Darian Forrester: Nick, ever do a virgin?
Nick Eliot: What?
Darian Forrester: I know you want to.
Nick Eliot: What?
Darian Forrester: I know you want to.
The Crush is a 1993 psychological thriller film written and directed by Alan Shapiro, about a 14-year-old teenager, Darian/Adrian Forrester (Alicia Silverstone), who becomes dangerously obsessed with a 28-year-old writer named Nick Eliot (Cary Elwes), who is renting a room from her parents.
Silverstone's film debut. No relation to the web serial of the same name.
Trope Examples
- Actor Allusion: Just before Adrian sabotages Cheyenne's horse, Adrian tells Cheyenne to go change her clothes, and Adrian will take care of her horse, Buttercup. Cary Elwes (Nick) acted in "The Princess Bride," and the ingenue's character was named Buttercup.
- All Girls Like Ponies: Darian/Adrian and her friend Cheyenne are both horseback riders.
- Ax-Crazy: Darian maniacally dices lemons with a knife after seeing Nick and Amy in bed together. In the film's climax, she takes Cheyenne hostage and attacks Nick and her father with a crowbar.
- Blatant Lies: Adrian denies taking Nick's favorite childhood picture.
- Betty and Veronica: Adrian (the Veronica) to Amy (the Betty) over Nick (the Archie).
- Boundand Gagged: Nick discovers Cheyenne bound and gagged to Adrian's old childhood carousel in the attic during the climax. Luckily, Nick does save her by the end after he knocks Darian out.
- Coy, Girlish Flirt Pose: Darian does this to Nick in his room after they meet.
- Creepy Child: Amy tells Nick that she finds Adrian to be creepy.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Plenty. Because Nick rejected her, Adrian attempted to kill her friend Cheyenne, scratches his restored car, and sabotages his work by wiping out the files on his computer disk. Then she frames him for rape and nearly kills Amy.
- Doting Parent: Adrian’s parents adore their daughter, spoiling their daughter and giving her pretty much anything she wants.
- Dub Name Change: Darian's name was changed to Adrian for the DVD release. This was due to Alan Shapiro getting sued by a woman with the same name as the character, on whom he based the script. However, it stays Darian on the VHS and Laserdisc releases. More info here
. - Ephebophile: Inverted. Nick is increasingly uncomfortable with the way Darian comes onto him.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: As crazy as Adrian is, she seems to adore her parents. Unfortunately, she becomes so infatuated with Nick that she eventually attacks her father.
- Fan Disservice:
- The kiss Adrian plants on Nick.
- Adrian sunbathing outside of Nick's place. With close-up shots of her body and her bikini straps loosening while a sensual song plays loudly on her radio. Now considering that she's only 14.
- Fille Fatale: Darian is only 14 years old and she displays highly sexual, lustful, and seductive behavior.
- Frameup/False Rape Accusation: After Nick continues to refuse Darian's advances, she frames him for raping her. This gets him arrested and fired from his job.
- Freudian Excuse: Played with and mostly averted. Adrian having no friends apparently. Nick sympathizes and this is what sets off her obsession with him. However, this is most certainly not an excuse that could be considered within the reason to explain her mentality, and her parents seem to be quite loving. It's made quite clear in the end that she's just a nut with no real or understanding basis for her behavior.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Adrian is not thrilled when she sees Nick talking with his coworker Amy.
- Harassing Phone Call: Darian phones Nick so much that there are almost 100 messages on his answering machine.
- Haven't You Seen X Before?:Adrian 'Darian' Forrester: What's the matter, haven't you ever seen a Valiant before?
- Here We Go Again!: A now-committed Darian develops a crush on her psychiatrist. The film ends on a Kubrick Stare of her face after she spots her doctor's wedding photo. As well, when Nick finds the multitude of letters she's sent to him, it's obvious she isn't even over him yet.
- He Knows Too Much: Because Cheyenne tried to warn Nick about Adrian, Adrian attempts to have her killed during their horseback riding.
- Hippie Name: Adrian's friend Cheyenne tells Nick that her parents are hippies and they gave her a unique name.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Adrian's complaint about being lonely due to having skipped two school grades and moving away from her friends. She claims that Cheyenne is only friends with her because their mothers were college friends and because she has to.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Nick pours himself a glass of vodka after being kissed by Adrian.
- Just Friends: Nick insists to Adrian that they're this. Adrian doesn't take it well.
- Love Triangle: Adrian sees herself having to compete with Amy over Nick's affection.
- Lust Object: How Darian sees Nick, despite being underage. She starts to see her doctor at the psych ward the same way.
- Manipulative Bastard: If you analyze Adrian on a rewatch after knowing what happens, it's clear that she is setting Nick up several times to take advantage of him, and that she is playing the cards against him for her own benefit and selfishness. The lighthouse in particular shows this side of her.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Darian loves Nick so much she's willing to kill his girlfriend and her own friend to get him. Luckily, she doesn't succeed.
- Noodle Incident: Cheyenne reveals to Nick that Adrian once became obsessed with Rick, a camp counselor she had a crush on who had "accidentally" died from eating something poisonous.
- No Periods, Period: Adrian tells Nick that she got her period and she had no reason to worry about being pregnant.
- Punched Across the Room: Nick grabs the crowbar out of Darian's hand and gently taps her off the carousel and across the room in such a way that you wonder if it was meant to be serious or not.
- Rape as Drama: Subverted. Darian makes up a lie about being raped when she's at the police station to frame Nick.
- Recycled In Space: Often referred to as Fatal Attraction meets Lolita
- Sanity Slippage: Adrian loses her mind the more Nick rejects her. Eventually, she goes from a cute, clean-cut, innocent-looking girl to a disheveled complete psychopath.
- Scary Stinging Swarm: Darian releases a swarm of wasps upon Amy when she's processing her pictures in the darkroom shed.
- Smitten Teenage Girl: Darian, taken to Yandere degrees.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The song playing loudly as Adrian attempts to seduce Nick by sunbathing outside his place. The lyrics "you can taste that if you want it...".
- Stalker Shrine: Nick discovers a creepy shrine that Adrian made for him in his own basement and nails it shut.
- Stalker with a Crush: Adrian Forrester (or "Darian" in the original release). Also, pretty much the whole plot of the movie, hence the title The Crush.
- Truth in Television: Darian clearly doesn't have much of a history of negative treatment or exposure in her family or personal life, yet she is committing all kinds of criminal and immoral atrocities with little regret and also became completely bonkers over a man that she practically just met seconds ago. Both of these behaviors have been known to happen plenty of times in the real world without much explanation at all.
- Yandere: Darian. It's even creepier considering that she's only 14 years old and she is lusting after someone who is literally twice her age. Definitely the teenage version of Fatal Attraction.
