‘Falling Stars’ Review – New Take On Witch Lore Falls Flat [Fantastic Fest 2023]

There has always been this comfortable feeling when watching movies with witches as the central villain. Most of the time the women are presented as larger-than-life crones, cackling and conjuring spells with their otherworldly powers. The fact remains that real women and some men died being wrongfully accused of practicing witchcraft. There has been a shift in how witches are presented, and we see a spectrum from evil but also humorous and benevolent. It’s not hard to see how witches have been used to talk about women/motherhood like in the fantastic Hellbender or used as an allegory for bigotry in ParaNorman.

Falling Stars promises a new take on a very well-worn horror genre. The film’s opening text explains that, in this universe, witches are a well-known phenomenon, so much so that their falling from the sky is dubbed “falling stars.” We cut to a group of guys, including three brothers who go off in search of a mummified witch’s corpse. But, wouldn’t you know it, messing around with the dried-up remains of a witch isn’t exactly the smartest thing. The rules are quickly established and of course immediately broken, as one of the men spills beer on the body, thus cursing them. The established lore states that if you desecrate the body, you need to burn it – but they don’t. Make sense? Well, not a lot does in this woefully baffling horror outing.

Directors Richard Karpala and Gabriel Bienczycki both make their feature film debuts here and, regrettably, it shows. Falling Stars has a lot of ideas that feel excitably written down, but none of them ever come together in this under-baked genre offering. There are a bunch of issues present here, but if we were to pick out the chief one, it would be the worldbuilding (or lack thereof). Right off the bat, the film establishes its own internal logic, which is witches, not the Wiccan kind, but actual magical beings that exist in this world. Yet, several things in the narrative feel like they directly contradict that logic. So much so that we had to go back and watch to make sure we didn’t miss something. Unfortunately no, it just fails to connect its own dots which is not only frustrating, it’s baffling. Maybe even more confusing is the host of weird characters and side-quests that never resolve in a cohesive way. Outside of the main characters, random people will get introduced and they don’t add anything to the story, nor the outcome.

It’s also one of those movies where if the characters were just a tiny bit smarter, they would not get into the mess they are in. As always, this movie even takes that to a new level. As mentioned, not only do they break a rule right away, but they also debate burning the body, which is established to remove the curse. New lore about a sacrifice is half-heartedly thrown in there, but this never happens. This begs the question, why introduce this new information and overly long scenes in the first place? The movie is filled with strange side plots that never even come close to connecting with the narrative. There is a world where a movie like this could work, but you would have to overhaul the story, especially the worldbuilding, ditching some characters and fleshing out others. The dialogue is just as overwrought and stilted as you might imagine, and it doesn’t do the already disconnected narrative any favors. The acting also wildly varies from good to laughable.

On a positive note, Falling Stars makes a decent attempt at atmosphere and the cold open is well done and effectively creepy. Though, again, this is an area that could be improved. The most frustrating aspect is that the direction isn’t bad, and clearly the filmmakers were attempting to bring a new element to the witch horror sub-genre. As much as you want to root for the indie horror scene, this is just a total mess. Falling Stars never rises to the level it could have and falls flat with a dizzyingly haphazard screenplay.

Falling Stars had its North American Premiere in the Official Selection section of Fantastic Fest 2023.

Directors: Richard Karpala & Gabriel Bienczycki

Writer: Richard Karpala 

Rated: NR

Runtime: 80m