261 Days of Horror, Day 31: Cherry Falls
Feb. 12th, 2007 08:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiCherry Falls. 2001. Directed by Geoffrey Wright. Written by Ken Selden. Released by Polygram USA.
In honor of Valentine's Day, the five movies this week will all be ones that revolve around love and/or sex. Sure, most horror movies have elements of those in place (how would Jason know who to kill otherwise?), but all of these are ones where the sex and love lives of the main characters is actually a significant part of the plotline. In the interest of avoiding the obvious, I'm also limiting myself to only one vampire movie (and boy is it a doozy -- just wait until Friday). I also have to admit that two of the movies I wanted to use this week have been tossed to the back burner: Valentine, a truly wretched film that wastes the talents of folks like David Boreanaz and Katherine Heigl, is usually on one of the premium cable channels around the clock, but for some reason, at the perfect time of the year for it, it has vanished from the airwaves. And My Bloody Valentine, the far better (if still cheesy) movie focused on this holiday, seems to have wandered off from my collection.
That said, let's get to today's movie, Cherry Falls.
We start in the town of Cherry Falls, Virginia, the least-subtly named town in movie history*. Two teenagers are making out in a car, but the girl isn't letting her boyfriend get past first base. After some brief arguments over his wandering hands, they settle back for more kissing. But a car pulls up behind them and sits there with the brights on. The boy channels his blue balls into macho rage, and goes to confront the driver of the other car, but the latter, a brunette whose face we never see, slams the door open into the teen. She then stabs the boy repeatedly as the girlfriend looks on in terror. The girlfriend finally has the wherewithal to lock the car doors, but in the process of doing so, she takes her eyes off the killer, and when she looks up, she can't see anyone, but she hears her wounded boyfriend begging for help. She opens the door for him, and as he crawls inside, the killer follows, stabs him again, and chases the girl outside, where she caresses and kills the girl before dispatching her, and we cut to the opening credits.
We also cut to a new teenaged couple: Jody and Kenny. Jody is played by Brittany Murphy, back when she was brunette and ten pounds heavier than she was during her 8 Mile/Just Married days. That alone is reason to enjoy this movie.
But I digress.
We see Jody and Kenny playing out a scene similar to the earlier couple's, with Jody not letting Kenny get too far, and Kenny registering disappointment. We also meet Jody's mom (who flirts with and bums cigarettes off Kenny) and her police chief dad, grumpy at her for being out so late.
We cut to the next day at school, where we can meet the remaining characters, including hot and sensitive English teacher Leonard Marliston, class slut Cindy, Jody's best friend Sandy, and her other best friend, token gay character Timmy. I'll pause for a second to note that gay characters in horror movies have a track record that makes black characters look like Final Girls. We also meet Annette, who, for lack of a better word, can best be described as "The Next Victim." We get ten minutes of the usual high school character exposition and grief over the murders.
We cut to the nighttime. Annette's parents have gone out, and when the door rings, Annette's smart enough to not let someone in just because she identifies herself as "Loralee Sherman." And when Miss Sherman finally does convince her to open the door, she's smart enough to keep the chain on. Alas, she's not smart enough to live in a house with a stronger chain**, and Loralee kicks the door open, smashes Annette's head between the door and frame, and then does some off-screen slicing and dicing.
That night, the coroner explains to the sheriff that the "virgin" carved into Annette's flesh turns out to be an accurate label, and that the previous victim also was as pure as the driven snow. The sheriff (played by Michael Beihn, incidentally), is now faced with the unpleasant need to ask his daughter about her sexual experience, praying she turns out to be the town slut. Alas, Jody is still virginal, so the sheriff says that he's proud of her, even as he secretly wishes she'd put out for Kenny.
Jody might be pure, but it's pretty clear she doesn't want to stay that way, as the next day, she goes to the school and flirts with her English teacher. Before he can attempt his "Resist Jailbait" roll, they hear a noise, and their investigation only turns up a cigarette.
School itself is closed while the kids mourn, but the sheriff gathers the town parents in the gymnasium to explain the situation to them. Jody and Timmy sneak into an upper hallway that overlooks the gym, and thus hear the announcement. As can be expected, on hearing the news, the townsfolk gather their inner resources and break out into a brawl (the lamest brawl ever, actually). Timmy snaps some photos, and heads downstairs to the school newspaper room where he works. Jody follows a couple of minutes later, and ends up in the school basement, where she wanders the halls to make the movie longer. Eventually, she hears Timmy's phone ringing, and comes across a locker with the word "virgin" on it. She opens it, and there's Dead Gay Timmy***.
Jody runs, but encounters the killer. They fight, hide, and chase each other across the school, eventually ending up in a fight in the science lab. Throughout the fight, Loralee's hair covers her face, so it looks like Jody is being attacked by the unholy offspring of Cousin Itt and The Ring's Samara. Jody knocks Loralee out, and runs away to fetch her dad. When they get back to the lab, however, Loralee is gone. Oh noes!
The composite sketch of Loralee unnerves the sheriff, and Jody listens in a phone conversation between him and the school principal that makes it clear that they share a Dark Secret about Loralee's past.
And now we get the Best Idea Ever. The schoolkids, aware of the killer's methodology, have decided to have a "let's lose our virginity" party. Man, what I'd have given for one of these when I was a kid. Kenny, of course, offers to accompany Jody to the party. We get a few more high-school moments (slutty Cindy appears to be the only non-virgin in the entire town, as she offers advice to all the other girls). The principal warns the kids not to throw the party, but it's clear that he's not going to be heeded.
Jody confronts her mom about Loralee, who dodges her questions in a scene not dissimilar from the first Nightmare on Elm Street, and Jody sneaks out of the house shortly thereafter to research Loralee Sherman at the library. While looking at microfiche (and discovering that Loralee was a local girl who vanished), she gets the feeling that she's being watched, and after a few ludicrous moments of wandering the stacks, she runs into her mom again, who is now willing to talk. We learn that Loralee was a girl who had claimed to be raped by a bunch of the school's best and brightest, including the man who grew up to be the principal, and the town sheriff, Michael Beihn himself. The latter was falling down drunk when it happened, and tried to confess, but the cops never bothered doing anything about it.
Even as the sheriff kills ten minutes of screentime by pointlessly searching the old Sherman house outside of town, Jody runs off to Kenny's house, where she briefly discovers her inner domme and makes her boyfriend suck her toes while she kicks him with her other foot.**** Alas, Kenny's too repressed to respond when she suggests they lose their virginity then and there, and they get into an argument as she stalks off.
Our neighborhood sheriff returns from the Sherman ranch to find that his friend the principal is dead, with the words "virgin - not" carved into his head. Before he can react, the Sheriff gets conked over the head with a trophy, and cut to the party.
The town virgins (and town slut Cindy, there for moral support) meet up at the one abandoned house in town. Their super-secret location is guarded by the cops, who at least want to make sure no one gets hurt (and possibly to trap the killer). The party goes just like every other teen party in movie history, only there are now nerds as well as jocks hooking up.
Not having anyone else to turn to, Jody runs to the house of her cute teacher, Mr. Marliston. She helps him move a heavy trunk into the house, and as it slips down the stairs, she hears a strange noise.
"What's in the trunk?"
"Your dad. Maybe mine."
Jody, still assuming that last comment was a joke, goes down to look in the trunk, only to see her dad's unconscious body! She looks up, sees the Loralee wig, and turns around to take a punch to the face.
When she wakes up, Jody is strapped into a dentist's chair, and her dad's tied to a regular chair. Marliston threatens Jody until her dad tells the story of the night of the rape, which doesn't offer anything new, other than his repentance. As he tells the story, Marliston changes into his alternate identity of Loralee, and explains that his mother (the real Loralee) went insane from the rape, and beat Marliston while he was growing up. And now that she's dead, he's taking her place and getting revenge on the people who might be his father, as well as the town that never cared about his mother. He's about to torture Jody to death when Kenny, having seen Jody's bike, figures out that something is up, and barrels his way in. The two teens escape, but Dear Old Dad sacrifices himself in the process.
The finale sees the kids run to the Sex House, where Marliston offs a cop before chasing them inside. Lots of kids are slashed and/or trampled (frankly, it's hard to tell), and eventually, Jody uses the judo moves her dad taught her to throw Marliston off the balcony, where he's impaled on a fence. We get a brief scare when he re-opens his eyes, but a cop shoots him dead for good. Some bonus mother-daughter bonding takes place, and we roll credits.
Cherry Falls is far from perfect, but it's one of the better-crafted post-Scream postmodern slashers. The very idea of targeting virgins is a nifty twist on the typical slasher concept, and the winning cast (Marliston is played by Jay Mohr, and Beign and Murphy are both fine). Unfortunately, the rape plotline cuts the legs out from the wittiness of the movie, adding an element that's just too dark for the otherwise spot-on black comedy. If you must put rape into a slasher-comedy, having it less plot-related and more over the top (see the origin of Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street 3) is the way to go. Still, for the price, there are some great plot twists in Cherry Falls, and director Geoffrey Wright (Romper Stomper) and writer Ken Selden (nothing you've seen) do a nice job of running with a one-joke concept and making it surprisingly watchable.
*Although if Joel Schumacher had gotten his way, Batman and Robin would have taken place in Nipple City.
**Or this newfangled device called a peephole.
***We never do find out if he was a virgin, or if he merely never slept with a woman.
****Yes, this scene really does happen.
In honor of Valentine's Day, the five movies this week will all be ones that revolve around love and/or sex. Sure, most horror movies have elements of those in place (how would Jason know who to kill otherwise?), but all of these are ones where the sex and love lives of the main characters is actually a significant part of the plotline. In the interest of avoiding the obvious, I'm also limiting myself to only one vampire movie (and boy is it a doozy -- just wait until Friday). I also have to admit that two of the movies I wanted to use this week have been tossed to the back burner: Valentine, a truly wretched film that wastes the talents of folks like David Boreanaz and Katherine Heigl, is usually on one of the premium cable channels around the clock, but for some reason, at the perfect time of the year for it, it has vanished from the airwaves. And My Bloody Valentine, the far better (if still cheesy) movie focused on this holiday, seems to have wandered off from my collection.
That said, let's get to today's movie, Cherry Falls.
We start in the town of Cherry Falls, Virginia, the least-subtly named town in movie history*. Two teenagers are making out in a car, but the girl isn't letting her boyfriend get past first base. After some brief arguments over his wandering hands, they settle back for more kissing. But a car pulls up behind them and sits there with the brights on. The boy channels his blue balls into macho rage, and goes to confront the driver of the other car, but the latter, a brunette whose face we never see, slams the door open into the teen. She then stabs the boy repeatedly as the girlfriend looks on in terror. The girlfriend finally has the wherewithal to lock the car doors, but in the process of doing so, she takes her eyes off the killer, and when she looks up, she can't see anyone, but she hears her wounded boyfriend begging for help. She opens the door for him, and as he crawls inside, the killer follows, stabs him again, and chases the girl outside, where she caresses and kills the girl before dispatching her, and we cut to the opening credits.
We also cut to a new teenaged couple: Jody and Kenny. Jody is played by Brittany Murphy, back when she was brunette and ten pounds heavier than she was during her 8 Mile/Just Married days. That alone is reason to enjoy this movie.
But I digress.
We see Jody and Kenny playing out a scene similar to the earlier couple's, with Jody not letting Kenny get too far, and Kenny registering disappointment. We also meet Jody's mom (who flirts with and bums cigarettes off Kenny) and her police chief dad, grumpy at her for being out so late.
We cut to the next day at school, where we can meet the remaining characters, including hot and sensitive English teacher Leonard Marliston, class slut Cindy, Jody's best friend Sandy, and her other best friend, token gay character Timmy. I'll pause for a second to note that gay characters in horror movies have a track record that makes black characters look like Final Girls. We also meet Annette, who, for lack of a better word, can best be described as "The Next Victim." We get ten minutes of the usual high school character exposition and grief over the murders.
We cut to the nighttime. Annette's parents have gone out, and when the door rings, Annette's smart enough to not let someone in just because she identifies herself as "Loralee Sherman." And when Miss Sherman finally does convince her to open the door, she's smart enough to keep the chain on. Alas, she's not smart enough to live in a house with a stronger chain**, and Loralee kicks the door open, smashes Annette's head between the door and frame, and then does some off-screen slicing and dicing.
That night, the coroner explains to the sheriff that the "virgin" carved into Annette's flesh turns out to be an accurate label, and that the previous victim also was as pure as the driven snow. The sheriff (played by Michael Beihn, incidentally), is now faced with the unpleasant need to ask his daughter about her sexual experience, praying she turns out to be the town slut. Alas, Jody is still virginal, so the sheriff says that he's proud of her, even as he secretly wishes she'd put out for Kenny.
Jody might be pure, but it's pretty clear she doesn't want to stay that way, as the next day, she goes to the school and flirts with her English teacher. Before he can attempt his "Resist Jailbait" roll, they hear a noise, and their investigation only turns up a cigarette.
School itself is closed while the kids mourn, but the sheriff gathers the town parents in the gymnasium to explain the situation to them. Jody and Timmy sneak into an upper hallway that overlooks the gym, and thus hear the announcement. As can be expected, on hearing the news, the townsfolk gather their inner resources and break out into a brawl (the lamest brawl ever, actually). Timmy snaps some photos, and heads downstairs to the school newspaper room where he works. Jody follows a couple of minutes later, and ends up in the school basement, where she wanders the halls to make the movie longer. Eventually, she hears Timmy's phone ringing, and comes across a locker with the word "virgin" on it. She opens it, and there's Dead Gay Timmy***.
Jody runs, but encounters the killer. They fight, hide, and chase each other across the school, eventually ending up in a fight in the science lab. Throughout the fight, Loralee's hair covers her face, so it looks like Jody is being attacked by the unholy offspring of Cousin Itt and The Ring's Samara. Jody knocks Loralee out, and runs away to fetch her dad. When they get back to the lab, however, Loralee is gone. Oh noes!
The composite sketch of Loralee unnerves the sheriff, and Jody listens in a phone conversation between him and the school principal that makes it clear that they share a Dark Secret about Loralee's past.
And now we get the Best Idea Ever. The schoolkids, aware of the killer's methodology, have decided to have a "let's lose our virginity" party. Man, what I'd have given for one of these when I was a kid. Kenny, of course, offers to accompany Jody to the party. We get a few more high-school moments (slutty Cindy appears to be the only non-virgin in the entire town, as she offers advice to all the other girls). The principal warns the kids not to throw the party, but it's clear that he's not going to be heeded.
Jody confronts her mom about Loralee, who dodges her questions in a scene not dissimilar from the first Nightmare on Elm Street, and Jody sneaks out of the house shortly thereafter to research Loralee Sherman at the library. While looking at microfiche (and discovering that Loralee was a local girl who vanished), she gets the feeling that she's being watched, and after a few ludicrous moments of wandering the stacks, she runs into her mom again, who is now willing to talk. We learn that Loralee was a girl who had claimed to be raped by a bunch of the school's best and brightest, including the man who grew up to be the principal, and the town sheriff, Michael Beihn himself. The latter was falling down drunk when it happened, and tried to confess, but the cops never bothered doing anything about it.
Even as the sheriff kills ten minutes of screentime by pointlessly searching the old Sherman house outside of town, Jody runs off to Kenny's house, where she briefly discovers her inner domme and makes her boyfriend suck her toes while she kicks him with her other foot.**** Alas, Kenny's too repressed to respond when she suggests they lose their virginity then and there, and they get into an argument as she stalks off.
Our neighborhood sheriff returns from the Sherman ranch to find that his friend the principal is dead, with the words "virgin - not" carved into his head. Before he can react, the Sheriff gets conked over the head with a trophy, and cut to the party.
The town virgins (and town slut Cindy, there for moral support) meet up at the one abandoned house in town. Their super-secret location is guarded by the cops, who at least want to make sure no one gets hurt (and possibly to trap the killer). The party goes just like every other teen party in movie history, only there are now nerds as well as jocks hooking up.
Not having anyone else to turn to, Jody runs to the house of her cute teacher, Mr. Marliston. She helps him move a heavy trunk into the house, and as it slips down the stairs, she hears a strange noise.
"What's in the trunk?"
"Your dad. Maybe mine."
Jody, still assuming that last comment was a joke, goes down to look in the trunk, only to see her dad's unconscious body! She looks up, sees the Loralee wig, and turns around to take a punch to the face.
When she wakes up, Jody is strapped into a dentist's chair, and her dad's tied to a regular chair. Marliston threatens Jody until her dad tells the story of the night of the rape, which doesn't offer anything new, other than his repentance. As he tells the story, Marliston changes into his alternate identity of Loralee, and explains that his mother (the real Loralee) went insane from the rape, and beat Marliston while he was growing up. And now that she's dead, he's taking her place and getting revenge on the people who might be his father, as well as the town that never cared about his mother. He's about to torture Jody to death when Kenny, having seen Jody's bike, figures out that something is up, and barrels his way in. The two teens escape, but Dear Old Dad sacrifices himself in the process.
The finale sees the kids run to the Sex House, where Marliston offs a cop before chasing them inside. Lots of kids are slashed and/or trampled (frankly, it's hard to tell), and eventually, Jody uses the judo moves her dad taught her to throw Marliston off the balcony, where he's impaled on a fence. We get a brief scare when he re-opens his eyes, but a cop shoots him dead for good. Some bonus mother-daughter bonding takes place, and we roll credits.
Cherry Falls is far from perfect, but it's one of the better-crafted post-Scream postmodern slashers. The very idea of targeting virgins is a nifty twist on the typical slasher concept, and the winning cast (Marliston is played by Jay Mohr, and Beign and Murphy are both fine). Unfortunately, the rape plotline cuts the legs out from the wittiness of the movie, adding an element that's just too dark for the otherwise spot-on black comedy. If you must put rape into a slasher-comedy, having it less plot-related and more over the top (see the origin of Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street 3) is the way to go. Still, for the price, there are some great plot twists in Cherry Falls, and director Geoffrey Wright (Romper Stomper) and writer Ken Selden (nothing you've seen) do a nice job of running with a one-joke concept and making it surprisingly watchable.
*Although if Joel Schumacher had gotten his way, Batman and Robin would have taken place in Nipple City.
**Or this newfangled device called a peephole.
***We never do find out if he was a virgin, or if he merely never slept with a woman.
****Yes, this scene really does happen.