{"id":45206,"date":"2024-10-11T23:02:51","date_gmt":"2024-10-12T03:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=45206"},"modified":"2024-10-13T23:05:01","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T03:05:01","slug":"falling-stars-2023-halloween-horror-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2024\/10\/11\/falling-stars-2023-halloween-horror-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Falling Stars (2023) [Halloween Horror Month]\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Out now from XYZ Films<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Following long told tales of witches and magick, three brothers head to the desert hoping to see one or catch one on this first night of harvest.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Written by Richard Karpala who co-directed with Gabriel Bienczycki, Falling Stars takes place on one night, the first night of harvest season, and plays with the supernatural and folk tales in a way that brings them into the current day and causes mayhem for folks not expecting it. The writing and direction here work, but there could be a bit of a tightening of the script with a bit more of a focused direction. Here, a couple of characters meant to help with story exposition become more annoying as the film moves forward, feeling like they bring very little to the story besides a couple of voices to discuss an urban legend who aren\u2019t fully involved in the story. These two take away from the more interesting central characters, the three brothers, their friend, and even their mom. This core group of character could and should have been the only focus of the film. The other characters feel like they take away from the story and its proper flow. That small detail aside, the story works well here and brings a sort of eeriness to the film that makes it entertaining and just spooky enough to bring it into the cycle of Halloween Holiday films. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The main cast here is solid, all showing that they understood the story and its emotional impact, showing talent and an understanding of how to work a script like this. The cast here works well with a few being the shining stars including Andrew Gabriel as one of the brothers Sal, Rene Leech as Adam, and Diane Box Worman as Danni, their mother. These three give the film a base of performance to lean on, 3 strong performances that make the film what it is, but also help guide the performances of those around them. Diane Box Worman is particularly great as the mother who may not be all there but has the best of intentions. She\u2019s fantastic here and really gives the film the emotional boost it needs. She steals the whole film and runs away with it the second she shows up.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As a film taking place mainly at night and mainly outside, the fact that the cinematography allows the viewer to see everything is amazing. This is how you shoot night scenes and make the most of the lighting you have on hand. The work is just right for the story and makes the film look like a much more expensive film than it actually is. The editing works with these images beautifully well, creating a great flow to the scenes and the story at large. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Falling Stars is a slow burn of a film that plays well with a folk story\/urban legend, making the most of the locations and nighttime setting. This is a solid, quiet film, one where the viewer is pulled in slowly and their attention is kept throughout even when a scene here and there doesn\u2019t work. This is how you do slow burn and this is how you play with a desert witch folk story in modern day.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Out now from XYZ Films\u00a0 Following long told tales of witches and magick, three brothers head to the desert hoping to see one or catch one on this first night of harvest.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12],"tags":[302,477],"class_list":["post-45206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-halloween-horror-month","category-movie-reviews","tag-drama","tag-horror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45207,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45206\/revisions\/45207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}