole lot of strange events, that’s what happens when someone spots eight stars in the Big Dipper. Big deal, right? Well, there’s only supposed to be seven.
Something is happening in the American Southwest.
And that’s only one weird instance in an opening which features a whole bunch of suddenly missing people. It’s a brand new year for the characters in Falling Stars, but - as this film takes place in an alternate reality where witches are very real - things are going to get very, very twisted and archaic when it is discovered that, on the first night of Harvest, a ceremony ring has been disturbed by a bunch of dudes who have gone looking for a downed witch and their error with the body of the witch sets into motion a series of events which are not easily explained away.
The only way they can put a stop to the curse set upon their family is to burn the corpse before sunrise.
This is a heart-pounding thriller. Clocking in at a quick 83-minutes, Falling Stars is a thriller steeped in superstition. Its focus on traditional rituals will scare the shit right out of you.
Opening on the night of the first harvest when harmless traditional rituals are performed to placate witches in the sky, Falling Stars takes it storytelling job seriously and operates on two-levels as it tears at the seams of folk horror while flipping what is usually a feminine-led story about witches on its head, giving us a genuinely male view of witches and what you should and shouldn’t do with the corpse of a witch.
It’s harvest season, after all, and there are rules. What these three brothers - eldest brother Mike (Shaun Duke Jr.) and younger brothers Sal (Andrew Gabriel) and Adam (Rene Leech) - don’t realize; however, is just how truly fucked they really are when an excursion to see a recently downed witch turns into nightmare-fuel with tons of wind advisories issued in Riverside County as the group tries to escape the coming storm of witches.
Written and co-directed by Richard Karpala and Karpala and Gabriel Bienczycki, the thrilling new folk horror film Falling Stars lands on VOD and in select U.S. cinemas on October 11th from XYZ Films.
Don't miss out on the terrifying new thriller that had audiences at Locarno and FantasticFest trembling in their seats!
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Runtime: 80 mins
Director: Gabriel Bienczycki; Richard Karpala
Writer: Richard Karpala
Cast: Piotr Adamczyk; Orianna Milne; Diane Box Worman
Genre: Horror
Tagline:
Memorable Movie Quote:
Distributor: XYZ Films
Official Site:
Release Date: October 11, 2024 - Select theaters and VOD
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
Synopsis: On the first night of harvest, three brothers set out for the desert to see a witch's corpse.
