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Yes, Cheerleader Camp is a bit cheesy, but I feel it's one of the better slashers I've seen. In the tradition of Sleepaway Camp type movies, it really delivers comically as well as the suspense and horror. Laden with mid 80's sex and shenanigans, snobby cheerleaders, creepy care-takers and the lovable, overweight video voyeur Timmy. How could anyone refuse?

Although I feared that Leif Garret would destroy the authenticity of the movie, after the first five minutes I realized it could not be done. He really captured the sleazy boyfriend persona quite well. And I was really happy to see Lucinda Dickey (from Breakin' & Breakin' 2) as 'Cory' the team mascot.

So if you ever see this in a video store, be sure to rent it. But don't hold out on trying to locate the sequel. There's a rumor that it doesn't even exist. Maybe Uma Thurman knows.. She supposedly starred in it.

Cheerleader Camp (1988)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

All of the best and brightest cheerleaders in the country attend a special camp where they can extend their talents. The only problem is that some sort of madman has also shown up and soon the cheerleaders are dropping dead.

CHEERLEADER CAMP obviously wasn't meant to be taken too serious and it's clear that it was making fun of the slasher genre. This here is basically PORKY'S with an added slice of murder and for the most part the film is entertaining enough to make it worth watching.

What makes the film so entertaining is the cast who manage to be fun and keep you interested in everything that's going on. Of course, all of them are way too old for their parts but this is just something most viewers will be accustom to. The cast really manages to be fun and that's the most important thing.

The filmmakers clearly knew who their target audience was because this works as both a horror film as well as a "teen" comedy. The teen comedy aspect basically has a bunch of beautiful women getting naked and a bunch of horny guys wanting them. The summer camp setting works just fine. As far as the horror elements go, there are actually some rather gory and violent death scenes so gore hounds will be happy as well.

CHEERLEADER CAMP certainly isn't a masterpiece or even a good picture but at the same time it's entertaining enough for what it is.

If there had been a bigger budget, this would have been THE slasher flick of the 1980's. It was much better then another camp series, sleepaway camp, and the acting was much better then other b-movies. One thing that worked against it, however,was the rather generic title, and it's alternate title, bloody pom poms, wasn't any better. Had more attention been paid to this movie, Leif Garrett would have been on a major comeback, and Besty Russell, perhaps the least known, and most eye pleasing of any 80's starlet, would have been a a list star. Alas, in 1987, this good movie came and went, while much attention was paid to big studio stinkers like ishtar, The Golden Child, among others. How Besty Russell was never an a list star, is a loss.

Is it terrible? Errr, yeah. Do they really have such things as Cheerleader Camps? The plot is remarkable for a teen slasher movie: not only do the slashing at a summer camp, but it is a summer camp for CHEERLEADERS!

Just the fact that cheerleaders are getting slashed at a summer camp is enough to bring a smile to the face of anyone who loves terrible 80's teen movies, but it is the CASTING that elevates this one to the top of the heap. They have dragged out some of the most bedraggled early 80's teen icons for roles in this. Under what rock did they find Leif Garrett? He doesn't even have a chance to sing. In case you're not up on your trivia, Leif was Brooke Shield's first boyfriend when she was a 13-year old sex symbol (although it was Dean Cain that got to break her in at Princeton). Leif was a Tiger Beat and 16 Magazine staple of the late 70's, battling it out for column space with the Bay City Rollers and even released an album that was a hit, including some of the least inspired Beach Boys covers ever. Then he completely disappeared to the C. Thomas Howell nether regions, only much deeper than C. Thomas has delved. In the Brooke Shields role we have Betsy Russell, who was kind to Phoebe Cates what Phoebe Cates was to Brooke Shields in the early 80's. Rounding out the casting coup are two Playboy Playmates, which is always good for the trivia buff, especially when one of them is Terry Weigel, the only playmate I know of who went on to make hardcore porn. I don't have anything bad to say about Lucinda Dickey, except the idea that the MASCOT also goes to cheerleader camp was just too inspired for words. It simply can't be expressed the joy I get knowing that this film exists. It is a pinnacle of its sort.

This is supposed to be a horror film, but the filmmakers were obviously too preoccupied with the oodles of (first-rate, I must admit) nudity and sex-related jokes to care very much about the "horror" aspect. The film does have at least one astonishingly gory scene, but the killer's identity is painfully predictable; it's practically spelled out for you. Betsy Russell's performance is better than this film deserves. Seriously. (**)