Blood Star

Blood Star
Directed by	Lawrence Jacomelli
Written by	Lawrence Jacomelli George Kelly Victoria Hinks Taylor
Cinematography	Pascal Combes-Knoke
Edited by	Ross Evison
Music by	Felix Lindsell-Hales
Production company	Beast Productions Fastback Films Pictures Up Beast Los Angeles
Distributed by	Plaion (UK) Meteor (Germany) Swift (France)
Running time	89 minutes
Country	UK USA

Blood Star is a 2024 American psychological thriller film directed and produced by Lawrence Jacomelli (in his directorial debut) from a script he wrote with Victoria Hinks Taylor and George Kelly and based on the short story, “Don’t Look Back”. The film stars John Schwab, Britni Camacho (debut leading actress) and Wyomi Reed, Felix Merback, Sydney Brumfield, Brandon Brown, Joseph Lopez, Eliot and Travis Lincoln Cox.

It tells the story of a young pick-pocket who is driving across the desert, back to her abusive boyfriend when she is targeted by a small-town sheriff who uses his badge as a means to prey on vulnerable women.

Blood Star premiered at NIFFF in Switzerland on July 9^th 2024 and was released in the UK on October, 7^th 2024 by Plaion. It was produced by Beast Productions, Fastback Films and Beast Los Angeles.

Plot

Blood Star follows Bobbi Torres, a young woman driving down a desert highway, who is determined to return to her controlling boyfriend, despite her sister Anna's best advise. At a gas station, she encounters a local sheriff who initially appears friendly, but later pulls Bobbi over for speeding. He extorts her for money and confiscates her phone, forcing her to return to the gas station. With the ATM at the gas station busted, Bobbi decides to abandon her phone and just head home. The sheriff pulls her over again and after patting her down and taking her driver’s license he lets her go once more, but he escalates the situation by shooting at Bobbi's car, causing it to crash into a ditch.

Bobbi manages to escape on foot and finds temporary refuge at a diner. She meets Amy, a kind-hearted waitress who offers her a brief respite from her ordeal. The sheriff appears outside the diner and then a tow truck arrives and drops off Bobbi’s car. Bobbi calls 911 from the payphone, telling them the gas station was robbed. She watches the sheriff respond to his CB radio, give an angry look, and leave. Bobbi then calls her sister and tells her she’s being hunted. In a tense moment, the sheriff returns and gives back her phone and car keys, bids her good day and leaves.

Outside, she finds Amy who was fired from her job and offers her a ride. The two drive along the highway and Bobbi brings up the sheriff, and when Amy begins to warn her about him, she’s shot through the window, splattering her brains all over Bobbi and the inside of the car. Bobbi's struggle for survival continues as she seeks help from a truck driver. But the sheriff, relentless in his pursuit, intercepts them and kills him. Bobbi finds refuge in a junkyard, where she meets Ed, the junkyard's seemingly harmless employee. However, her relief is short-lived as she discovers that Ed is in league with the sheriff. Bobbi is told that “her tongue is the problem and the cause of all evils” and tortured by the two men.

She is released into the desert at night and staggers around aimlessly until, headlights switch on behind her. The sheriff tracks her in his car until she collapses from exhaustion. He then gives her a gun and single bullet telling her this is her last chance. Instead of shooting the sheriff’s car she pretends to shoot herself, and when the sheriff comes to inspect the wound, she stabs him. A fight ensues and eventually Bobbi escapes in the police cruiser but when she sees that he is still alive she turns the car around and drives through him. Bobbi goes back to the torture room where she kills Ed and collects the photo ID’s of all their victims. The story concludes with Bobbi driving away from the scene of her ordeal towards city lights at dawn, broken, but stronger.

Cast

• Britni Camacho as Bobbi Torres
• John Schwab as Sheriff Bilstein
• Sydney Brumfield as Amy
• Brandon Brown as Truck Driver
• Felix Merback as Blake
• Wyomi Reed as the First Victim
• Joseph Lopez as the Diner Boss
• Eliot as Chuck
• Travis Lincoln Cox as Ed

Critical response

As of December 2024, Blood Star has a rating of 6/10 on IMDb.

The film is described as "a throwback to all those great thrillers made between the '70s and '90s set in the American SouthWest"

Phil Hoad, writing for The Guardian, explains that "Jacomelli has an undeniable eye for compacting a pulpy morass into snappy imagery, such as a closeup of the sheriff’s loathsome kisser as he chomps chicken wings, or the neat transition between scattered scrapyard cars and a box of hijacked mobile phones"

On My Bloody Reviews, the sites critical consensus states that the film is "well photographed" and that it has "two charismatic performers to help lift this above the usual independent film standard".

Tim Molley, writing for MovieMaker, explains that the film is "a genre film that finds time for unforgettable Tarantinoesque moments, including one in which we watch the sheriff just eat chicken"

Heidi Kru, writing for MovieJawn explained that the film "makes interesting commentary on how men in power abuse women because of their status".

Martin Unsworth, says the film "takes a few different paths and keeps the viewer’s interest throughout, and boasts some interesting curveballs and a genuine shock moment"