Aubrey Parker (Virginia Gardner) is slowly and with difficulty getting over the recent death of her best friend when she decides to break into her friend’s apartment to try and see whether she can face up to the demons and hurt that comes with such a tragedy. Before long, however, she is faced with life in a ghost town and trying to solve a mystery which encompasses several mix tapes her friend has left behind, saying that she’ll ‘figure it out’.

Amidst a snowy landscape, she encounters strange monsters both her size and giant in mass, but the depth of her sorrow and grief only serves to fuel the growing fears of what lies outside the walls in which she barricades herself…

A.T. White has written and directed an atmospheric drama that could work equally well without the monster movie within it trying to break out. It’s an interesting experiment and at times the competent jump moments that occur on occasion seem to be at odds with what the director is trying to get across. The use of a cassette tape as a motif places this back in the early 1980s, giving it a retro style. At one key moment in the film, you wonder whether the director is actually trying to be a little too smart for the audience; you could also read it as just what the character might want to perceive as what is real and what isn’t.

Gardner holds her own in the film, as she has to hold the frame for most of the films hundred-minute or so running time, portraying a young woman who is at the outset of what starts to become a down and dirty existence, with only a turtle called Bellini for company. She is the glue that holds the film together and she does have promise for the future, reminding one of a young Alicia Silverstone or Reese Witherspoon.

Starfish is a worthwhile effort and one which should be used as a way for teenagers to cope with loss of friends and to help find the strength in their lives to move forward. It doesn’t quite pull off as well as it should do, but there is sufficient here to garner a viewing or two.

STARFISH / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: A.T. WHITE / STARRING: VIRGINIA GARDNER, CHRISTINA MASTERSON, ERIC BEECROFT, NATALIE MITCHELL / RELEASE DATE: TBC