River's Edge (1986)

Directed by

Tim Hunter

Genre

drama film, crime film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 39m

Rated

R

Rating

6.5 of 10 from 318 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A group of teenagers in a small town discover that one of their friends has murdered his girlfriend. They struggle with what to do as they confront the reality of the crime and their own moral apathy.

grittybleakunsettlingtenseatmosphericdisturbingslow-burnsomber

What happens

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 in her film debut (her sole credit as 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 and the subsequent disposal of her body. Jimenez partially based the 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 has 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. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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