River's Edge
River's Edge is a 1986 American crime drama film directed by Tim Hunter, written by Neal Jimenez, and starring Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye Leitch, Daniel Roebuck and Dennis Hopper. It follows a group of teenagers in a Northern California town who are forced to deal with their friend's murder of his girlfriend Jamie, played by Danyi Deats, and the subsequent disposal of her body. Screenwriter Jimenez partially based the film's script on the 1981 murder of Marcy Renee Conrad in Milpitas, California. Shot in Los Angeles in 1986, the film premiered that  year at the Toronto International Film Festival before Island Pictures purchased it for distribution, theatrically releasing it in the United States in May 1987. Several critics praised the film's performances, and its subject matter resulted in several critics classifying it as a contemporary horror film. It was awarded Best Picture at the 1986 Independent Spirit Awards. Contemporary film scholars have noted "River's Edge" as an example of the "killer kid" film, as well as one of the most polarizing youth-oriented films of the 1980s. In a 2015 retrospective, "Salon" deemed it "the darkest teen film of all  time." The film features an original score by Jürgen Knieper, as well as a soundtrack featuring songs from various punk and metal bands, including Slayer, Fates Warning, Agent Orange, and the Wipers. Plot. In Northern California, a preteen boy, Tim, throws a doll into a river. On the opposite bank, he sees teenager John smoking a cigarette while sitting next to the nude corpse of his girlfriend, Jamie. Later, at a convenience store, Tim encounters John arguing with a clerk who will not sell him beer due to being underage. Tim returns home, where his older brother Matt and mother  are searching for his little sister's doll. Matt's friend Layne arrives to pick him up, and the two drive to the home of Feck, a neurotic ex-biker and drug dealer, to obtain marijuana. On the car ride there, Layne recounts a party from the night before at which John and Jamie were arguing. At school, Layne and Matt smoke with their friends Clarissa, Maggie, and Tony. Matt talks about wanting to run away to Portland, which Clarissa dismisses. John arrives and mentions that he killed Jamie. Thinking he's joking, Clarissa and Maggie leave for class. John  brings Layne and Matt to view Jamie's body; Matt is disturbed, while Layne is focused on covering up the crime. The group all plan to go see Jamie's body that evening, with Clarissa still assuming it is a practical joke. Layne's older brother, Mike, grudgingly drives them there in his truck, and they all see Jamie's body for themselves. Later that night, Clarissa calls Matt, but he is reluctant to talk to her. Meanwhile, Layne returns to the scene and pushes Jamie's body into the river. While driving afterward with John, he notices police cars  near John's house. Layne panics, but John remains calm. They drive to Feck's house, and Layne leaves John there to hide out. Matt directs the police to the river, where they find Jamie's body washed up on the shore. The police subsequently interrogate him, threatening to charge him as an accessory after the fact. Matt returns home and argues with his mother and her boyfriend. When he sees that Tim has defaced the grave marker for her "dead" lost doll that their sister made, Matt chases Tim down and hits him in the face. Tim goes to  his friend Moko's house and they steal Moko's father's car to drive to Feck's so Tim can obtain a gun. In the middle of the night, Layne, Clarissa and Matt drive to Tony's house, but Tony's father chases them off with a shotgun. Layne argues with Clarissa and kicks her out of his car. Matt gets out and walks with her. They stop at a convenience store and run into John and Feck. Tim and Moko break into Feck's house looking for the gun, but instead find his stash of marijuana, which they  use to get stoned and then pass out in his house. Matt and Clarissa go to a park to talk, where they confide in each other about their conflicting feelings of grief and apathy over Jamie's murder. John and Feck go to the river's edge to drink beer, with Feck bringing along his blow-up doll, Ellie. Feck confesses to murdering his own girlfriend years prior, despite having deeply loved her, whereupon John drunkenly begins to brag about killing Jamie, recounting his strangling of her with a relish that disturbs Feck. Matt and Clarissa have sex in the  park nearby before falling asleep, while Layne drives around town in a panic, compulsively taking pills. At dawn, after John falls asleep on the riverbank, Feck shoots him in the head. He returns to his home, where Tim and Moko accost him and steal his gun. The police find Layne unconscious in his car and bring him in for questioning. At school, reporters interview Maggie and Tony, who seem dispassionate. During history class, Mr. Burkewaite, a teacher Clarissa respects, discusses morality, and asks Clarissa what Jamie meant to her in front of the class, but she cannot respond. Layne  calls Feck's house asking where John is, and Feck tells him he's gone to the river. Before the conversation ends, the police break down Feck's door and arrest him. The teenagers go to the river together, where they spot something floating in the river that resembles a corpse, but turns out to be Feck's doll Ellie. Matt tells Layne he told the police that John murdered Jamie. Layne runs off down the riverbank and comes across John's body. Tim arrives at the scene and holds Feck's gun on Matt, threatening to kill Matt for  hitting him the night before, but Matt dissuades him. The police arrive and escort the teenagers and Tim away as the medical examiners remove John's body. In the hospital, Feck admits to killing John "because there was no hope for him," and confesses to murdering his girlfriend years ago. Matt, Clarissa, Tony, and Maggie attend Jamie's funeral, where they show emotion at seeing her for the last time. Themes. Film scholar Emanuel Levy notes that the film "addresses the alienation and moral vacancy among American kids growing up in a drug-oriented, valueless culture. "River's Edge" has  the disturbing quality of a collective fear—the cherished, eagerly awaited adolescence is presented as confusing and vacuous. Unlike most 1980s teenage sex comedies, this film doesn't glamorize youth, instead depicting it as a bleak, aimless coming of age, a time of boredom, stupor, and waste." However, Levy writes that the film does share in common with its peers the manner in which it presents adult figures, as "irresponsible and indifferent." Production. Conception. While the screenplay is fiction, it draws from the November 3, 1981, murder of Marcy Renee Conrad, who was raped and strangled by Anthony Jacques Broussard  in Milpitas, California. Broussard bragged about the crime, showing the body to at least 13 different people; despite this, the crime went unreported for two days. Screenwriter Neal Jimenez was taking screenwriting courses at the University of California, Los Angeles at the time of Conrad's murder, and said he based the script partially on the event. Jimenez said "that the incident is merely the inspiration for the screenplay." Others have noticed similarities between the film and the 1984 murder of Gary Lauwers by his friend, Ricky Kasso. Hemdale Film Corporation expressed interest in Jimenez's script, and agreed to  distribute the film with Tim Hunter directing. Producer Midge Sanford recalled: "Hemdale were a small company that made some very good movies, like "Salvador" and "Hoosiers". They really responded to the script and said they would finance it with Tim as the director." The film was in pre-production for four months, with a final budget of $1.7 million. Casting. "River's Edge" was the first major film for many of its actors, including Daniel Roebuck and Ione Skye. On casting Keanu Reeves, casting director Carrie Frazier recalled: "He walked in the door, and I went, "Oh my god , this is my guy!" It was just because of the way he held his body—his shoes were untied, and what he was wearing looked like a young person growing into being a man. I was over the moon about him." Ione Skye was cast in the film after a casting director saw a photo of her with her brother, Donovan Leitch, who was an aspiring actor at the time; she had no acting experience, and it was her first film. Auditioning for the role of the brutish Samson, Daniel Roebuck arrived at his audition in full-costume with his  hair slicked back with K-Y Jelly, and two beer cans in his front pockets. The casting director saw Danyi Deats in the waiting room, while she was waiting for her best friend who was auditioning for the same role. For the part of Feck, director Hunter had wanted John Lithgow; the part was also offered to Harry Dean Stanton, who declined, and passed the script on to his friend, Dennis Hopper, who was cast. Sanford recalled Crispin Glover had auditioned "with a wig and an outrageous take on the part. He was so out there that Sarah and I  were a little nervous about what he was doing. But we trusted him and felt like it would work out in the end." Corey Haim was cast in the part of Tim, but had to be replaced by Joshua John Miller after developing pneumonia during the first several days of filming. Filming. Director Hunter had originally wanted to shoot the film in Los Angeles, but instead opted to shoot near Sacramento due to it having natural locations more conducive to the screenplay. The crew arrived to shoot scenes along the American River, but were forced to leave due to a  major flood. Hunter settled on shooting the film in Sunland-Tujunga, Los Angeles, a community in the foothills above Burbank. Filming took place from January to March 1986. Hunter stated: "It was an area where people with tuberculosis could come to sanatoriums for the clean air. By the time we shot "River's Edge", it had become a smog pocket—but it was full of river rock houses that gave it a "land that time forgot" feeling." Release. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 1986. Producer Midge Sanford recalled the screening leaving the audience  divided: "Some executives from a small distribution company wouldn't look at us [after a festival screening]. People either embraced it or were very put off by it. It didn't get picked up right away." The film was ultimately purchased for distribution by Island Pictures, who released the film in the United States on May 8, 1987. Critical reception. "River's Edge" received largely positive reviews from critics. It holds an 88% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 40 reviews with the consensus: "A harrowing tale of aimless youth, "River's Edge" generates considerable tension and urgency thanks  to strong performances from a stellar cast including Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves and Ione Skye." At the time of its release, the film was noted by several critics as being a contemporary-day horror film. Gene Siskel ranked "River's Edge" as the seventh best film of 1987, while Roger Ebert awarded the film three-and-a-half out of four stars, calling it "the best analytical film about a crime since "The Onion Field" and "In Cold Blood"." Michael Wilmington of the "Los Angeles Times" called the film "a contemporary horror story about teen-agers, but it contains no  slasher scenes or serial homicides. Its monsters are all too real." "The New York Times"s Janet Maslin called the film "bitter and disturbing" and deemed the performances "natural and credible." Vincent Canby, also of "The New York Times", named the film "the year's most riveting, most frightening horror film, even if doesn't really belong in the same category with any acknowledged classics of the genre. Metaphysics has nothing to do with "River's Edge," though, like "Dracula", it's a tale of the undead." David Ansen of "Newsweek" called the film "the scariest vision of youth since the  alarming Brazilian movie "Pixote"... "River's Edge" pitches the audience inside this nightmare world of affectless middle-class kids and lets us watch them wallow their way through moral dilemmas they can only half articulate." John Simon of the National Review called River's Edge "splendid". In a 2015 retrospective, "Salon" deemed "River's Edge" "the darkest teen film of all time." Film historian Kim Newman named the film "the definitive killer kid movie... Moral without moralizing, blackly comic without tastelessness, [and] acutely tuned in to the way dead-end teens talk." Soundtrack. The film's soundtrack, released in 1987  by Enigma Records, features various thrash metal, reggae, and punk tracks. Home media. "River's Edge" was released on DVD January 23, 2001 by MGM Home Entertainment under their "Avant-Garde Cinema" series. A Blu-ray was released by Kino Lorber on January 13, 2015.