Running Time: 86 Minutes
Starring: James Alex, Manon Ens-Lapointe, Jersey Anderson, Jacob Stickles, Steven Hobé
The latest feature from prolific writing/directing team Brett and Jason Butler, Starsuckers opens with a camera sweeping down to see a newborn child being watched by his parents. What would ordinarily be a loving moment is ultimately a farce. Influencers Bjorg - pronounced George - and Sasha (played by James Alex and Manon Ens-Lapointe) do not care for their baby, who they have named Baby. They just want to maintain the image that they depict on social media.
What is more important to the couple are their career moves, as Bjorg wants to make his comeback by playing a vigilante character called The Bat Man (not to be confused with the DC Comics character), and Sasha has turned grief into a brand by selling what she claims are her tears. The pair are coming to their "contractual" end, reflecting on their relationship as they look forward to a new phase courtesy of reinvention.
This involves an intimate weekend retreat to their lakeside home, for which they have invited their most loyal superfan couple - Eileen (Jersey Anderson) and Chuck (Jacob Stickles). The pair found solace in the influencer couple after experiencing two miscarriages, and are excited that their first holiday outside of their home town will be with their icons. However, the weekend soon transforms into something deadlier.
At the centre of a satire reliant on egos, a game cast is needed to bring alive these larger-than-life characters. The assembled cast do decent work as the figures divorced from reality, whether they are influencers or fans. With the characters buying into their pretentions, the line blurs between whether the fan admiration makes them want to be their idols, or to have sex with them. There are so many inflated egos within this influencer cocoon, with the insufferable attitudes and actions being pointed out via a withering voiceover criticising the shallowness.
This brings to mind Halina Reijn's Bodies Bodies Bodies, which delivered a hilarious takedown of privileged characters in an influencer age. Sadly, the Butlers cannot match up to that work with this limp satire that offers nothing novel. Whether it is the mass-marketing of false hope, people losing sight of themselves while worshipping false idols, or influencers being divorced from reality, these regularly repeated talking points are reused in tedious ways which are as biting as a toothless shark.
Moments arise that promise something inspired, such as a sudden turn to the gruesome, or the sexualisation of cutting up a corpse. These instances struggle to linger in the mind, instead feeling like vapid stopgaps within an irritating work. It is also glaring how characters change their minds at the drop of the hat, such as Chuck and Eileen flipflopping between who is on-board with the situation. It all leads to an ending about how reframing reality cannot last, because it will eventually smack you in the face with the force of a baseball bat. If only such power was felt in this unfunny work, as Starsuckers is an effective satire in the same way that a fart is an effective cover of Bohemian Rhapsody.
Starsuckers made its World Premiere at FrightFest 2026
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