Excellent, a Must See

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

River's Edge is one of the best Teen films ever made and also one of the darkest Teen films ever made. Filled with terrific direction,great performances,a wonderful screenplay and a dark,unforgettable soundtrack,River's Edge is an Underrated classic that you won't forget.Set in California and Based on the true story of the 1981 murder of Marcy Renee Conrad who was murdered by boyfriend Jacques Broussard,River's Edge tells the story of teenager Samson 'John' Tollet(Daniek Roebeck)who murders his girlfriend Jamie(Danyl Deats). When John goes to school and tells his friends he killed his girlfriend,his friends don't believe John until he shows them the dead body. Realizing the danger,John's friend Layne(Crispin Glover)wants to protect him and leaves John under the watch of Local drug dealer Feck(Dennis Hopper)while John's other friends Matt(Keanu Reeves)and Clarissa(Ione Skye Leitch)are conflicted:turn John in or be conflicted about it.Released in 1986/87,River's Edge was a great film because it was different from other Teen films at the time because it was not a John Hughes film or a Brat Pack film,but a dark Teen film that stands right next to Heathers as the darkest,Nihilistic Teen film of the 1980s that paved the way for films like Alpha Dog,Bully and Mean Creek. River's Edge is a powerful film that right from the start gives viewers a world that is bleak and filled with sadness and hopelessness and where you feel like the Teen characters have no future and will have nothing going for them and the only things that the teens can do is get stoned or drunk and have no emotion where the characters home life and town are broken and very downbeat. The teens in this film are not interested in going to the prom or getting a date but are focused and interested in doing nothing with their lives. What is shocking and disturbing about River's Edge isn't the murder itself(which is horrible)but how the characters react and feel about the murder. When the murder happens each character has a different feeling about it. Layne wants to protect John at any and all costs despite John murdering Jamie,John doesn't care about himself or the murder,Matt and Clarissa are conflicted and Feck cannot understand why John is so uncaring. Throughout the film there is a dark feeling of apathy and carelessness because despite Jamie being murdered the film's main characters act like the murder never happened or Jamie never existed or that the kids are too dazed and confused to care. You can say that RE is a Horror film in some ways not just because of the murder and dread surrounding the film but a Horror film about feelings and human emotions in society and how we as people deal with the harshness and darkness of most human beings. This film is a dark and grim study of human nature and apathy and how we as humans deal with things in life and you can say is true to the term "disaffected youth" because the teens don't know how to feel or react to the situation. What I also love about the film is the movie's offbeat and dark Humor which is thanks to the characters Lanye and Feck with Lanye trying to protect John at all costs and saying funny dialog and Feck whether it's scenes when he's dealing drugs to the kids and saying funny dialog,watching John or having conversations with his plastic sex doll Ellie. While the film is a drama River's Edge has a quirky sense of Humor. The screenplay by Neal Jimenez is excellent with Jimenez giving the film and the main characters well-written dialog as well as great depth and personality. Jimenez says the characters were based on friends that he knew and I really believe him because the characters feel real and truthful and the dialog doesn't feel forced but natural and honest. The ending of the film is excellent because of it's ambiguous nature and how it makes viewers asks questions rather than easily answering them for us and it's one of the things that makes River's edge a great film.The whole cast does great in their roles. Crispin Glover is brilliant,funny and over the top as Layne,the one who wants to protect John. Keanu Reeves is wonderful as Matt,with Reeves bringing depth to the role. Ione Skye Leitch is fantastic as Clarissa,Matt's love interest. Daniel Roebuck is great and bone-chilling as John,the killer of the film. Dennis Hopper is amazing,funny and over the top as Feck,a local drug dealer,with Hopper making Feck the most sympathetic character in the film. Joshua Miller is disturbing and memorable as Tim,Matt's little brother. Tom Bowler(Bennett),Jim Metzler(Mr. Burkewaite),Leo Rossi(Jim),Roxanna Zal(Maggie),Josh Richman(Tony),Phillip Brock(Mike),Constance Forslund(Madeleine),Taylor Negron(Checker) and Tammy Smith(Kim)give good performances as well.The direction by Tim Hunter is excellent,with Hunter bringing a dark,eerie,somber and gritty tone to the film and uses great camera angles and shots. Great direction by Hunter.The score by Jurgen Kniper is masterful,dark,big and powerful and definitely fits in with the tone of the film. A great score by Kniper. The film also great songs on the soundtrack from Slayer(Die By The Sword,Evil Has No Boundaries,Tormentor,Captor Of Sin),Fates Warning(Kyrie Eleison),Hallows Eve(Lethal Tendencies),Agent Orange(Fire In The Rain),The Vipers(Let Me Know),Burning Spear(Happy Day)and Hank Ballard(I'm Gonna Miss you and Let's Go,Let's Go,Let's Go). Great soundtrack.In final word,if you love Teen Films,True life films,Drama films or films in general,I highly suggest you see River's Edge,a powerful,underrated classic that will stay in your mind after you watch it. Highly Recommended. 10/10.

A lot of people don't realize that this is based on a true story. I knew and went to jr high and high school with the people involved. This actually happened during our first year of high school. The characters were exaggerated a bit. I remember the kids coming back to school and talking about seeing a dead body and poking it with a stick. The girl who was killed was actually a very quiet and sweet girl who happened to befriend the wrong person. A lot of people were afraid of him and thought he was weird and avoided him. He wanted to be more than friends, she wasn't interested so he killed her (so the story goes). Google Marcy Conrad to get the real story. For me knowing what really happened and seeing this movie don't jive but overall it was a decent movie.

Remember of "Stand by Me" and the whole thing of the four kids journey trying to find a dead body and on the way evaluating their lives up to that point? Now, picture this scenario: what if one of the kids was involved in a murder and keep bragging to everybody about his act showing a corpse as a way to prove that he killed someone? "River's Edge" pretty much covers such topic except that instead of kids we have a bunch of teenagers (and some kids too) getting involved in a complicated situation. One of them killed a girl and for whatever reasons he decided to share this with his friends who don't know how to respond to such problem. A part of the group who saw the body wants to protect their killer friend (Daniel Roebuck) like his buddy Layne (Crispin Glover), while others more doubtful of the whole thing like Matt (Keanu Reeves) and Clarissa (Ione Skye) want to do the right thing and let this being handled by the cops. It's only the beginning of a snowball effect that will become an avalanche sooner or later when other people get stuck with them in this case such a dangerous lunatic (Dennis Hooper), Matt's younger brother and plenty of others. Dramatic and thrilling enough to make you care about it "River's Edge" is a good film while dealing about the teen angst and how they try to cope with adulthood and its problems (here, throughout this crime they'll learn the value of friendship and also some moralistic lessons). The greatest thing covered here was the lack of communication between the teens in certain moments, when they couldn't express what they were feeling about everything happening to them, that was incredibly real, this anxiety of wanting to say and show something but not being able to do it. Other good point that must be raised is their immaturity, also very credible. They're dumb characters but not dumb enough to let you hating them like some flicks tend to do; you'll understand their idiotic moves and actions as being completely natural to them who are more interested in getting stoned and causing trouble then realizing the consequences for their acts. Sadly, this could be an great movie if wasn't for the creative flights of imagination from its writer and director who put unnecessary and unrealistic things in a story that sounds so real, so credible. Examples: the kids reaction when they see the body for the first time. I mean, do people wouldn't freak out a bit in seeing a friend that was killed by another friend?; the teacher's lousy reaction asking his students how they felt about the girl's murder, that was over-the-top and fake; the whole segment involving Keanu's little brother wanting to get revenge on him because he was beaten by him was very unbelievable, however it's interestingly presented, it's a good thing.What could make this movie better than it is would be erase Matt and Clarissa's date night when the whole disaster wasn't solved, that was distractive (and Keanu's face while getting laid. What was that?). Instead of these expendable tender moments the film should be longer and present more about the character's past, develop them in order so we could know how they were as friends, this sense of company, if they were so close to each other or if their friendship was always moved by some interest. The acting in this film is quite difficult to be analyzed, the result will vary depending of the viewer. I enjoyed the at times over-the-top performance of Crispin Glover, other people say he ruined the film. He's very good in playing this twisted junkie who wants to help his friend, trying to be the lead of the gang. Keanu is quite bad in this, emotionless. Having his role being played by Johnny Depp, even at that time when he wasn't all that famous, and we would have a different and good performance. The rest of the cast goes in between's, some good, some bad.It's well made and it makes some outstanding and relevant social commentaries on youth, family, and what growing up really means. Check it out some time. 8/10

In many ways, this movie defined what I was not at the time – suburban, stoned, a metalhead – and it was an opportunity for me to feel moral superiority over "normal" American teenagers. But, I think that I was drawn in on a similar level to the movies I identified with more closely from the punk world ("Repo Man," "Sid & Nancy," "Suburbia"), which were themselves fairly critical adult statements about youthful apathy. This movie offers a kind of uncertain hope in the form of Keanu Reeves' character (and he's never been better), but in the end we begin to wonder if he did the right thing for the right reasons, or sort of blundered into it the way Crispin Glover blunders into a fanatical dedication to being wrong. It does remain thoughtful, if scary, and effective on other levels as well, including humor, oddly enough.