Dom Robinson reviews
Cherry Falls
If you've not had it, you've had it.
Distributed by
Entertainment Films
- Cert:
- Running time: 92 minutes
- Year: 2000
- Released: 25th August 2000
- Widescreen Ratio : 1.85:1
- Rating: 2/10
Director:
(Cherry Falls, Romper Stomper)
Producers:
Marshall Persinger and Eli Selden
Screenplay:
Music :
Cast :
Jody Marken: Brittany Murphy
Sherrif Brent Marken: Michael Biehn
Leonard Marliston: Jay Mohr
Kenny: Gabriel Mann
Cherry Falls: 'The Virgin Non-Suicides' ?
This is the first Hollywood outing for Australian director Geoffrey Wright, whose
claim to fame was the excellent
Romper Stomper, but none
of its flair is on display here.
It's another of those teen silly slasher-horrors in which unsuspecting victims are sent
to their deaths before they realise it's too late, but we've had so many of those, plus
the forthcoming satire Scary Movie, so does Cherry Falls have the originality
it 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 just
what 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-old
college girl Jody Marken. At least I presume she's meant to be that age because she certainly
doesn't seem to be portrayed as any older. As she comes high up in cast list, you know she'll
be 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-abiding
type he pretends to be.
Jerry Maguire's Jay Mohr
takes the role of soft-spoken teacher Leonard Marliston, always apparently flirting with the
girls including Jody. Finally, Kenny, her two-timing other half is played by Gabriel Mann.
The reason for the killer's appearance - and the prime suspect - is the return of nerdy
girl Lorelei Sherman, or is it? For her time at Cherry Falls High, the only time
she got laid was when her car broke down and she was sadistically raped by four drunken
college 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 the
clan you've been staring at for 90 minutes. I normally never guess their identity as
I prefer to switch my brain off and find out when all the cast do. This time I did try
to 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 expecting
a 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 that
came 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-virginal
friends, "We're not members of the 'poontang' clan" and once the teenagers learn
of the way NOT to get offed, they organise a late-night sex party, to which the headmaster
labels a "fuck-fest".
Overall, there's one thing that surprised me here. For all its faults, dull direction
and script-writing, it's rarely boring, so you won't nod off, but if you'd paid you will
wish you'd seen something else.
For a slasher-horror it's relatively gore-free. Yes, there's lots of blood, but like a
typical BBFC-censored porn film, all the 'action', as such, is hidden from view. People
are murdered just off camera, or the direction is so clumsy you can't fully tell what's
happening. There's a scene late on which feels like a knife-based recount of the Dunblane
massacre and the killer is dispatched in a way identical to 1991's The Hand That Rocks
The Cradle.
However, many of this summer's films haven't been the most impressive so we're still waiting
for the big one after the disappointments of
Gone in 60 Seconds,
X-Men and
M: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's
Highlander 2: The Quickening),
where their release date is September 29th.
And if the auditorium looks a bit sparse because potential punters have gone into different
screens after reading reviews of this, see if you can beat the record number of attendees
to the press screening I went to - I was the only person there.
