On her way back to her boyfriend, Bobbie (Britni Camacho), is stopped in the middle of the New Mexico desert by a local Sheriff (John Schwab), whose hostile attitude about speeding. He accuses her of damaging his flashing siren light and fines her. Menacingly, he offers to lower the fine for $300 cash. He takes her phone while she gets the money from the ATM in the gas station. It turns out this isn’t the sheriff’s first time doing this…
Beautifully filmed, London-born director Lawrence Jacomelli (who co-wrote with George Kelly and Victoria Hinks Taylor) walks the fine line between cautionary tale and misogynistic exploitation. The lone woman’s fear of travelling alone is often used as a catalyst for horror, and it’s often the people who you’re taught to trust who turn out to be the antagonists in these tales. It’s this familiar scenario that puts Blood Star on the back foot. However, to Jacomelli’s credit, the film takes a few different paths and keeps the viewer’s interest throughout, and boasts some interesting curveballs and a genuine shock moment.
Taking its cues from classics that have gone before such as Duel and Breakdown, the cat-and-mouse nature of the chase is never less than thrilling and rises above its simple, familiar premise. The sheriff’s motive often comes across as deadly playfulness, and getting off on the thrill of the hunt rather than greed, and there’s no apparent sexual motivation other than power. Blood Star is thrilling and frustrating in almost equal measure, but worth the ride.
BLOOD STAR is available an digital now.
