Cherry Falls – Cinema

Dom Robinson reviews

Cherry FallsIf you’ve not had it, you’ve had it.Distributed by

Entertainment FilmsViewed at
UCI, Trafford Centre

• Cert:
• Running time: 92 minutes
• Year: 2000
• Released: 25th August 2000
• Widescreen Ratio : 1.85:1
• Rating: 2/10

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Director:

Geoffrey Wright

(Cherry Falls, Romper Stomper)

Producers:

Marshall Persinger and Eli Selden

Screenplay:

Ken Selden

Music :

Walter Werzowa

Cast :

Jody Marken: Brittany Murphy
Sherrif Brent Marken: Michael Biehn
Leonard Marliston: Jay Mohr
Kenny: Gabriel Mann

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Cherry Falls: ‘The Virgin Non-Suicides’ ?

This is the first Hollywood outing for Australian director Geoffrey Wright, whoseclaim to fame was the excellentRomper Stomper, but noneof its flair is on display here.

It’s another of those teen silly slasher-horrors in which unsuspecting victims are sentto their deaths before they realise it’s too late, but we’ve had so many of those, plusthe forthcoming satire Scary Movie, so does Cherry Falls have the originalityit needs to stay ahead of the pack? Sadly, no.

In what seems like a plot rip-off of The Young Ones “Nasty” episode – or is it justwhat Vampires are into? – all the potential victims are virgins.

The principal members of the cast are 22-year-old Brittany Murphy as the 16-year-oldcollege girl Jody Marken. At least I presume she’s meant to be that age because she certainlydoesn’t seem to be portrayed as any older. As she comes high up in cast list, you know she’llbe the Neve Campbell-type, the one who gets chased by the killer but always survives.

Her father is Sherrif Brent Marken (Michael Biehn), who wasn’t always the law-abidingtype he pretends to be.Jerry Maguire‘s Jay Mohrtakes the role of soft-spoken teacher Leonard Marliston, always apparently flirting with thegirls including Jody. Finally, Kenny, her two-timing other half is played by Gabriel Mann.

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The reason for the killer’s appearance – and the prime suspect – is the return of nerdygirl Lorelei Sherman, or is it? For her time at Cherry Falls High, the only timeshe got laid was when her car broke down and she was sadistically raped by four drunkencollege lads who were never brought to book.

Of course, you know that she won’t be coming back and the killer will be one of theclan you’ve been staring at for 90 minutes. I normally never guess their identity asI prefer to switch my brain off and find out when all the cast do. This time I did tryto apply some brain power, but I honestly didn’t guess it would be (name deleted).

However, in places where you’d expect something new to happen, nothing does.As Jody runs away from the killer in their only chase scene together, I was expectinga Mute Witness stretched-corridor effect, but no, it just tracked her movements.In the next scene she climbed onto a shelf and started throwing anything at him thatcame to hand, although it was a bit of a laugh when she made her escape.

There’s also a one-liners, such as one college-type proclaiming to his equally-virginalfriends, “We’re not members of the ‘poontang’ clan” and once the teenagers learnof the way NOT to get offed, they organise a late-night sex party, to which the headmasterlabels a “fuck-fest”.

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There is one truly horrifying thing about this film and it’s something that has to besaid as there’s a kind-of Jekyll & Hyde thing going on here. On the left is a pictureof Brittany Murphy from the 1996 film Drive and the right is a stillfrom Cherry Falls.

Now, Brittany is actually quite a cute actress and none moreso than in this film when shebegins to get her kit off, but what really turns my stomach is that she’s the almost-spittingimage of a previous Hitler-esque supervisor of mine (especially in the left-hand picture),but believe me when I say there’s enough of a difference between a lust for one and a wishto stay a mile away from the other 🙂

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Overall, there’s one thing that surprised me here. For all its faults, dull directionand script-writing, it’s rarely boring, so you won’t nod off, but if you’d paid you willwish you’d seen something else.

For a slasher-horror it’s relatively gore-free. Yes, there’s lots of blood, but like atypical BBFC-censored porn film, all the ‘action’, as such, is hidden from view. Peopleare murdered just off camera, or the direction is so clumsy you can’t fully tell what’shappening. There’s a scene late on which feels like a knife-based recount of the Dunblanemassacre and the killer is dispatched in a way identical to 1991’s The Hand That RocksThe Cradle.

However, many of this summer’s films haven’t been the most impressive so we’re still waitingfor the big one after the disappointments of Gone in 60 Seconds,X-Men andM:I-2.

Finally, it must be noted that for once we get to see a Hollywood film before the Americans(the last time I recall this happening was for 1991’sHighlander 2: The Quickening),where their release date is September 29th.

And if the auditorium looks a bit sparse because potential punters have gone into differentscreens after reading reviews of this, see if you can beat the record number of attendeesto the press screening I went to – I was the only person there.

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.

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