Bully (2001)

I watched "Bully" originally on FilmFour and thought, "What a great film! How did I not hear anything about this when it was released in 2001?" It seems it is a kind of follow up to the controversial "Kids" (by the same director) but it is a 100 percent better film technically.
IMDb says: "Based on a true story. Naive teenagers plot to murder one of their own, who has been too much of a bully to them."

I enjoyed this almost as much as "Scum". There's just something about movies that show really messed up kids that sums up exactly what we all think and, dare I say it, fear about them. Yes some kids today are really quite frightening.

Now this lot were a mixture of pure evil and drugged-up stupidness - which of course makes for compulsive viewing. They got nude a lot too so it was even better! And, before you think I am some kind of sicko, most of the actors are older than the parts they played.

All the actors did a fantastic job though. It was a nice surprise to see that Rachel Miner (with the nice eyebrows) from "Cult" can actually act. One bit of circling camerawork made me feel a bit seasick, but apart from that it all looks good too.

It's all set in Florida and filmed in the actual locations that the real crime was committed. I think there has been a bit of artistic licence used with the characterisation as, by all accounts, the kids involved were all middle class from good homes rather than the "white trash" they are shown to be here. I never heard about this murder when it happened though so it all seems very realistic and plausible to me.

If you haven't seen this yet, I really think you should. If you couple it with "Mysterious Skin" for a double bill, you'll be pretty horrified at what the MySpace generation really get up to. I'm not sure if I would count this as a horror film, but it's certainly very disturbing.