Cherry Falls

This film is about a town plagued by a serial killer who kills teenage virgins.

I know it's a horror film, but I can't stop myself from being amused by the ridiculous plot that the serial killer killing virgins. How is the killer supposed to know who is a virgin and who is not? Anyway, this killing spree gives the high school student the perfect excuse to have sex with each other, which I also find darkly humorous. There is an attempt to put some emotional drama involving the main family, but it does not quite work. The film does not provide much tension or scare, but it does keep my interest because I want to know how it will end. I think "Cherry Falls" is the kind of horror film that people enjoy because it is actually more funny than scary.

The success of the `Scream' series spawned many clones, this being a reasonable attempt. The makers of such scream clones were obviously faced with a dilemma, how not to stray too far from a winning formula – yet be original at the same time – therefore in this one they give the story a little twist. Here, the preposterous twist is that the killer only kills virgins! – sending the youths in the local village sex mad - in order to save their life, obviously!!.

As bad as it sounds, its not all bad, especially when the absolutely delicious Brittany Murphy is the lead role as the daughter of the local sheriff (Michael Biehn) who is investigating these grisly murders – and guess what, she's a virgin!!. The final twist is pretty good, although if you really think about, the killers motive for hating all virgins isn't really that convincing, Fun though if you take it for what it is, enjoyable rubbish!!

Great fun both to see Brittany Murphy and to see this flick. It's like a comedy visual with a drama soundtrack. A serial slasher targets teen virgins in small town high school USA. In an attempt to thwart the killer all the kiddies have a deflowering fete which, I gotta say affords some of THE BEST stampede scenes.

Maybe I should start by saying I'm not the biggest slasher fan around here. Sure I can appreciate the classics like Halloween and the original Friday the 13th but they were never top of my list. And the post-Scream era has blown it all. Since this movie, everybody thinks they can make a horror film. The only thing they need is a few good looking girls who can yell very loud and a stupid outfit to give to the killer. This is kinda also the big idea behind CHERRY FALLS but, compared to most others, there are several good aspects and twists in this one. The story for starters... The killer's targets are exclusively virgins. This of course give a lot of opportunities to insert all sorts of humor. (shy girls, computer geeks who never get laid, slutty girls) It's all pretty predictable but it works. For example, I laughed pretty loud when some character said about another : " She thinks Fellatio is a characters in a Shakespeare play" As most films in the genre, the film tries to be as violent as possible, I was one of the lucky ones who saw the uncut version. If you're planning to see it, try to get your hands on this version.

The story develops pretty well. The killer's background gets revealed bit by bit and it's scary enough to keep you interested. A few good twists too, I may say. Cherry Falls stars a few very decent actors. Michael Biehn ( always one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood, IMO ) is very convincing as the sheriff who discovers the truth behind the gore murders. His teenage ( virgin, of course ) daughter is played by Brittany Murphy. She gained fame and fortune lately by starring in that stupid Eminem film and a few others. She wasn't that famous yet when she did Cherry Falls, so I could enjoy her part. Her boyfriend ( named Kenny ) looks a lot like a young James Spader. So if they wanna do a remake of Secretary withing 15 years, they know who to cast... I also recognized a dumb looking DJ Qualls ( Road Trip, The New Guy, The Core) I think this guy is doomed to play the nerd for the rest of his life. Oh well... In general: Of the thousand stupid slashers who got released over the past 8 years, this certainly is one of the best. You'll forget about it pretty soon, but it'll sure give you 90 minutes of fun and violence.

A teenage couple is killed while making out by the lake in small town Cherry Falls. A further murder points the police to suspect that someone is killing virgins. While the towns' teenagers prepare for a sex party to protect themselves, the sheriff's daughter, Jody Marken, follows a clue that may unmask the killer and her motives.

One of the spate of `knowing' teenage slasher movies, Cherry Falls got some publicity from it's twist on the usual horror cliché that `sex = death'. Pointed out in Scream, whenever you have sex in a horror movie you mark yourself out as a victim, however here the twist is that virgins will die and those having had sex will live. The film is quite enjoyable and has the odd tense moment, but quickly falls into line with every other horror cliché in the book – right down to the big twist over the killer's identity and, true to Scream, it's a big leap!

The film is a little modern ironic but doesn't get much mileage out of it. More interesting to me was the angle that, in this day of AIDS and STD's, those HAVING sex were actually protected while those saving themselves and being careful were actually risking death. I'm not sure if this angle was thought of when making the film but it didn't get any significant air time or comment – I guess the film only wanted to be ironic or post modern if it didn't involve any thought or effort. That said it still sort of works, even if it doesn't really stand out from the rest of the teen slashers (but then, what does?).

The cast are so-so. Murphy is OK in the lead and Biehn is a familiar face as her father. Jay Mohr has a small role but happily isn't awful. The rest of the teens tend to fall into high school stereotypes of jock, nerd, joker etc and only really serve to be victims rather than characters. There are no really gory moments but there are lots of quite cruel ones which happen just offscreen but are no less horrific for it.

Overall the film is OK but can't really do anything intelligent with it's unique twist. I knew it was clever to do things like this, but the film gets no mileage out of the wider ideals (AIDS etc) and quickly falls into being a standard teen horror movie complete with shadows, twisty end and so on. Still worth a watch if you like this sort of stuff but it really could have been better than this.