STAR TIME. A Slasher Unlike Any Other

“Star Time” is one of the most interesting yet lesser-known films at the intersection of slasher, sharp social satire, and psychological thriller.

Henry Pinkle is a young, lonely man with an obsessive fascination with television. When his favorite soap opera is taken off the air, Henry suffers a nervous breakdown and plans to jump off a skyscraper; beforehand, he records a farewell video tape addressed to his therapist, Wendy. However, he is saved from suicide by an older man who introduces himself as Sam Bones and promises Henry that he will make him a media star. Bones first takes Henry to his luxurious estate and then to a television studio, where he outlines a vision of eternal fame if only Henry follows his instructions. The young man agrees to Sam’s terms, receives a plastic baby mask and an axe from him, and then goes on a killing spree. The city is shaken by a series of murders committed by the individual known as The Baby Mask Killer.

“Star Time” is the feature debut of Alexander Cassini – a director, screenwriter, and producer in one person, who developed the idea from his short film. Cassini cast three actors in “Star Time”: Michael St. Gerard [John Waters’ “Hairspray” (1988), Jim McBride’s “Great Balls of Fire” (1989), the series “Elvis” (1990)], John P. Ryan [almost eighty film and TV roles, including in Bob Rafelson’s “Five Easy Pieces” (1970), F.F. Coppola’s “The Cotton Club” (1984), and Danny DeVito’s “Hoffa” (1992)], and Maureen Teefy [Steven Spielberg’s “1941” (1979), Alan Parker’s “Fame” (1980), Patricia Birch’s “Grease 2” (1982)]. “Star Time” debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992, later reaching a single (!) cinema in Santa Monica, and then to video cassettes. In 2018, the film was released on Blu-ray/DVD, but it remains relatively unknown.

The lack of success for “Star Time” is understandable. This difficult, ambitious, and agitated film, much like the psyche of its main character, was advertised as a slasher, but it is rather an anti-slasher: Henry, as a serial killer, indeed has a mask and an axe, but Cassini shows not a single murder, only their aftermath (and that only twice). “Star Time” is not another blood-soaked entertainment piece served by the film industry in the 70s and 80s, but a genre-blurring meditation on mental illness and the destructive power of mass media. Partly a black comedy with elements of biting satire, partly a grim psychodrama – “Star Time” is the spiritual heir of Sidney Lumet’s “Network” (1976), George A. Romero’s “Martin” (1977), Martin Scorsese‘s “The King of Comedy” (1983), Rémy Belvaux’s “Man Bites Dog” (1992), and David Lynch’s neo-noir style.

Cassini encourages reflection on how media helps create monsters and gives them notoriety, often providing material for copycats (e.g., the Columbine effect); how obsession with pop culture and celebrities, as well as dependence on technology, blur the lines between fantasy and reality, between mental health and madness; how media cynically exploits the human need for recognition; and how it amplifies loneliness and alienation in exchange for a false promise of fame. It is not easy to depict violence without simultaneously indulging in it, but Cassini manages this feat: by forgoing the gallons of blood and guts we’ve become accustomed to with films like “Scream,” “Halloween,” and “Friday the 13th,” he creates a shocking portrait of a man consumed by an internal fire ignited and fueled by the media lords of souls.