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 Leitch in her film debut, 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.
Plot
In Northern California, as pre-teen Tim throws his sister's doll into a river, he sees a teenager, John, smoking on the other side, next to the naked corpse of his girlfriend Jamie. Shortly after, Tim is playing an arcade game at a convenience store where he sees John being refused the sale of beer. While John is arguing with the cashier, Tim steals two cans of beer. John leaves the store and when he goes to start his car he notices Tim has placed the beer cans on his front seat. Tim accompanies John on a trip to purchase marijuana. Tim returns home, where his older brother Matt and mother are searching for the doll. Matt's friend Layne arrives, and the two drive to meet Feck, a disturbed ex-biker and drug dealer, for marijuana. On the way, Layne recounts a party from the night before, where John and Jamie were arguing.
At school, Layne and Matt smoke with their friends Clarissa, Maggie, and Tony. Matt talks about wanting to run away to Portland, which Clarissa dismisses. John arrives and says he killed Jamie. Clarissa and Maggie leave for class, thinking he's joking. John brings Layne and Matt to see Jamie's body; Matt is disturbed, while Layne is focused on covering up the crime.
The group go see Jamie's body, with Layne's older brother Mike driving them there in his truck. Later, Clarissa calls Matt, but he is reluctant to talk to her. Meanwhile, Layne returns to the scene and pushes Jamie's body into the river. After noticing police cars near John's house, they drive to Feck's house, where John stays to hide out. Matt directs the police to the river, where they find Jamie's body. The police interrogate him, threatening to charge him as an accessory after the fact. Matt returns home and argues with his mother and her boyfriend. When he sees that Tim has defaced the grave marker for her lost doll that their sister made, Matt hits Tim in the face. Tim goes to his friend Moko's house and they go to Feck's to obtain a gun.
In the middle of the night, Layne, Clarissa and Matt drive to Tony's house, but Tony's father chases them off with a shotgun. Layne argues with Clarissa and kicks her out of his car. Matt gets out and walks with her. They stop at a convenience store and run into John and Feck. Tim and Moko break into Feck's house looking for a gun, but instead find his marijuana, which they use to get stoned and pass out. Matt and Clarissa talk in the park, where they discuss their conflicting feelings of grief and apathy over Jamie's murder. John and Feck go to the river's edge to drink, with Feck bringing along his blow-up doll, Ellie. Feck confesses to murdering his own girlfriend years earlier, despite having deeply loved her. John drunkenly brags about killing Jamie, recounting his strangling of her with a relish that disturbs Feck. Matt and Clarissa have sex in the park nearby, then fall asleep. Layne drives around town in a panic, compulsively taking pills.