She Cried No
| She Cried No | |
|---|---|
 Print advertisement | |
| Written by | Kathleen Rowell |
| Directed by | Bethany Rooney |
| Starring | Candace Cameron Bure Mark-Paul Gosselaar |
| Theme music composer | Lee Holdridge |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Original language | English language |
| Production | |
| Producers | Megan Callaway Ira Marvin |
| Cinematography | Isidore Mankofsky |
| Editor | Janet Bartels-Vandagriff |
| Running time | 98 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | September 23, 1996 |
She Cried No (also known as Freshman Fall) is a 1996 American television drama film directed by Bethany Rooney, which starred Candace Cameron Bure and Mark-Paul Gosselaar, both former pre-teen idols.
Plot
She Cried No tells the story of Melissa, a college freshman anxious to fit in with the popular crowd. After arriving, she's invited to a party by a guy, Scott, with her roommates Jordan and Kellie and attracts the attention of Scott, the member of the college's most popular fraternity (to which her brother, Michael, also belongs) who has a history of date raping fellow female students. She and Jordan attend a party at Scott's frat; there, she becomes the latest victim of Scott, who drugs her. Before he takes her upstairs to a room to rape her, she notices a passed out Jordan being taken to a room by a guy as well. Upstairs, Scott turns on loud music, and then rapes her. Melissa manages to escape his room afterwards and flees from the frat house in tears.
The next day, an upset Melissa returns to college and bumps into Scott several times, who pretends as if nothing has happened. Melissa becomes depressed, ignoring her school work, estranging from her friends, not eating and not sleeping. Jordan takes it worse and drops out of college immediately. One night, while having dinner with Michael and his girlfriend Holly, Scott shows up. Melissa freaks out, runs away and causes a car accident. She is taken into the hospital, but is not severely injured. She admits to a doctor about what happened, and she realizes she had been raped. She later admits this to her mother Denise, who wants to press charges. Her father Edward and Michael discourage her from doing this, explaining it could ruin her future.
Prosecuting Scott proves to be difficult, because she does not have any evidence. She receives no support from her friends and fellow students either, who think she led him on and was asking for it. When Scott starts to threaten her and students start bullying her, she considers pulling back from prosecuting. However, fed up with being scared, she decides not to give up, but Scott manipulates the jury and is found not guilty. Devastated by the results, Melissa attempts to move on with her life, wanting to put the rape behind her. Michael, however, is determined to help her out and finds photos taken the night of the party (as she is fleeing from the room) proving Melissa was right all along. He gets into a fight with Scott for raping his sister and announces he is leaving the fraternity.
Meanwhile, Melissa starts receiving support from other students. Courtney, a promiscuous girl, admits to her that she was raped by Scott as well but did not have the courage to say something. Melissa starts to collect evidence against him and is successful in gaining a lot of video footage that was taken the night of the party and various other times in the frat house that show Scott's true nature. She gives him one chance to come clean, and when he does not take it, she publicizes the footage airing it on TV, showing what kind of person he truly is. Afterwards, all the students turn their back against Scott, and Jordan finally shares her rape story with Melissa.
As the film ends, Scott's fraternity house is being shut down, apparently, the fraternity's charter having been revoked.
Cast
- Candace Cameron Bure as Melissa Connell
- Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Scott Baker
- Lawrence Pressman as Edward Connell
- Bess Armstrong as Denise Connell
- Jenna von Oÿ as Jordan McCann
- Brandon Douglas as Michael Connell
- Nikki Cox as Kellie Salter
- Ray Baker as Mark Baker
- Hillary Danner as Holly Essex
- Kristoffer Ryan Winters as Leland
- Jennifer Greenhut as Courtney
External links
- She Cried No at IMDb