Cherry Falls isn’t a very well made horror flick because for one, the killer isn’t nearly as mysterious as the filmmakers wanted it to be and it clearly took more than a few cues from Scream with a mixture of horror and comedy.
Cherry Falls
(2000)
REVIEW NAVIGATION
The Movie | Special Features | Video Quality | Audio Quality | Overall
Genre(s): Horror, Thriller
Shout Factory | R – 92 min. – $26.99 | March 29, 2016
Date Published: 03/28/2016 | Author: The Movieman
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THE MOVIE – 2.0/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: A serial killer is stalking the peaceful town of Cherry Falls. At first, it seems that the killer is just targeting teenagers, but after the third killing, it becomes clear that all the victims have been virgins. When the town’s students hear about this, they realize that there is only one way to protect themselves and begin planning a “Pop Your Cherry” party where they will all lose their virginities together. Meanwhile, Jodi (BRITTANY MURPHY), the virtuous daughter of the town’s sheriff (MICHAEL BIEHN), also becomes a target of the killer while something in the town’s past may lead to the identity, and motives, of the murderer. Quick Hit Review: Cherry Falls is the typical film from the late 1990s, early 2000s attempting to capitalize on the success and semi resurgence of the horror genre thanks to Scream. Although Falls sounds like a fun little slasher romp, it’s mostly a boring movie where the killer is easy enough to figure out before the halfway point; also hurts that it takes some cues from De Palm’s Dressed to Kill sans the De Palma’s creative direction and technique. The acting also isn’t the best and the writing, and to be specific, dialogue was awful. There’s not a whole lot of redeeming value save for the absurdity of the “Pop Your Cherry” party, which I found funny, otherwise even at less than 90-minutes it was a chore to sit through. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 3.25/5 |
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For a movie that never opened stateside and not a big following (less than 10k votes on IMDb), this release got a fair number of features: Audio Commentary – Director Geoffrey Wright sits down for a low key but genuinely interesting track where Wright recounts his work on the film both with what did and did not go wrong not to mention his memories working with the late Brittany Murphy. Lose it Or Die: The Untold Story of Cherry Falls (23:30; HD) are a set of new interviews with writer Ken Selden and producer Marshall Persinger. The pair, separately, talks about the story behind the movie and its flip of the script of making the virgins the target of a serial killer. Cherry Falls Deputy: Amanda Anka (7:40; HD) is a new interview with the actress as she talks about her role in the film. Vintage Interviews (6:26; HD) are a collection of mostly on-set footage with the cast members Brittany Murphy, Michael Biehn and Jay Mohr and director Geoffrey Wright. Behind the Scenes Footage (4:32; HD) is some fly-on-the-wall footage. Original Script is available only through a BD-ROM drive. Theatrical Trailer (1:47; HD) |
VIDEO – 3.75/5 |
| Cherry Falls arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout via its Scream Factory line. The movie is presented with a 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition transfer and although I wouldn’t necessarily consider it a brilliant looking picture, colors were at least vibrant, if not a bit oversaturated in places, and save for the occasional dust mark, it was fairly clean and detail was fairly well defined. |
AUDIO – 3.5/5 |
| The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track isn’t bad but you can definitely tell this wasn’t a high-budgeted movie; dialogue for the most part was clear but there were some instances, like in big rooms where audio topped out. While hardly perfect, I do think it’s more than adequate for a movie like this were the blood-curdling screams, not to mention the generic horror score, comes through well enough.
A DTS-HD MA 2.0 track is also available as an alternative. |
OVERALL – 2.5/5 |
| Overall, Cherry Falls isn’t a very well made horror flick because for one, the killer isn’t nearly as mysterious as the filmmakers wanted it to be and it clearly took more than a few cues from Scream with a mixture of horror and comedy with more than a hint to Dressed to Kill. The Blu-ray released by Shout Factory offers good video, decent audio and a fine selection of bonus material. |
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.