CHERRY FALLS Brittany Murphy, Jay Mohr (2001, USA, 92 mins., R) If David Lynch made a slasher movie, it would probably resemble this devilishly deadpan horror comedy whose title only hints at the cleverness within. When a killer starts slaughtering carnally challenged students at a (where else?) Virginia high school, the innocents decide to take matters into their own hands -- well, not exactly their hands -- by organizing a mass deflowering. Scripter Ken Selden and Romper Stomper director Geoffrey Wright deftly pepper this smart upending of the have-sex-and-die convention with eminently quotable dialogue and a palpable sense of the anxiety facing sexually inactive teens and their parents. Murphy, best known as Clueless' tomboy, heads an able low-watt cast that perfectly recalls the generic quality of '80s stalker flicks. It's a shame the movie didn't warrant a U.S. theatrical run (though it did screen overseas); it might just be the wittiest, most subversive teen thriller since Heathers. A-
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