Deadly Cheers

2022 is rife with films like these; half-baked plots with unbelievable characters performed by inexperienced actors directed by inexperienced directors. Scripts written by inexperienced writers add to the certain doom of the venture. Shallow characterizations move to highly unlikely situations in hackneyed settings. There is nothing new here and the film is not recommended for high schoolers to attend because it is so boring and predictable. Even grade school kids would find this film boring. I watched it only because I had free passes from my brother in law, Geoff, who is the theater manager. The nachos and cheese were good, however.

The storyline was great, the characters were solid, the plot twist were spot on...one VERY cheesey scene but not giving any spoilers, you'll know it when you see it.

OK, I've come to expect little from these movies. Formulaic, predictable, plot holes galore, and with endings that wrap things up way too easily, leaving plots lines unresolved, all after the last commercial break. Paint-by-numbers, as it were. Even the titles are reusable: "Deadly (something)", "Killer (something)", "Psycho (something)", and of course, "The Wrong (something)", just to name a few.

But this was just jaw-dropping bad. The plot made no sense at all, and it got more convoluted and illogical as it went along. I'm used to maniacal bad guys in these movies, too, and they are often fun to watch as you wait for their ultimate defeat. The ones in this movie are too over the top (which is saying a lot for these movies), as they overact and behave in ways that make no sense whatsoever.

Most of these movies are somewhat fun to watch, not to be taken seriously. Even some of the presenters that once in a while talk about the movies kind of make fun of them, obviously telling the audience not to take them seriously. Unfortunately, you don't have the opportunity to have tongue-in-cheek fun with this one. It is so bad that all you can do is cringe.

I know Lifetime and the production companies it uses pump out about 100 or more movies a year, so you can't expect great production values or writing, but this one should never have been made. It would not have been missed.

As an aside, I wonder why there are so many cheerleader movies made for Lifetime and LMN? I wouldn't think they would fit the Lifetime audience demographic, but they must, since more are made all the time.

It was So Bad that it almost defies words...I actually think the actors weren't too bad, but the dialogue & plot they had to work with was so beyond ludicrous & stank up the screen so badly, that it was extremely difficult to notice... I also wonder, WHY so many cheer movies?? Seriously, it doesn't seem like it would hit home with most of their viewers...as well as the pregnant-woman & baby-in-Peril plots...parents don't like to think of these things & those of us that aren't parents can't Relate...

Ok. So when you decide to watch a Lifetime movie called "Deadly Cheers" you should know exactly what you're getting... A trashy semi-exploitative movie of teens getting inexplicably killed or abused. And this is exactly what you got. Nothing more.. nothing less.

Surprisingly, I'm not as hard on this movie as other reviewers. No. This is NOT "the worst Lifetime movie ever" by any means. I will actually give the movie credit for not marching down the generic predictable plot line of stupid cheerleaders getting knocked off one by one. There was actually a mystery to be unraveled.. and did find myself engaged enough to want to watch to sort out who was or were the actual baddies.

This clearly is a low-budget movie .. even by Lifetime standards. Don't expect any mindless stupid decision-packed chase scene through a completely empty high school. We rarely even see the high school or other students.

But I did find interesting dynamics between everyone involved - and I'm even embarrassed so admit they were actually "multi-layered."

So I will give this movie a solid "5" for at least trying to be a psycho cheer movie that actually has some interesting twists and turns.