With a budget of $14 million, Cherry Falls has the distinction of being the most expensive made-for-TV movie in cinematic history, though the slasher horror/comedy was never meant to be a direct-to-cable release. Unfortunately, a national tragedy and complaints about the film's concept and content before it was released ruined what might have been a satiric masterpiece.
While often lumped in with the other comedic horror movies that flourished in the late 1990s following the release of Wes Craven's Scream in 1996, Cherry Falls owed more to the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise than anything else. The titular town finds itself in dire straits when a mysterious woman begins brutally killing the local teenagers, risking the exposure of a dark secret that the town elders had hoped to keep hidden. However, Cherry Falls introduces a novel twist when the town sheriff (Michael Biehn) discovers the only apparent common link between the victims is they were virgins. Soon the sheriff finds himself fighting for his life and his job, the local teens decide to throw an orgy to eliminate themselves as targets, and his daughter (Brittany Murphy) tries to discover the killer's identity and what secret the parents of the town are hiding.
With a smart script that twisted the usual horror movie clichés regarding how it's always the teenagers engaging in pre-martial sex who die in slasher horror movies and some graphic deaths orchestrated by Romper Stomper director Geoffrey Wright, Cherry Falls had the potential to be a smash hit. The film had a fantastic ensemble, with Biehn and Murphy delivering stand-out performances as they played twisted takes on their usual stock characters — the overwhelmed cop and innocent good girl. Add in a soundtrack with music by Garbage and Good Charlotte and there was good reason to think that Cherry Falls might have been a summer sleeper hit or even a respectable performer around Halloween that could be used to build a franchise. However, the MPAA had other plans and set off a chain of events that ultimately forced Cherry Falls to pivot into a different release model.
Sadly, Cherry Falls never got a theatrical release in the United States. Geoffrey Wright sought an R-rating for his original edit of the film, and had it rejected five times by the MPAA, who refused to give the movie anything lower than an NC-17, blocking it from release in most national theater chains in the United States. By the time Wright had put together an R-rated cut of the film, the ownership of Cherry Falls had been transferred from Universal Pictures' October Films production firm to USA Films, a new production company formed from the merger of October Films and Gramercy Pictures. Cherry Falls was slated to be USA Films' first major theatrical release until a real world killing changed their plans.
The Columbine High School Massacre of 1999 led to extended hearings in the United State Senate regarding violence in media and the possibility that violent movies, music, and video games inspired teenagers to imitate acts of violence. Despite not having been released at the time, Cherry Falls was singled out by the Senate as the sort of film that was corrupting the youth of America. Other films lumped into this media backlash included the coming-of-age werewolf story, Ginger Snaps. Rather than risk further bad publicity after Wright's repeated battles with the MPAA, USA Films elected to reedit the film yet again to make it suitable for broadcast cable and sold it to the USA Network.
The cut footage from the original edit of Cherry Falls has yet to be found, though Wright has said he'd be more than willing to restore the film to its original state, if given the chance. Considering the television-safe edit of the movie that was released, there is ample evidence that Cherry Falls might have earned a place in horror history as something other than the most accidentally expensive TV movie of all time. The movie did decently when released in European theaters, and earned Wright the Best Director award at the Sitges-Catalonian International Film Festival. The 2016 Blu-Ray release of Cherry Falls is well-worth tracking down if one is a fan of good satire or good horror, as this movie qualifies as both.