Cherry Falls

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Under the Radar

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I'd be lying if I said I was gonna miss this month's theme all too much. The 90's was this weird era for horror where it didn't really know what it should do. It tried to resurrect the slasher era with more human characters as opposed to supernatural, but let's face it, it's still just more of the same formula over and over again. 'Cherry Falls' is certainly no exception. In fact, I'd say this movie is one big, bad horror trope.

This review won't be a long one 'cause there's just so little to say about it. Other than the film's idea, it's really just an unoriginal slasher-fest, full of teenage victims and basic, uncreative kills, sexual tension with teenage hormones for an easy-sell, and it's honestly just plain forgettable.

In Cherry Falls, Virginia, a mysterious, long-haired killer, dressed in black, is murdering the virgins of the local high school one by one... yeah, that's the big twist here. The victims are the virgins for once, flipping that particular horror trope around. But even saying that's entirely original is a stretch. It's just a change of scenery, really. Otherwise, again, it's a very typical teen slasher.

The story centers on Jody Marken (Brittany Murphy), daughter of the town's sheriff, Brent (Michael Biehn). Brent has been put in charge of the investigation behind these murders, and keeping his daughter safe is also his top priority (which leads to a really messed up conversation). Keeping her out of it, however, leads her to do a little investigating of her own, and your typical slasher horror movie carries on as you might expect, with very little surprise.

It's not so much that the movie's horrible, it's just extremely weak. I've seen many slashers very similar to this that manage to actually tell a better story, of have you care for some of the characters involved. This one is kinda just weird, and it didn't feel I got anything out of it whatsoever. If horror was some sort of theme park, this movie would represent the merry-go-round. Very plain, simple, typical, everyone has seen and done it, and it's not really all that exciting. All in all, a throw-away for yours truly.

2/5

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