In horror-films, the scream queens don't do their own screaming. But in this feature, arguably a horror-film, they do. The last minutes of 23-year-old River Phoenix are reproduced here, exactly as recorded by the emergency services on the night.
The occasion reflected the extreme highs and lows of the rockstar life, symbolised by the nature, and even the name, of the venue from which he was dragged off to die: The Viper Room. This was the West Hollywood basement club owned by Johnny Depp - one good reason why a drug-free guest might look out of place there.
The day had started with no suggestion of impending tragedy. River had just been completing a film out in the desert, with no access to drugs for seven weeks, followed by a couple of days' work on his next feature, with the popular but 'difficult' Australian actress Judy Davis. Only a little stressed, and still clean and sober, he was looking forward to playing his first jam session for months in front of a packed Viper Room.
It was the anti-climax that did for him. At the last minute, he was told that the small stage already held the maximum permitted number of performers. And his character just snapped. A speedball is a risk at the best of times. After a seven-week abstinence, with the heroin pulling one way and the cocaine in the other, it's the death sentence it turned out to be.
Ironically, River did not at first seem to be heading for the junkhead life, however hippie-crazy the family background, aimlessly wandering small-town America, with no schooling and an all-too-empty larder. As a child star, it would be his talent alone that would keep the family, and he shouldered his responsibilities with good grace.
It was not till he took the bold step of accepting a film role as a rent boy that he became the victim of his own professionalism. Feeling that he must research this unfamiliar murky world at first hand, he spent many nights interviewing young men at the bottom rank of human dignity, inevitably sharing a spliff or two. And then... life just imitated art, as they say.
The occasion reflected the extreme highs and lows of the rockstar life, symbolised by the nature, and even the name, of the venue from which he was dragged off to die: The Viper Room. This was the West Hollywood basement club owned by Johnny Depp - one good reason why a drug-free guest might look out of place there.
The day had started with no suggestion of impending tragedy. River had just been completing a film out in the desert, with no access to drugs for seven weeks, followed by a couple of days' work on his next feature, with the popular but 'difficult' Australian actress Judy Davis. Only a little stressed, and still clean and sober, he was looking forward to playing his first jam session for months in front of a packed Viper Room.
It was the anti-climax that did for him. At the last minute, he was told that the small stage already held the maximum permitted number of performers. And his character just snapped. A speedball is a risk at the best of times. After a seven-week abstinence, with the heroin pulling one way and the cocaine in the other, it's the death sentence it turned out to be.
Ironically, River did not at first seem to be heading for the junkhead life, however hippie-crazy the family background, aimlessly wandering small-town America, with no schooling and an all-too-empty larder. As a child star, it would be his talent alone that would keep the family, and he shouldered his responsibilities with good grace.
It was not till he took the bold step of accepting a film role as a rent boy that he became the victim of his own professionalism. Feeling that he must research this unfamiliar murky world at first hand, he spent many nights interviewing young men at the bottom rank of human dignity, inevitably sharing a spliff or two. And then... life just imitated art, as they say.
