Cherry Falls
As Scream reinvented the slasher movie genre in the late 1990s with an entirely new formula that included pretty young actors both male and female, a goofy irrelevant sense of humor amongst the characters and lots and lots of irony, almost immediately a lower rung of filmmakers rushed to emulate what Wes Craven had accomplished just as they had tried to do with John Carpenter in the early 80s. WB and UPN teen soap operas became the primary sources for casting calls while screenwriters tried to mine the genre (or what was left of it) for all of the humor that they could possibly dredge up for stories that featured large numbers of young people being murdered and the occasional past their prime actors also managing to nail down supporting roles as well. One of the most notable examples was this 2000 release which probably spent entire nights patting itself on the back for the alleged cleverness of its premise, that of a small town serial killer who seems to be exclusively targeting virgins which turned on its ear the long believed horror movie rule (even stated out loud in Scream) that having sex as a teenager makes you easy prey for a killer. The film ran into immediate distribution problems since there were ongoing Senate hearings investigating the abundance of sex and violence in popular entertainment and the fledgling production company behind the project wound up dumping it onto The USA Network as an (edited) TV movie only allowing it an uncut release on DVD and other home media. But it was just as well since it had turned out to be an extremely troubled shoot as Australian director Geoffrey Wright helming his first (and only) American movie wound up immediately going over budget and behind schedule, pissed off a number of the actors who were working on it and in many cases, forced the production to cut out the shooting of several key scenes while others that still wound up in the film were the result of being done in just one take. Wright also decided to take the original script (where much of the humor and satire had originated) and tried to make it more serious in nature, giving the whole thing a schizophrenic vibe that it never completely recovers from. For its lead actress, we get Brittany Murphy, the tragically ill fated Hollywood ingenue whose mysterious death at 32 (said to be from “pneumonia”) from what many believe to be either excessive drug use or even murder which nonetheless belies the fact that she was one of the most intriguing actresses of her time, a wide eyed wonder who always seemed fragile and vulnerable onscreen even if she’s not convincing for even a second playing a virginal high school girl who apparently is the psycho killer’s main target but at least she has the reliable Michael Biehn backing her up as her dad (and the town sheriff) and American Graffiti Oscar Nominee Candy Clark as her mom along with SNL alumni Jay Mohr (himself a guy whose stardom faded rather quickly as the years went on) as her sensitive, soft talking English teacher whom she has a crush on much to the dismay of her boyfriend (Gabriel Mann). The film begins with two teenagers making out while parked in a car. The guy is apparently a science fiction fan, coming up with some quasi romantic / existential bullshit in order to get her to put out. Suddenly, they are happened upon by a mysterious figure, one who appears to be female but nonetheless handily overpowers the guy before murdering him with a knife. The girl is then grabbed and murdered offscreen, but we find out later that she was literally tortured while being killed although no kind of rape or sexual assault ever took place. Biehn’s Sheriff immediately starts his investigation and upon realizing what the killer’s MO is decides to have that awkward moment with his daughter where he not only asks if she’s still a virgin, but he actually ENCOURAGES her to take it even further if she possibly can on the idea that the killer (presuming he / she is psychic) probably will leave her alone once she’s taken care of that. It’s no dice though, as the killer goes straight after her on a couple of occasions (which she survives) and after a couple of more kids are killed, Biehn makes the decision to hereby make it public that the killer is targeting virgins, a fact that drives the entire high school crazy with little time being wasted on a Cherry Pop Party being planned where essentially the orgy of the century will take place, a development which is fine with Biehn since he reasons that a bunch of teenage kids screwing is better than a bunch of teenage kids dying (a sentiment that the parents of the town seem to vehemently disagree with). Meanwhile, the inquisitive Murphy conducts her own investigation into the case and you can probably guess where it goes from there. Sadly, the film fails to work as a whodunit because there are simply not enough characters on hand here (at least the Scream movies seemed to delight in stacking up on the red herrings) and if you don’t have the killer figured out in the first 30 minutes then you most likely need glasses and a film school course. Suffice it to say that the film never makes a clear cut connection between the killer’s actual motive (revenge) and the reasoning behind him / her targeting the teenage virgin population of the town, most of whom have little to any knowledge or involvement in the circumstances surrounding what had sparked the reasons for revenge. Meanwhile, Biehn mistakes constantly adjusting his gun belt as being a definitive sign of playing a law enforcement agent (think John Wayne, pilgrim) and Murphy (while cute) even at this point seems to be playing jaded and distant to a tee which is not the quality that you usually find in the psychological makeup of female teenage virgins, seeming more like she’s trying to emulate the grunge mannerisms of people like Courtney Love instead. And in the midst of all this, one must ask themselves, how is any of this the least bit funny OR ironic?? Certainly the film gains some traction in its portrayal of the apathy of American teenagers, going from a classroom “therapy” scene where most of the teenagers loudly make fun of the murdered teens just to be smartasses to the setup of the actual sex party itself where the kids excitedly act like it’s Christmas, Halloween and their birthdays all at once as they eagerly prepare for the chance to get laid and thus in doing so “protect” themselves from the wrath of the psycho killer (whom it would turn out is NOT psychic nor instinctive about these kind of things and winds up slaughtering a number of obvious non virgins as well). But much of the stuff in between this is played fairly straight with Sheriff Biehn tracking down the answers to an old dark secret of his that plays heavily into the climax (think: rape) and Murphy’s traumatic experiences not only with having one of her best friends killed but also in dealing with her own boyfriend whom she teases relentlessly before cruelly shutting him down resulting in some nasty shouting matches negating much of the humor potential to almost near zero. One also wonders that with seemingly the entire school frolicking to this party in order to get laid finally, did ANYBODY in this student body actually have normal, healthy sexual relations with one another like you so commonly see in real life? The film tries to pump some adrenaline back into the whole affair with the revealing of the backstory and the killer’s identity which despite featuring a transvestite chasing around the various characters all while giggling like a maniac, seems to be a rather straightforward approach by horror movie standards (especially when Clark as the mom confesses the truth to her daughter) to the point where the film seems to be making a half hearted stance in defense of rape victims and their rights, but again one fails to connect THAT message and motive to the killer’s decision to deliberately target virgin teenagers (pretty much the main selling point of the movie in the ad campaign) who had little to nothing to do with the events of the past horrific as they were. In the end, a unique enough premise that might compel some to watch, but also one that falls into the trap of wanting to be a bit too conventional as well…
5/10