Interpretation, spoilers:
The main conflict in this movie involves Layne and Samson on one pole and Matt and Clarissa on the other. Layne and Samson both refuse to go the police; it is the opposite with Matt and Clarissa. Of importance is the reasoning why each character chooses their particular path.
Samson obviously will not go to the police because he is the killer. Layne will not because Samson was more of a friend to him than Jamie. Clarissa will because Jamie was more of a friend to her than Samson.
With Matt, the movie makes no effort to describe which person he was more attached too: this point would be inconsequential. Matt is the character with the courage to stand up to Layne and do what is right. Some reason stronger than simple friendly feeling is needed to add drama to his decision.
The audience is never directly given Matt's reasoning. It is implied however in the end when Matt confronts Layne and tells him that he made the wrong decision in covering up for a murderer. Implicitly, emotional ties are of less stability and truth that objective moral reasoning - a conclusion Kant would be proud of. Thus, a pessimistic movie has a somewhat optimistic ending. Though the rebellious teens feel no sadness for their fallen peer, emotion was never that important. Reason is all that is needed to make the correct decisions. (It's interesting when you ask yourself if the teens had made the correct choices throughout or only concerning the murder. For reason is universal. So all the acts of illegal drug use, rebellion, disrespect to parents, and promiscuous sex must also be considered a morally correct decisions.) Consequently, both the murderers receive their just deserts.
Further supporting this conclusion is the fact that only antagonists are depicted as emotional. Layne is in a constant frenzy of excitement and abuse. Samson's secret emotional depth is hidden until the end when he tells of his pleasurable murder. Upon hearing of the pleasures of murder, and realizing he has spent twenty years caged up, Feck again tries his hand at murder. As an aside, we knew from the beginning that a negative ending was in store for Samson. The name is no coincidence; he was betrayed by the one most akin to him. Feck kills him and takes Samson's power of pleasurable murder just as his biblical counterpart lost his power of locks of hair.
The main conflict in this movie involves Layne and Samson on one pole and Matt and Clarissa on the other. Layne and Samson both refuse to go the police; it is the opposite with Matt and Clarissa. Of importance is the reasoning why each character chooses their particular path.
Samson obviously will not go to the police because he is the killer. Layne will not because Samson was more of a friend to him than Jamie. Clarissa will because Jamie was more of a friend to her than Samson.
With Matt, the movie makes no effort to describe which person he was more attached too: this point would be inconsequential. Matt is the character with the courage to stand up to Layne and do what is right. Some reason stronger than simple friendly feeling is needed to add drama to his decision.
The audience is never directly given Matt's reasoning. It is implied however in the end when Matt confronts Layne and tells him that he made the wrong decision in covering up for a murderer. Implicitly, emotional ties are of less stability and truth that objective moral reasoning - a conclusion Kant would be proud of. Thus, a pessimistic movie has a somewhat optimistic ending. Though the rebellious teens feel no sadness for their fallen peer, emotion was never that important. Reason is all that is needed to make the correct decisions. (It's interesting when you ask yourself if the teens had made the correct choices throughout or only concerning the murder. For reason is universal. So all the acts of illegal drug use, rebellion, disrespect to parents, and promiscuous sex must also be considered a morally correct decisions.) Consequently, both the murderers receive their just deserts.
Further supporting this conclusion is the fact that only antagonists are depicted as emotional. Layne is in a constant frenzy of excitement and abuse. Samson's secret emotional depth is hidden until the end when he tells of his pleasurable murder. Upon hearing of the pleasures of murder, and realizing he has spent twenty years caged up, Feck again tries his hand at murder. As an aside, we knew from the beginning that a negative ending was in store for Samson. The name is no coincidence; he was betrayed by the one most akin to him. Feck kills him and takes Samson's power of pleasurable murder just as his biblical counterpart lost his power of locks of hair.