Star Leaf

Soldier with combat stress is led by his stoner friends into a forest to partake of a legendary drug, and weird dangers emerge from the undergrowth.

Surprising low budget sci-fi hallucinatory type of thing with a message about coming to terms. It doesn't look great, but it's not tediously trippy and the modest effects deliver the menace pretty well. The acting is decent, and while the characters aren't deep there is some nice idiosyncrasy. And the pace is good.

The only thing I didn't like was the music - sounded like an '80s TV show.

Overall good entertainment and good natured.

For me personally, I felt the story was a bit flimsy. I get the bringing in elements of extraterrestrial/ contact point, I loved the whole pot from outer space thing, I even respect the bringing in the whole returning, fragile soldier in need, it was the characters themselves. They seemed only mildly developed. At times I just didn't connect with their personal story. Other times the characters and the moments were just spot on!. Directing and the creativity are pretty cool in "Star Leaf". I haven't really scene films on this kind of high outside of Full Moon Horror.

The special effects for the most part are pretty hokey for the most part. But I think that it was intended and even celebrated by the team behind "Star Leaf". This is really meant for a nice, sometimes disturbing trip "through the crack", or say, "down the rabbit hole". The aliens were cool, and done enough to were they didn't seem completely CGI, often they looked more like practical design. All the extra paranormal/supernatural CGI was used in a trippy, hallucinatory aspect that even though it comes off a bit cheap, it still is fun and entertaining.

Overall "Star Leaf" is an entertaining, 420 staple. I mean it is better than "Evil Bong" and I get high to that quite a bit. The ending is a more "life lesson" , hallmark moment situation that, I am sorry, but I thought was a bit lame. Plus when the ending is delivered to us I kind of felt the whole movie was built up around that ending concept and its message. I didn't get any real horror from "Star Leaf" , some definite thriller moments, but I love aliens, and pot. Plus anything that spotlights the emotional and psychological conditions a lot of our soldiers return home in is dope! Pun intended!

Random people going into secluded place is the benchmark of horror genre. Star Leaf, to its credit, decides the motive should be finding weeds. This is not so much a horror rather than a parody of one, it's utterly bizarre and often doesn't make much sense. Characters are partially product of satire, and it's confusingly insipid since it opens up with heavy theme of homicide and kidnapping. The best it could come up with is a few giggles due to its extreme oddity.

Three people go into a forest to find a mysterious sage who can lead them to a promised place of rare medication plant. Bizarre as it may sound the following is even crazier with trippy creature or haunting dream. This may very well meant to be representation of being high, nearly everything is pointless gibberish. Fortunately, the runtime is rather short, so it's equivalent of a weird dream.

Characters would appear out of nowhere, then disappear in five minutes as there's no consistent plot here. One can actually randomly skip a scene or reverse them and it would be the same incoherent story. Characters themselves are not likable, they are created for such intended effect with hippie gibberish and blatant reference to pop culture. The most sensible of them is surprisingly the jock stereotype, and even he seems woozy at times.

Star Leaf's best chance at entertainment is if audience is lenience and laugh at its silly antics. For anything resembling horror, thriller, or any coherent narrative, don't expect much from this delirious mess.

There is almost nothing to like about this movie. I will give credit to some decent cinematography and some decent (for the budget) special effects. Literally everything else about this movie is terrible. I'd say the writing is the major culprit. Not funny, not scary, not coherent, not dramatic, not interesting. Just a pile of nothing. The movie is mercifully short, at least.

I just want to say, for the record, I give B movies every possible concession. It takes a lot for me to hate on a low-budget movie like this. This movie just sucks. A lot.

Its not a good movie. Its not God awful either though. Its watchable. More like a student film. There are some really good ideas here that could spawn a series/franchise. I hope so. Very cool premise.