Plot
A high school guidance counselor is framed for raping two of his students...or is he?

Release Year: 1998

Rating: 6.6/10 (51,731 voted)

Critic's Score: 52/100

Director: John McNaughton

Stars: Kevin Bacon, Matt Dillon, Neve Campbell

Storyline
In south Florida, a high school counselor is accused of rape by a manipulative rich girl and her trailer trash classmate. The cop on the case begins to suspect a conspiracy and dives into an elaborate and devious web of greed and betrayal to find the truth.

Cast:
Kevin Bacon - Ray Duquette
Matt Dillon - Sam Lombardo
Neve Campbell - Suzie Toller
Theresa Russell - Sandra Van Ryan
Denise Richards - Kelly Van Ryan
Daphne Rubin-Vega - Gloria Perez
Robert Wagner - Tom Baxter
Bill Murray - Ken Bowden
Carrie Snodgress - Ruby
Jeff Perry - Bryce Hunter
Cory Pendergast - Jimmy Leach
Marc Macaulay - Walter
Toi Svane Stepp - Nicole (as Toi Svane)
Dennis Neal - Art Maddox
Diane Adams - School Secretary

Taglines: Be wild. Be wicked. Beware.

Release Date: 20 March 1998

Filming Locations: Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park - 1200 S. Crandon Boulevard, Key Biscayne, Florida, USA

Box Office Details

Budget: $20,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $9,622,444 (USA) (22 March 1998) (2177 Screens)

Gross: $29,753,944 (USA) (28 June 1998)

Runtime: 108 min  | USA: 115 min (unrated version)

Trivia:
The bar where Matt Dillon's character meets Kevin Bacon's character is called "Smiling Jack's Fishing Club". In the movie A Few Good Men, Cruise's character addresses Bacon's character as "Smiling Jack Ross."

Goofs:
Continuity: Sam writes the words "Sex Crimes" on the chalkboard, but the next shot has it written in smaller letters. The number of underlines also changes. Actually there are four different layouts of this text between cuts.

Quotes:
[first lines]
Kelly Van Ryan: Fuck off!

A Little Something for Everyone.

Rating:

Wow. "Wild Things" is one of those trash masterpieces that is just so clever, so hot and so fun that it becomes one of the most interesting and under-rated films of the 1990s. The rich Denise Richards and the very poor Neve Campbell each accuse high school teacher Matt Dillon of rape, but there is something that is not quite right. Enter detectives Kevin Bacon and Daphne Rubin-Vega. They both doubt that the case is as simple as it seems. Boy are they right. The investigation leads to court where it is made clear by Dillon's attorney (Bill Murray) that the case lacks any real evidence to convict Dillon to prosecutor Robert Wagner's despair. The whole thing was a fabrication to get to Richards' mother's riches (Theresa Russell). But of course this is just the start and there will be double-, triple- and even quadruple-crossing and it is skewered who are good and who are evil or is anyone good? A brilliant screenplay by Stephen Peters and Alfred Hitchcock-styled direction by John McNaughton makes "Wild Things" a trashy, but highly impressive cinematic winner. 4 stars out of 5.

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