Content Warning: The article below discusses sexual assault.

The Big Picture

• Cherry Falls reinvents the slasher genre by cleverly playing with horror tropes and exploring important social commentary.
• The film tackles sensitive topics while maintaining a balance of humor and self-awareness, making it stand out from other slashers.
• Through engaging in dark social commentary, Cherry Falls transcends typical horror conventions and provides essential dialogue on power and sexual violence.

The turn of the century brought with it a new wave of self-aware slashers. The sub-genre that was associated with recognizable antagonists picking off a group of archetypal teenagers was reinvented. Spearheaded by movies such as Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer and Urban Legend, slashers became more similar to murder mysteries with a likable group of characters hunted down by a killer only for the villain to be revealed as one of them. The genre became more meta and started to make fun of its common tropes and themes.

The vast number of releases meant over time some hidden gems have fallen through the cracks, Cherry Falls is one of the major victims of this. Following a small town who are placed under threat by a killer who attacks virgins, the movie combines humor with a memorable antagonist and touches on important social commentary. The characters are well-established and the relationships between them are believable, with the teenagers' reactions echoing those of real teens. Cherry Falls doesn't take itself too seriously, but in its moments covering sensitive topics, it takes a lot of care in its portrayal. It is this balance that makes Cherry Falls stand out in an over-saturated era of horror.

What Is 'Cherry Falls' About?

Cherry Falls is a slasher that sees a town under threat from a mysterious killer with an unusual motivation. It opens with two teenagers hooking up in a car, in the first nod to a well-known horror trope. The expectation is that the pair will meet their demise in the movie's cold open due to their promiscuity, but the couple's reservations mean they end up stopping. However, in an inversion of presumption, the pair are brutally killed by an enigmatic figure. The killer's appearance is not clean or easy to determine, with much of their face obscured by long black hair and their figure hidden by a ragged black dress. However, there is no denial that the killer is gruesome in their methods and the cold open sets up Cherry Falls as a bloody, relentless slasher.

The pace is kept up for the first half of the movie, with a third victim hung from a ceiling ornament for her parents to find when they return home. The extremity present in the stylization of the kills immediately indicates that the killer has deeper intentions than just obtaining a high body count, they want their work to be seen and have a visceral response from those who see it. Although a lot of the action is off-screen, there is enough gore to satiate the expectations going into a slasher and the killer's unique presence and mannerisms make Cherry Falls successful in the sub-genre.

'Cherry Falls' Inverts One of Horror's Most Popular Tropes

Cherry Falls is not only the name of the town where the movie takes place, but it also acts as clever wordplay for its major theme. The town's police force soon realize that the killer is targeting virgins, and when the information spreads, the teen residents of Cherry Falls decide to do as the town's name suggests, hosting a "pop your cherry" party in a bid to lose their virginities and avoid being the killer's next victim. It is a clever inversion of the sex signals death trope that was overused throughout the rise of slasher movies. This allows the movie's portrayal of sex to feel less voyeuristic and more realistic. In Cherry Falls, sex is not reserved for the conventionally attractive and is not shot with the audience in mind. Instead, almost every teenager in the town is at the party and the interactions are awkward yet charming, feeling very grounded and relatable. Yet, it doesn't forget the anxieties of adolescence. Even in extreme situations, people are still rejected and a hierarchy of who is expected to be with who is still present.

The movie acknowledges the taboo and discomfort surrounding its themes, particularly when the Sheriff brings all the town's parents into the school hall to tell them the killer is targeting virgins. Building up to the scene, the movie recognizes that the situation is bizarre but also slightly cringeworthy. In this way, Cherry Falls explores self-awareness differently, taking an element of horror that is so prevalent but so rarely discussed and utilizing it as a focal point for the plot. This is pushed further during the movie's climax. The killer chases the final girl, Jody Marken (Brittany Murphy) and her boyfriend Kenny to the house where the big party is happening, and then completely forgets his MO – brutally and spontaneously stabbing anyone in front of them. The reveal that the killer's motivations never correlated to sexual activity is an even more important examination of the relationship between sex and horror. The truth is, sexual history is often irrelevant to the killer and the genre should move on from linking the two. Since the release of Cherry Falls, the genre has relied less on that uncomfortable trope.

'Cherry Falls' Engages in Important Social Commentary

The killer's motivations might not relate to virginity, but the truth behind his reasoning is darker than the light-heated tone the movie adopts for most of its runtime. It takes Cherry Falls beyond a self-aware slasher and engages it in serious social commentary. Whilst investigating the woman believed to be behind the deaths, Lora Lee Sherman, Jody begins learning things about her dad's past. Her dad, Brent (Michael Biehn), is the town sheriff and an important figurehead in the inquiries, but also in a high-regarded position of authority in the town. During the scenes at the Marken household, he is shown as a caring, astute father teaching Jody self-defense but also making sure she doesn't feel pressured by the unfolding events. The conversation between the pair when Brent asks Jody how far she has gone with her boyfriend is done with compassion and showcases that their relationship is built on respect and love. As parents in horror go, Sheriff Marken is portrayed so positively. It makes the confrontation with the killer, and their revelations, so much more difficult to process.

It comes to light that the killer is not Lora Lee Sherman but her now adult son, who is a child of rape. In an unsubtle nod to Psycho, he dresses up as his mother when he kills his victims. As the truth unravels, it is revealed that Lora Lee was approached by four drunk seniors when her car broke down, one of whom was Brent. At the time, Brent was incapacitated from alcohol, but his friends proceeded to take Lora Lee into the woods and sexually abuse her. Brent tells his daughter that he was forced upon Lora Lee by his friends. The details aren't important to Jody and her reaction is harrowing. Brittany Murphy fully expresses the weight of the information and the devastation of learning about her dad's past, showing how this role model in her life comes crumbling down. In these scenes, Cherry Falls transcends the slasher sub-genre and offers essential dialogue around power and sexual violence. Its humor is well-placed and rightly omitted in these moments of serious social commentary. Through this, it places itself as one of the most successful and overlooked '90s slashers.

Cherry Falls is currently available to stream on Apple TV+ in the U.S.

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