Directed by Tim Hunter, US, 1986, 99 minutes
A high school sociopath kills his girlfriend and shows off her dead body to their friends. However, the friends' unperturbed reaction is almost as ambiguous and perplexing as the crime itself. Although it is a work of fiction, Tim Hunter's River's Edge was inspired by the real-life murder of Marcy Conrad, who was killed by her boyfriend Anthony Jacques Broussard in Milpitas, California in 1981.
Roger Ebert called River's Edge the best analytical film about a crime since In Cold Blood. Its brilliant cast -- highlighted by Crispin Glover as peer leader Layne, Ione Skye as Glover's girlfriend, Dennis Hopper playing to type as zany psychopath Feck, Joshua John Miller as amoral pre-pubescent Tim, and Keanu Reeves as Tim's older brother and the film's moral conscience -- combined with a a script full of memorable lines (like Dennis Hopper's "Check's in the mail!"), guaranteed its status as a timeless cult classic.
