Blood Star

Blood Star
Directed by	Lawrence Jacomelli
Written by	Lawrence Jacomelli George Kelly Victoria Hinks Taylor
Starring	Britni Camacho John Schwab Sydney Brumfield
Cinematography	Pascal Combes-Knoke
Edited by	Ross Evison
Production companies	Beast Productions Fastback Films & Pictures Up Beast Los Angelea
Release date	7 October 2024 (2024-10-07)

It is a 2024 thriller desert noir road movie directed by Lawrence Jacomelli. The film is based on the short story, “Don’t Look Back”, the screenplay is written by Lawrence Jacomelli, Victoria Taylor and George Kelly . The story follows a young pick-pocket who is driving across the desert, back to her abusive boyfriend. She is targeted by a small-town sheriff who uses his badge as a means to prey on vulnerable women. She is forced to be street-smarts in order to survive. The film was showcased at Grimmfest on 6th October 2024. On 7th October 2024, the film was made available on digital

Plot

Blood Star opens with a beaten and tortured young woman, Bobbi Torres_, with blood streaming from her mouth, stumbling across the nighttime desert being pursued by a car. She collapses to the desert floor and a man, shrouded in darkness, gets out and gives her a gun with one bullet. The man returns to the car, as she gets to her feet and raises the gun. The car launches towards her, she fires the single bullet but blinded by the oncoming lights, she misses, and he runs her down . The morning sun beams down on the desert highway as Bobbi Torres rockets down interstate 10 in her Mach II Mustang, jamming out to some tunes when her sister, Anna, calls. Anna urges her to go back home and not return to her boyfriend. Bobbi refuses and reminds Anna of how controlling and strict their father is towards them. Anna tells Bobbi that had she (Bobbi) not been arrested for shoplifting, then their dad would have been more lenient. Bobby gets angry and hangs up on Anna. She then pulls over to a gas station to fill her tank, where she meets the local Sheriff, who informs her that her tire tread is wearing thin. The two chat and he offers her a soda before leaving. Bobbi refuses the soda, finishes fueling and leaves the gas station. Back on the road, Bobbi makes headway down the highway. Anna calls again and the argument continues. Anna says Rhett will just take her voice away and control her whole life. Bobbi gets irritated and begins to speed. She blows past a speed trap and a police car pulls out, tailgating for a minute before lighting her up. It is the same cop from the gas station and he is all business this time around and he writes her a ticket for speeding. Bobbi informs the cop that she cannot pay. He offers her a deal that if she pays him $300 cash, then he will let her go. He points her back to the gas station, saying they have an ATM. He confiscates her phone and tells her that he will meet her there. As she drives off, he deposits her phone into a box filled with other phones. The Sheriff sits on a high vantage point. Inside the car the cop waits, eating fried chicken, when Rhett calls Bobbi’s phone. He answers it, which makes Rhett jealous, then disconnects. In the distance, Bobbi’s car appears. He gets out and retrieves a high powered rifle from the trunk. He watches Bobbi’s car through the scope and fires a shot, knocking out her tail light. She hears something hit her car, but does not stop. He smiles knowing his game is now on. He gets in his car and drives away. The Sheriff pulls her over again and cites her for a busted tail light and informs her that she should not have left the gas station before he returned and how he could arrest her for absconding. He roughly pats her down and rummages through her purse. He takes her Driver’s License and offers her “one last chance” to pay up. He directs her to a diner ten miles up the road and tells her she’ll get her possessions back after he gives her the cash. 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’s tired of being played by this guy, he has her phone, ID, and car, and she’s standing right where he told her to go. 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. Suddenly, the sheriff appears behind her, having never left. In a tense moment, he returns her phone and car keys, bids her good day and leaves. She tells Anna maybe she’s imagined it all, and everything’s okay. 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 her 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 the truck driver. He lets Bobbi escape and she finds refuge in a junkyard. Here, 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. The sheriff captures her, and in a horrifying act of brutality, cuts out her tongue. Bobbi is allowed to escape once again and staggers aimlessly through the desert until she hears a rumble of a car engine. Then looking over her shoulder, headlights switch on. She turns and staggers away as fast as she can move. The sheriff, driving in the police cruiser, tracks her at a walking pace. She collapses, her energy spent. He writes how far she traveled onto her driver’s license. He gets out and approaches her, giving her a canteen of water, which she dumps out, she won’t be controlled by him. He drops a gun and a bullet in front of her then he gets back in his car. Staring at the gun she has an idea and tears the gauze from her severed tongue, allowing the blood to start pouring from her mouth. She purses her lips then loads the gun and stands to confront him. He revs the engine, expecting her to shoot at him, but she’s onto his game. She lifts the revolver to her temple and pulls the trigger, jerking her head out of the way at the last second and spitting out the blood that’s filling her mouth. She collapses to the floor, feigning suicide. Furious, the sheriff exits his car, screaming at her for denying him his ritual. He approaches leaning over her to inspect the wound but not finding it. Bobbi strikes with a flash, a bone-handled knife she swiped from the torture room in his side. He falls over and she makes a break for his cruiser, searching for the keys. He appears at the open window, keys in hand, attacking her. The fight continues through the cruiser, and out onto the desert floor where the sheriff climbs on top of her. He chokes her and she reaches for his sidearm, wrestling it from its holster. When he goes to stop her, she smashes his head with a rock, knocking him out. Bobbi grabs the keys and gets in the cruiser, putting the pedal to the metal. In the rearview mirror, she sees the sheriff standing up. Bobbi spins the car around and stops. Then she presses hard on the accelerator and launches the car towards him. With blood seeping into his eyes, he fires his gun at her, but he misses and hits the lightbar. He fires again but his gun just CLICKS EMPTY. In the car, Bobbi tosses the magazine from the Sheriff’s gun on the passenger seat. Without wavering, she collides with him at full speed, splattering him all over the windshield. She makes her way back to the garage. At the garage, she gathers her tongue, packs it in ice. Ed appears, and Bobbi takes him by surprise, stabbing him up through the chin with a crowbar. She collects the IDs of the sheriff’s previous victims and leaves the garage. The story concludes with Bobbi driving away from the scene of her ordeal, when her phone rings from the box of phones, the caller ID saying it’s Rhett. She glances at her broken reflection, then tosses the phone out the window. Bobbi, broken, but stronger, drives down the highway in the police cruiser towards the lights of a small city at day break.

Cast

• Britni Camacho as Bobbie 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
• Ray Buffer as Diner Patron
• Travis Lincoln Cox as Ed
• Scott Owen Ford as Diner Patron
• Arthur Roberts as Pa
• Gwen Van Dam as Ma

Critical response

As of December 2024, Blood Star has a rating of 5.9/10 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 film has a 4/10 rating. The sites critical consensus states that the film is "well photographed" and that it has "two charismatic performers to help left 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"