Cherry Falls
USA 1999
Reviewed by Danny Leigh
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Cherry Falls, Virginia. A woman, her face concealed, kills a pair of adolescent sweethearts. When Sheriff Brent Marken discovers them, each has the word "virgin" carved into their bodies. At school the next day, the students are in uproar, despite the calming words of teacher Leonard Marliston, to whom Marken's martial-arts enthusiast daughter Jody has formed a strong attachment. That evening, another girl is murdered, again with "virgin" carved on her body. Marken calls a parents' meeting; Jody and her friend Timmy sneak in and overhear mention of the link between the murders. The killer appears in a hallway. Jody hides, then finds Timmy's corpse, marked as a virgin.
The following day, the students discover the killer is targeting virgins; they plan a party to lose their virginities. Jody hears principal Tom Sisler referring to the killer as Linda Lee Sherman, a student who left town 25 years ago. Quizzing her mother, she learns Sherman was the victim of a rape in which both Sisler and her father participated. Sisler is found dead, "virgin not" etched into his forehead. Jody visits her ex-boyfriend Kenny aiming to lose her virginity. They argue: he leaves for the party, she to Marliston's house. Marliston reveals himself to be both Sherman's son and the killer; Sheriff Marken is already dead in his basement. Jody escapes to the party, but Marliston, in full drag, chases her with an axe. Jody executes a martial-arts move which sends Marliston plunging through a banister to his death.
Review
With the recent box-office success of Keenen Ivory Wayans' Scary Movie, an unsubtle spoof of the already parodic Scream series, one might assume the conventions of the slasher flick had finally been lampooned into redundancy. Not so: while director Geoffrey Wright evidently aspires to greater things than mere generic bloodletting (the title hints at his penchant for the small-town intrigue of Twin Peaks), Cherry Falls remains hidebound by a deep-seated lack of imagination. Granted, the inversion of the form's traditionally prudish value system (here, the homicidal maniac targets high-school students still burdened by chastity) provides a novel conceptual twist; but whether this device justifies the morass of clichés surrounding it remains moot.
While Cherry Falls' spin on sexual politics and occasional moments of Twin Peaks-like deadpan appear designed to distance it from the mediocrity of the herd, the film also resorts to tiresomely hackneyed stock motifs. As with so many teen horror flicks, there are the usual scenes of ruckuses in the school cafeteria and a stream of glutinous one-liners ("She thinks fellatio is a character in Shakespeare" remarks one student of another). Admittedly, we're spared the feverish intertextuality of Scream creator Kevin Williamson's films; all the same, by the time the film's killer begins inviting guileless teens into the basement, you can't help feeling that the film is guided by the same mealy-mouthed logic behind Scream - offering the audience thumpingly obvious material, but winking at them in the hope that such a knowing approach makes it all OK.
Still, there are straws to clutch at. Even when dealing in the most banal of set-pieces, Wright - making a belated US debut eight years after his Australian melodrama Romper Stomper - directs with a certain brash vibrancy, while the Bacchanalian excess of the climactic party sequence oozes a strange, dingy authenticity. Equally screenwriter Ken Selden's premise - in which teenagers risk their lives by holding on to their virginity - does produce the odd impressively arch moment: coming from a culture in which the pro-virginity organisation True Love Waits holds sway over large numbers of American pubescents, there has to be some ironic value to an anxious father grilling his daughter over her status "base-wise", only to shudder in fear when she tells him she's yet to go all the way.
Meanwhile, amid a slew of barely competent performances, Brittany Murphy's heroine lends the enterprise an endearing sheen. After witnessing Murphy steal scene after scene in Clueless and Drop Dead Gorgeous, it's a pleasure to see her in any kind of leading role: next time, you just hope she chooses a less enervated genre for her showcase.
Credits
- Director
- Geoffrey Wright
- Producers
- Marshall Persinger
- Eli Selden
- Screenplay
- Ken Selden
- Director of Photography
- Anthony B. Richmond
- Editor
- John F. Link
- Production Designer
- Marek Dobrowolski
- Music
- Walter Werzowa
- ©October Films, Inc.
- Production Companies
- Rogue Pictures presents an Industry Entertainment/Fresh Produce Company production
- Executive Producers
- Scott Shiffman
- Julie Silverman Yorn
- Co-executive Producers
- Ken Selden
- Joyce Schweickert
- Production Co-ordinator
- Carol Ann Thomas
- Unit Production Manager
- Christopher Bromley
- Location Manager
- Mike S. Ryan
- Post-production Supervisor
- Ninon Tantet
- Assistant Directors
- Lisa Campbell
- Jerry Grandey
- Darrell Woodward
- Jody Spilkoman
- Script Supervisor
- Lisa Katcher
- Casting
- Johanna Ray
- Associate:
- Mary Jane Fendler
- East Coast:
- Craig Fincannon
- Camera Operators
- George Richmond
- John Sosenko
- Steadicam Operator
- Garrett Brown
- Visual Effects Supervisor
- Brian Jennings
- CGI Artist
- Robert Emrich
- Special Effects
- Co-ordinator:
- Robert Vazquez
- Foreman:
- Gary Pilkinton
- Technicians:
- Michael H. Clark
- Walter Garrett
- Richard E. Perry
- Kathleen Tonkin
- Additional Editing
- Russ DeNove
- Art Director
- Nicole Koenigsberger
- Set Designer
- Michael Ward
- Set Decorator
- William A. Cimino
- Storyboard Artist
- Helen Williams
- Costume Designer
- Louise Frogley
- Wardrobe Supervisor
- Joyce Lee Kogut
- Key Make-up Artist
- Elisabeth Fry
- Special Effects Make-up
- Neal Martz
- Special Make-up Effects
- KNB EFX Group Inc
- Key Hairstylist
- Jo Jo Guthrie
- Additional Hair
- Jennifer A. Santiago
- Titles/Opticals
- Bipack Inc
- Vocalist
- Lisbeth Scott
- Musicians
- Guitars:
- Bernie Locker
- Trumpet/Flugel Horn:
- Roy Wiegand
- Music Editor
- Dominick Certo
- Soundtrack
- "Fader"- Drugstore; "Mouse in the Moon" - Peter Bradley Adams; "Faceless" - Bernhard Locker
- Supervising Sound Designer
- Harry Cohen
- Sound Mixer
- Jay Meagher
- Re-recording Mixers
- Ken Teaney
- Marshall Garlington
- Re-recording Engineer
- Michael A. Morongell
- Supervising Sound Editors
- Andrew DeCristofaro
- Steve Williams
- Dialogue Editors
- Paul Curtis
- John C. Stuver
- Nancy Nugent
- Sound Effects Editors
- Jeff Whitcher
- Jeff K. Brunello
- ADR
- Artists:
- Sean Rowe
- Joan Rowe
- Vince Nicastro
- Michael Broomberg
- Recordist:
- Chris Staszak
- Mixers:
- Eric Thompson
- Shawn Kennelly
- Matt Beville
- ADR
- Editors:
- Paul Curtis
- John C. Stuver
- Nancy Nugent
- Mixers:
- Eric Thompson
- Shawn Kennelly
- Matt Beville
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- John Alden
- Cast
- Brittany Murphy
- Jody Marken
- Michael Biehn
- Sheriff Brent Marken
- Gabriel Mann
- Kenny Ascott
- Jesse Bradford
- Rod Harper
- Jay Mohr
- Leonard Marliston
- Douglas Spain
- Mark
- Keram Malicki-Sanchez
- Timmy
- Natalie Ramsey
- Sandy
- Candy Clark
- Marge Marken
- Amanda Anka
- Deputy Mina
- Kristen Miller
- Cindy
- Michael Weston
- Ben
- Joannah Portman
- Sharon
- Joe Inscoe
- Principal Tom Sisler
- Bre Blair
- Stacy Twelfmann
- Vicki Davis
- Heather
- Bret McKee
- Dylan
- Clementine Ford
- Annette DeWolde
- Margaret Molster
- Annette's mother
- Michael Goodwin
- Annette's father
- Steve Boles
- 1st father
- David Lenthall
- 2nd father
- Steve Ayers
- 3rd father
- Candy Aston-Dennis
- 1st mother
- Deborah Hobart
- 2nd mother
- Beatrice Bush
- 3rd mother
- Rick Forrester
- Deputy Beau
- Tammy Ballance
- young Loralee
- Rand Courtney
- Dennis
- Colin Fickes
- Dino
- Caroline Perreyclear
- Jan
- D.J. Qualls
- Wally
- Anthony Michael Harding
- coroner
- Patt Noday
- Stan Michaels, TV reporter
- Jessica Driscoll
- Diana
- Mark Joy
- Special Agent Bronhill
- Alex Wharff
- young Brent Marken
- Christopher Evans
- young Tom
- Michael Cammack
- young Harry
- Jesse Janowsky
- young Jimmy
- Christine Offutt Thomas
- Barry Privett
- couple at restaurant
- Christian Durango
- young Leonard
- Joseph M. West Jr
- Agent Majestik
- Zachary Knighton
- Mr Rolly
- Teresa Wells Jones
- FBI agent
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Entertainment Film Distributors Ltd
- 8,239 feet
- 91 minutes 33 seconds
- Dolby
- Colour by
- DeLuxe