Cry Rape (1999) starring Matthew Settle, Cassidy Rae, Barry Flatman, Wanda Cannon, Jeff Topping, Ron White, Joel Keller, Allan Royal directed by Ted Kotcheff Movie Review

Cry Rape (1999)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Cassidy Rae in Cry Rape (1999)

After there's Fear

Having gone to watch a high school basketball game Carrie Roberts (Cassidy Rae) heads to a party where popular high school wrestler Alex Kelly (Matthew Settle) who is on probation following a drug problem offers to drive her home. But Alex takes her past her house to a quiet spot where he proceeds to rape her. Traumatised by what happened and put off reporting her by threats that he will come back Carrie eventually comes forward when another girl accuses him of rape. But before Alex is brought to trial he goes on the run, aided by his families money and making a new life for himself in Sweden leaving Carrie to deal with the trauma of not knowing where he is. That is until Interpol track him down and he is brought back to America to face trial.

I always find reviewing movies about true stories especially those which deal with the subject of rape quite difficult because it is about real people and what they went through. But not only do true story movies tend to be one sided they often alter the facts to make that one sided story work better as a drama. That brings me to "Cry Rape" the true story of Alex Kelly who whilst still at High School is accused of rape and then goes on the run avoiding capture for several years. But this is a story which whilst detailing Alex's life on the run, and other aspects of the true story focuses more on the story of one of his victims in the movie called Carrie Roberts.

Matthew Settle in Cry Rape (1999)

Now I won't profess to know the ins and outs of the true story but have watched more than enough TV movies to know that "Cry Rape" will have changed some details to work. You have to accept that and you also have to accept than rather than delving into whether or not Alex did it, as he continued to profess his innocence you have to take this as the story of a rape victim whose life is left hanging because of the accused going on the run. And as such it does have an interesting angle as we see how Carrie's life is left in disarray never knowing if one day Alex will just appear.

Of course we also get presented with the immediate trauma of rape, the attack itself, the shame and self blame afterwards as you want no one to know what happened as well as some graphic descriptions as to what Alex did to Carrie. But having watched a few movies which deal with the subject of rape I will say that "Cry Rape" whilst packing some impact is not as hard hitting as some of these TV movies.

What this all boils down to is that in the end "Cry Rape" whilst an interesting look at a true story sadly ends up a typical TV movie which expectedly is one sided but also a little generic in its dealing with the subject of rape.


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