Rating: NR | Runtime: 80 minutes
Release Date: October 11th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: XYZ Films
Director(s): Gabriel Bienczycki & Richard Karpala
Writer(s): Richard Karpala

You’ve been marked.

When Gabriel Bienczycki (directer/producer/cinematographer) and Richard Karpala’s (director/producer/writer) Falling Stars begins with text that presents the notion of a “harvest season” bringing witches from the sky to reap unsuspecting human souls from the ground, we assume the words are foreshadowing for a folk tale come to life. What we soon discover, however, is that those words aren’t myth within the world on-screen. They are fact. And while people have learned to co-exist with this threat as a part of their reality, finding an equilibrium has proven impossible. Because no matter how safe or respectful you are, your next step outdoors beneath an evening sky could still be your last.

Some people simply adhere to the curfew by staying indoors when the threat level is high (although this can never be an exact science considering the witches have been arriving earlier and in greater numbers each year). Some follow archaic rituals that form barriers meant to protect them from being taken. Others wait for the harvest and look up at the stars in the hopes one of them will choose them next. And while a select few may just get lucky enough to survive an attack, the danger doesn’t end upon killing a witch before it can steal you away. Rules still apply as far as honor and humility are concerned. Don’t look at the body too long and don’t desecrate it in any way.

To bring us into this high concept world on a shoe-string budget, Bienczycki and Karpala introduce a trio of brothers preparing a protection rune. Because Mike (Shaun Duke Jr.), Sal (Andrew Gabriel), and Adam (Rene Leech) have zero fear, we assume they’ve done this before and it’s worked. Unfortunately, they’re missing a crucial ingredient. So, instead of going inside their house to wait until morning to procure it, they call Rob (Greg Poppa) for assistance. Yes, he has what they are missing, but he’s also the only person they know who’s killed a witch. The decision is thus made to throw caution to the wind and pray it’s early enough in the season to go into the desert, dig up the body, and see it with their own eyes.

The only real budgetary expenditure above payroll and permits is thus the corpse itself. By making it scary and real enough to put the fear of God into this quartet, the rest of the suspense can be built via the constant presence of an invisible threat. These witches move so fast that the governmental alerts are for “wind” rather than rapture. And if there’s any solace in being taken, it’s that it happens so instantaneously that witnesses would swear you simply disappeared. Bienczycki and Karpala must therefore only create a scenario with which to mark these brothers as fair game to all witches in the area and let the uncertainty of their fate drive the narrative towards its inevitable collision between hubris and power.

It’s a solid result with some impressive yet minimal world-building to help the conceit feel lived-in even if the moments providing it don’t have much bearing on the plot itself (see J. Aaron Boykin and Samantha Turret as an AM radio DJ and producer adding flavor while padding runtime). These are the limitations true indie productions must face, though, and the filmmakers do well to ensure we can invest in the peripheral exposition regardless of our understanding that’s all it is. The maneuver works better when the connection is personal via the brothers’ mother (Diane Box Worman) delivering an effective monologue, but audiences for these films generally know what to expect.

So, don’t expect much action. The horror lies in the reality that these witches don’t need to fight. All we require to know what’s happened is watching whatever the victim was holding fall to the ground because they are no longer there. Because Falling Stars isn’t about defeating these witches. No one on-screen is even pretending that’s an option since they’re at a distinct and undeniable disadvantage. It’s instead about accepting one’s mortality and humanity by learning to accept responsibility for one’s actions and to suffer the consequences if it means saving any innocents placed in harm’s way as a result. These characters knew the risk they were taking. Now it’s on them to set things right despite it.

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Rene Leech, Andrew Gabriel, Shaun Duke Jr., and Greg Poppa in FALLING STARS; courtesy of XYZ Films.