On a weathered farm at the edge of a fading small town, Aisling (Alexandra Dowling) is carrying a weight far too heavy for her young frame. Living with her grandparents, Bud (Ted Levine, The Silence of the Lambs, Monk) and Teresa (Becky Ann Baker), her days move slowly, the nights even slower. But under the shadow of a celestial eclipse, the sky splits open, and a living star crash-lands directly into the back forty. Before she can even process the cosmic crater in front of her, Raphael—played by none other than John Rhys-Davies (Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Lord of the Rings) in full archangel mode—appears. He places the glowing, living star into a locket resting against Aisling’s heart. Suddenly, this grieving farm girl is the sole keeper of a light that turns lead to pure gold. That naturally brings out humanity’s dark side: a trio of ruthless criminals (Gbenga Akinnagbe, Tom Carey and John Westley) witness the miracle and decide they want a piece of divine real estate.
What follows is an unbroken, moonlit sprint through empty fields, crumbling halls and ruined châteaux as Aisling joins forces with Joshua (Diego Boneta, Terminator: Dark Fate), a local haunted by his own family debts and dark memories.
Directed by Francesco Lucente (Badland)—who co-wrote alongside Joseph Bitonti and Olimpia Lucente—Starbright plays out like a lost 90s dark fairytale fantasy that took a very long detour to reach our screens. Originally announced back in 2010—when it was slated to be a 3D spectacle starring Sarah Bolger and James Earl Jones—the project spent over a decade in development hell before finally landing in theaters in February 2026 via Ruby Max Entertainment.
Is it cheesy? Sure. But it’s the exact brand of romantic, sweeping, melodrama-drenched fantasy that feels like it was unearthed from a late-night cable broadcast in the 90s. Lucente and cinematographer Francesco Di Giacomo lean heavily into a lush, fable-like aesthetic that relies on dramatic lighting and old-school fairytale logic: grief manifests physically, gold sparkles with magic, and John Rhys-Davies brings every ounce of his theatrical gravitas to ground the cosmic absurdity. It’s not trying to be a sleek, cynical modern blockbuster; it’s an unapologetic, earnest modern myth about hope, grief, and magical lockets. If you miss the era when fantasy movies weren’t afraid to be unabashedly romantic and a little bit weird, Starbright hits that exact nostalgia button.
Extras on the MVD release include a making-of, short films, a poem by John Rhys-Davies, deleted scenes, bloopers, a trailer, a TV commercial and a soundtrack CD. You can get it from MVD.
