river together. Matt admits to Layne he told the police that John murdered Jamie. Layne runs off and finds John's body. Tim arrives and points Feck's gun at Matt, threatening to kill Matt for hitting him the night before, but Matt dissuades him. The police arrive and escort the teenagers and Tim away. In the hospital, Feck admits to killing John "because there was no hope for him," and confesses to murdering his girlfriend. Matt, Clarissa, Tony, and Maggie attend Jamie's funeral, where they show emotion at seeing her for the last time. Cast Themes Film scholar Emanuel Levy writes that the film "addresses the alienation and moral vacancy among American kids growing up in a drug-oriented, valueless culture. River's Edge has the disturbing quality of a collective fear—the cherished, eagerly awaited adolescence is presented as confusing and vacuous. Unlike most 1980s teenage sex comedies, this film doesn't glamorize youth, instead depicting it as a bleak, aimless coming of age, a time of boredom, stupor, and waste." But Levy writes that the film does share with its peers the manner in which it presents adult figures as "irresponsible and indifferent." Production Conception While the screenplay is fiction, it draws from the November 3, 1981, murder of Marcy Renee Conrad, who was raped and strangled by Anthony Jacques Broussard in Milpitas, California. Broussard bragged about the crime, showing the body to at least 13 different people; despite this, the crime went unreported for two days. Screenwriter Neal Jimenez was taking screenwriting courses at the University of California, Los Angeles at the time of Conrad's murder, and said he based the script partially on the event. He said, "the incident is merely the inspiration for the screenplay." Others have noticed similarities between the film and the 1984 murder of Gary Lauwers by his friend Ricky Kasso. Hemdale Film Corporation expressed interest in Jimenez's script, and agreed to distribute the film with Tim Hunter directing. Producer Midge Sanford recalled: "Hemdale were a small company that made some very good movies, like Salvador and Hoosiers. They really responded to the script and said they would finance it with Tim as the director." The film was in pre-production for four months, with a final budget of $1.7 million. Casting River's Edge was the first major film for many of its actors, including Roebuck and Skye. Of casting Reeves, casting director Carrie Frazier recalled: "He walked