Cherry Falls @ UGC, Ipswich

STARRING: Brittany Murphy, Michael Biehn, Jay Mohr, Amanda Anka

VERDICT: Do we really need another Scream style slasher flick?.....answers on a postcard.

This is a real scoop we have here... a genuine up-front review before anyone else in the country, courtesy of the resident pupiline Movie gossip columnist The Hunter. Cherry Falls is out Friday, 25th August, but it won't be out for a while in the USA. So for all our American readers here is a real treat, remember where you saw the review first ...over to The Hunter:

Yesterday I was the ONLY PERSON sitting in the luxury of the UGC Premier Screen watching the new film by Romper Stomper director Geoffrey Wright. Now Cherry Falls, I'll let you know, is a teen slasher flick, yes yes yes, heard it all before, I Know What Urban Wishmaster Legend Did Scream Last Summer. Except instead of the 'ironic' humour of Scream and the pouting pin ups of I Know What... it is a much straighter take on a tired genre.

Now Scream is one of my fave movies, first time I saw it, I was transfixed with terror. I was at a special screening before it came out, very dark, only a few people there, s**t-scared, and ever since then I've loved watching it again and again... but all the sequels are crap. Why? Because Scream changed the direction of the teen horror and although all the films that followed provided some scares and thrills, they were fundamentally poor copies and didn't bring in any new ideas.

So does Cherry Falls 'fall' into this trap? Well, its quite difficult to put your finger on what the film's trying to achieve. Is it a straight, teen's being butchered by killer, guess who it is, film? Or was it exploring another angle? For half the film it seemed that teen sexuality and interaction was being examined, in a fly on the wall style. This was due to the plot hinging on a serial killer stalking and slashing his way through the high schools population, but only if they're 'virgins'. Cue much hysteria and panic as everybody tries to pop that cheery, much to the moral outrage of the elder townsfolk. The parents, therefore, are confronted with a perplexing dilemma, do they let their children be a possible victims of a crazed killer or let them indulge in casual sex, to make sure they are safe.

From then on though everything goes a bit mental and it's the usual, lots of red herring clues and lots of false accusations to the killer is revealed, much to everybody's surprise. It references or 'nicks', elements of Nightmare on Elm Street, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and also Scream, but does so with a lack of humour that is a major flaw to the film.

An interesting idea, but unfortunately the depiction of those life changing steps in a relationship, are traded in for a second half which is merely an ordinary horror flick, shame really.

If you liked this, you'll love:

Scream

I Know what you did Last Summer

Friday The Thirteenth Part 1

Over and Out from The Hunter,

Edited by,

The Hunter