The “law gone bad” subgenre is not a new one. I’d wager it’s tied to the distrust we have of authority figures and abuse of power. Any time we are put at the mercy of someone with power and a weapon it tends to make us a bit jumpy. In recent years the authority, specifically the police, have come under more scrutiny than ever as we learn some of the things that may otherwise have remained in the shadows of the unknown. Perhaps now is the perfect time then to revisit this subgenre of thrillers to say something new.
Or not.
In this case, not so much.
For as well as it is made, and shot, unfortunately, BLOOD STAR just doesn’t have much to say at all.
BLOOD STAR finds a young woman on the road in the barrens of the West, heading home to a boyfriend she has a strained relationship with. On her journey, she stops for gas and runs into a local Sheriff who seems overly friendly. Back on the road, she runs into him again when she loses track of her speed and is pulled over for topping out at 100 miles per hour. The Sheriff informs the woman that she’s being cited for speeding…and for damaging his patrol car. It seems his lightbar has seen better days and he insists she’s responsible for the damage. The woman protests but is told, well, if she wants to just pay for the lightbar then he can let the rest go. Seeing no other option she headed to where the Sheriff directed her to take money out of an ATM but it seemed there was no money in the machine and there rarely is. She has a funny feeling about this Sheriff and what he’s doing and the mystery only deepens when he shows up with her car being towed only to tell her he’s had her car towed there a tire that was badly replaced and she’s welcome to leave. What game is the Sheriff playing and what part does this woman have to play in it?
This is a familiar premise of a young woman in a bad relationship on the road and running into a Very Bad Man. We’ve seen this. We’ve also seen movies out in the middle of nowhere with officers who are up to something. This is all very familiar and very worn. In order to give it some juice you really need to shake things up. Unfortunately, BLOOD STAR doesn’t. It is by the numbers from the top to the bottom. There’s nothing new here.
This is beautifully shot and very well directed. The actors are all very good and the Sheriff is menacing. The characters though are more sketches though than anything else—the good-bad girl with a mouth. The bad guy cop gets away with it because who will stop him? The yokels are just background for everything going on. Everything feels as if it’s ticking off boxes following a set path.
The thing is that there are always options, always choices to change things up. That’s the job part of movies like this, finding those other paths. Instead, we get a stream of events that lead toward the climax, none of them altering the path or adding anything new or interesting. A movie like this should make you feel dirty, uncomfortable, and scared of what’s going to happen. It should put you in that lead’s place. The danger feels short-lived, the characters aren’t terribly likable (or nightmare-inducing), and a long scene of dialogue feels like it lasts as long as the whole climax.
I can’t recommend this film to any but hardcore thriller fans. Your mileage may vary. For me, these tires were bald.
2.25 out of 5
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