Dreaming up ‘Star Light’

Question for professional horror movie makers: Is the middle of a pandemic a good or a bad time to open a scary movie. Petaluma’s Mitchell Altieri and Adam Weis, whose new “teen scream flick” has just been released.|

“They’re all dead.”

Though not quite the first words spoken in the new film “Star Light,” they come very early on in the movie, when a terrified young woman is given a lift by a startled motorist who innocently asks what happened to her.

“They’re all dead,” she replies.

Honestly, there are few better ways to kick off a gory-fun fright flick in which a pack of high school friends must try survive an all-night party after some not-so-welcome guests pay a mysterious call, bringing a bloodbath of supernatural mayhem with them.

“It’s a teen scream flick, with a pretty popular young cast,” is how Petaluma’s Mitchell Altieri describes the recently released film, which he co-wrote with Jamal M. Jennings and another Petaluma screenwriter, Adam Weis. The film was co-directed by Altieri and Santa Rosa’s Lee Cummings, and features lead performances by Scout Taylor-Compton (“The Runaways,” Rob Zombie’s “Halloween” and “Halloween II”), Cameron Johnson (“The Mick,” “The Wrong Crush”), Liana Ramirez (“Power Rangers Beast Morphers”), Rahart Adams (“Pacific Rim: Uprising”) and cult favorite “scream queen” Stephanie Shepis (“Tromeo and Juliet”).

“Star Light,” after its attention-grabbing opening, goes back to the beginning to tell the story of a skate-boarding teen (Johnson) who literally collides with the famous pop star singer he secretly worships (Taylor-Compton). After learning she is being pursued by people who mean to harm her, he takes her to a friend’s house where a kegger has recently ended. Then bad things happens. And yes, the words “star light” could have something to do with light from actual stars, which means outer space might be involved, which means that aliens could have something to do with it.

Or maybe they’re demons.

Or cannibalistic serial killers.

Hey, when it comes to “teen scream flicks,” anything is possible.

“We shot the movie a couple of years ago, in Mayfield, Kentucky,” explains Altieri, “and after a long post-production, it did some festivals where it was very well received, and won a bunch of awards.” Produced by the same team that created the recent “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” remake, "Star Light“ was headed for a targeted run in movie theaters when the coronavirus shot down those plans. After a bit of wheeling-and-dealing, the movie is now available as a video-on-demand streamer on AppleTV and other platforms.

“We’ve been saying for a while that video-on-demand and all of that is like the wild west. It’s been a little strange for years, but releasing a film during Covid has been really, really strange,” laughs Altieri. “We have so many eyes at home, hungry for content like this, but so many films are being released onto so many different platforms, it’s a little overwhelming. We’re just grateful that our film has done a pretty good job of staking a claim, and managing to stand out in the middle of all this craziness.”

Which brings up the obvious question: is the middle of a worldwide pandemic - a time of real life horror for many - a terrible time to release a horror movie?

Or the perfect time?

We’ll get back to that.

Weis and Altieri have worked together before, and always enjoy collaborating. Weis co-wrote Altieri’s 2006 family vampire movie “The Hamiltons,” which also included former Petaluman Phil Flores, with whom Altieri has often co-directed under the name “The Butcher Brothers.” Weis also contributed to the screenplays for 2010’s “The Violent Kind,” and 2016’s dark comedy “A Beginner’s Guide to Snuff.”

“Mitch came to me with the script for ‘Star Light,’ which needed some fleshing out,” says Weis. “He was in a time crunch to be able to shoot that year in Kentucky, so I actually wrote a draft in 10 days, while working a day job. Which was pretty crazy, looking back on it, but I was hungry for a challenge, and he caught me at the right time.”

Weis and Altieri have known each other for about 15 years, and share a similar sense of humor, acknowledges Weis.

“A very dark sense of humor,” he says. “I’d say we’re both interested in blurring the lines between genres. At this point it’s pretty much effortless for us to write back and forth. We almost share a secret sign language when it comes to communicating about what we want in a movie.”

“Adam came up with a great draft, and then, because time was so short, we were working on it pretty much right up till we were flying to Kentucky to start filming,” says Altieri. “Everything really flowed on this project. It was such a fast but smooth process.”

Asked what his primary contributions to the original script idea were, Weis explains, “I really like the extra layers and the relationship stuff in a script, the little moments of connection preceding and setting up the big horror moments. So I put in a lot of interesting dialogue that led up to those ... I guess you could call them ‘teen slasher’ moments.”

Which brings us back to that question. Is it fortunate timing or unfortunate timing to open a horror film during a horrible moment in history?

“Movies like this are pure escapism, first and foremost, by making light of horrifying situations,” remarks Weis. “I’m actually kind of happy that this is being released right now, because I consider it a fun horror film. And people need a little fun. This movie is not nearly as scary as our current reality, so it definitely gives people an escape.”

“I remember that during the whole housing crash of 2008 and 2009, horror films were just absolutely cooking,” says Altieri. “They were the only movies making any money. When you are in a s--t situation, as we are now, you want something, sometimes, that isn’t just happy-happy, the-lovers-end-up-together, isn’t life wonderful! Sometimes what you want to see is people facing something really terrible, where everyone is running for their lives, so you can sit back and think, ‘Oh yeah, I can totally feel that.’”

Viewers might even think, “Compared to what those folks are going through, I might actually have it pretty good.”

“Definitely,” laughs Altieri. “Horror movies, for the people who like them, offer a version of reality in which things are truly terrible, everyone is facing an impossible situation.” And, even if most of the characters end up dead, there’s usually someone who survives. “To me, that just feels hopeful,” he says. “So scary movies make you feel bad things, but in the end, they can make you feel good things too.”

So, with that in mind, would either Weis or Altieri consider writing a movie about a plague or pandemic?

“You know ... I really don’t think so,” says Weis with a laugh. “A pandemic movie just doesn’t sound fun to me.”

“Yeah, probably not,” agrees Altieri. “That may be a little too close to home.”

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