Slasher movies which have arrived in the post-Scream era seem to be somewhat confused as to what their role in life is. Do they continue in the same vein of parodying the genre as the Scream trilogy did so well, or do they return to roots and make a serious movie, which attempts to scare the hell out of us again? Decisions, decisions...and baring in mind the success of Scream, how many people can even look at another slasher movie now without seeing it as faintly ridiculous? Some have argued that Scream had indeed killed off a genre, which had become overdone and overworked. Well, Cherry Falls tries to revive it once more by playing on the serious side of the slasher flick, although sometimes you sit there giggling at unintentionally humourous sections. Its a brave attempt though...

Cherry Falls is the infeasible name of a small American town in Virginia. All is fine until a psycho-killer goes on the rampage murdering virgins from the local high school, even going so far as to carve the word "virgin" itself into their flesh. Naturally(!?), in order to save themselves the teenagers throw a cherry-popping ball, an orgy so that they can all lose their virginity and be safe from the killer. The rest of the plot is incidental, because we all know exactly what happens in slasher pics and this is no different. Dark corridors, shadows, flashing blades and blood...nothing new.

Cherry Falls suffers from an incredibly bland and horribly predictable script. The identity of the killer is painfully obvious very early on despite attempts to hide them behind shadows and odd camera angles. Couple this with a truly abysmal B-movie cast of pretty-faced cannon fodder and its difficult to see how anyone could have expected this to be anything more than a flop. Slasher movies need a strong female lead ala. Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween for them to succeed. Brittany Murphy in Cherry Falls is anything but a strong female lead, in fact she walks around looking dazed and confused for most of the movie. This is not a character we can identify with or want to see win over the killer, but rather one who is at best tiresome and at worst one we would rather dead in favour of one of the more interesting characters. If there were any.

Maybe the classification boards did clip the wings of this particular bird, but grounding an eagle shouldn't create a turkey. There is no gore, and it feels as if the gore sequences have been replaced with padding in the form of mindless dialogue. There is also very little nudity which is another almost key feature of a slasher movie, which is amazing when you consider that the main premise behind this movie is to have sex and lose your virginity. The worse thing about this movie is the disappointment that it brings with it. Given George Wright's movie credentials and pre-release boasting, you expected a hell of a lot more than you actually got in the end. You would also have expected an uncut version to have appeared on video but no such luck. As it stands then, what you actually get is a rather weak teen horror movie with a single good idea stretched too far and supported by an abysmal script and a cast that is nothing more than cannon fodder, or a pretty face, but usually both. If you are a teenager and mummy refuses to let you watch the real slasher movies then Cherry Falls is for you, but it'll probably bore you enough to put you off the rest of the genre. If not, then only watch if you are desperate for entertainment.