Cherry Falls

**Cherry Falls** is a 2000 American slasher film directed by Geoffrey Wright which first premiered at the München Fantasy Filmfest in Germany on July 29, 2000 and aired on television in the United States on October 20, 2000.

## Plot

Set in the small town of Cherry Falls, Virginia, a psychotic murderer is killing off the virgins of the town's local high school.

## Cast

* Brittany Murphy as Jody Marken
* Jay Mohr as Leonard Marliston
* Gabriel Mann as Kenny Ascott
* Michael Biehn as Sheriff Brent Marken
* Jesse Bradford as Rod Harper
* DJ Qualls as Wally
* Kristen Miller as Cindy
* Candy Clark as Marge Marken
* Amanda Anka as Deputy Sheriff Mina
* Joe Inscoe as Principal Tom Sisler

## Production

In October of 1998, Variety announced Geoffrey Wright as director. Geoffrey Wright promised an intelligent script full of irony.

In 1999, the filmmakers began scouting locations in Virginia, using the town square in Warrenton; the high school used in the film was Thomas Jefferson High School, located in Richmond.

Film producers at Millennium Studios secured permission from Richmond Public Schools to film interior and exterior scenes at Thomas Jefferson High School during Easter Break and the week following.

Thomas Jefferson High School shared the building and grounds at the time with the Governor's School for Government and International Studies (GSGIS), a regional school for gifted students.

Richmond Public Schools failed to mention this and the fact that the two schools shared different schedules to film producers. They also failed to mention that a movie would be filmed on the site to GSGIS administration.

As a result, "Cherry Falls" began filming at the end of the school day, only to be interrupted an hour later when the GSGIS students were released from class. In order to secure the set, doors had been locked and hallways had been blocked, preventing students from exiting.

The confusion was eventually cleared, and the producers provided GSGIS administration with a synopsis of the plot and details about the time-line, scheduling and deal with Richmond Public Schools.

The school administration then included the synopsis in a letter to concerned parents. The synopsis failed to mention the satirical slant of the storytelling, and instead provided the plot as a serious storyline. Parents then complained that Richmond Public Schools allowed porn movies to be filmed on school property.

Principal photography for "Cherry Falls" began on March 11, 1999 and ended on May 11, 1999. Filming took place in Virginia (in Richmond, Warrenton, Petersburg and Dinwiddie).

The film's set was described as "tense" by writer Ken Selden, due to the 30-day production schedule falling behind, which led to budget issues from October Films.

Director Geoffrey Wright kept writer Ken Selden's original script relatively unchanged, but re-wrote the film's final "orgy scene" which had originally been conceived by Selden as featuring the teenagers having a mass sex party under a giant white sheet.

Wright opted to shoot the scene with the cast nude which resulted in much of the scene being cut in order to avoid an X rating.

Michael Biehn (who played the role of Sheriff Brent Marken) initially wasn't interested in the movie because, after reading 15 pages of the script, he thought it was just another slasher film. His agent convinced him to keep reading. He liked the satirical approach to the genre and decided to do the film.

Stephen Lang was slated for the lead role as the Sheriff, but scheduling conflicts prevented him from playing in the film. Lang later admitted that the only reason he wanted to do the part was to work with Brittany Murphy again.

Geoffrey Wright had a very specific vision for the movie and frequently clashed with members of the crew, specifically cinematographer Anthony B. Richmond.

According to Wright, the latter walked off the set and didn't come back for almost two days because he thought he was using too much blood in one sequence.

Wright also confessed to irritating actor Jay Mohr for demanding a flexible schedule from all of the actors.

## Release

"Cherry Falls" was shopped at the Cannes film market in 1999, and was sold for theatrical distribution in all international territories across the world. It had a tentative theatrical release scheduled for November of 2000.

However, the film was troubled by censor disapproval in the United States and the distributors' relationship with USA Films led the company to make the decision to release it as a television movie in the United States, syndicated on the USA Network.

As a result, "Cherry Falls" became (and remains) the most expensive television film ever made, with a production budget of $14 million. It was released in the United States on October 20, 2000.

The film did have successful theatrical runs in the United Kingdom and throughout Europe.

## Critical Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, "Cherry Falls" has an approval rating of 59% based on 17 reviews with an average rating of 5.90\10.

Doug Brod of Entertainment Weekly rated it A- and wrote that it *"might just be the wittiest, most subversive teen thriller since Heathers."*

AllMovie gave it a favorable review, writing: *"Of all the teen slasher flicks that premiered after the wildly successful Scream series (Urban Legend, etc.), Cherry Falls will possibly go down as one of the most creative, but sadly unseen ones in the bunch."*

Kaleem Aftab from The List wrote: *"Cherry Falls is never slick enough to hold the audience on the edge of their seats and the ropey plot quickly dooms the film to the so-bad-it's-almost-good-but-not-quite school of filmmaking."*

Jeremiah Kipp of Filmcritic.com said: *"Cherry Falls sticks to the tried and true formula, bringing to mind words like adequate or functional."*

William Gallagher from BBC.com said the film *"becomes a balance between gory and very silly."*