4 Responses to “Cherry Falls”

1. 

   Griff

   October 2nd, 2011 at 10:55 am

   believe it or not, I actually saw this on TV once

   I too found it weird that at an orgy, everyone was in their underwear and not one single person was naked, huh?

   and I too laughed at when they all fell off the stairs (in their underwear no less)

2. 

   neal2zod

   April 29th, 2012 at 12:29 pm

   I just saw this one and kinda liked it, despite just ranting on how awful Scream 4 was and how the slasher/whodunit genre is beyond tired and needs to be put to rest. Btw Vern – might want to put a SPOILER ALERT in that review! Jeez Louise!

   Anyways, I was sorta charmed how PG-13 and bloodless the whole movie is, until the last few minutes or so when there’s suddenly a ton of gore scenes. I didn’t mind the red herrings this time or the convoluted plot (yet ANOTHER slasher movie where the central mystery turns out to be the sins of the parents come back to haunt the children, etc…) – I think the brisk pace and extremely short runtime help that. Plus the performances by Murphy and especially Biehn are fantastic. And *SPOILER* – I’m a sucker for the fact that Murphy learns a special self-defense move earlier on and then uses it to defeat the villain at the end, like a martial arts movie or something.

3. 

   Rehydrated Dehydrated Pirate Paul

   April 29th, 2012 at 5:58 pm

   As a self-confessed slasher-movie fanatic (not sure what that says about me, but whatever) this ticked all the right boxes for me. Yeah, it was kinda dumb, and the mystery was no mystery at all… but you gotta give it to Jay Mohr, he absolutely rules this film. Seriously, I kinda liked “Scream 4” despite its many problems, but if any of the main characters had had a tenth as much personality as Mohr showed in this film then it would’ve been a helluva lot better.

   What I really liked about it, though, was although it clearly was playing for laughs (and the orgy-invasion at the end was, no joke, one of the most awesome things I have ever seen on film, underwear and all) the killer’s plot was utterly believable. I mean, you have to be REALLY fucked-up to attempt a massacre that is pretty routinely used in slasher movies of this type, and “Cherry Falls” is the only film I’ve seen like this that even comes close to justifying the killer’s insanity in a way that makes any kind of sense. This kid has had to be pretty screwed up from a very young age to even attempt what he’s attempting; and while it’s pretty obvious who it is, I like how little bits of the killer’s “psyche” are laid out, bit by bit, throughout the film. Especially the “origin” bit with the combined baby / torture apparatus. Very creepy.

   Other things I liked… the humour in this film is pitch-black and very different to the self-aware humour of certain other series (“Scream” or “Urban Legend”). In this one the characters demonstrate total ignorance of horror movie tropes, even when it’s clear to the audience what’s happening (“I tell you, you’re about the only person I trust right now… do you want any help with that trunk?” “Why sure, I just need to get it down into my basement.”) which has a charm all of its own.

   Also this wasn’t straight-to-video. Saw it at the cinema when it first came out.

   And please don’t reveal the killer in the review without some kind of spoiler warning. Even when the killer’s as predictable as this. Hell, I didn’t guess the alien queen from “The Faculty”, occasionally an easy one gets by me, but I still like the chance to try and work ’em out.

4. 

   PacmanFever

   April 30th, 2012 at 10:47 am

   I think this movie is much better known in the UK; it was given a mildly successfully, wide-ish release in cinemas here, which always helps a movie clear the DVD and TV hurdles later on. I saw it when I was 17ish and enjoyed it, but to be honest I enjoyed pretty much any shit that had a mildly clever twist to it back then. Not that I don’t still, sometimes.