Cheerleader Massacre

Cheerleader Massacre, The (2003)

*** (out of 4)

A group of big breasted, sexy cheerleaders jump into a van on the way to a competition but the van breaks down and they must spend the night in a cabin. A serial killer is also lurking around. I went into this flick with high hopes, which some might find strange considering this is nothing more than a low budget, direct to DVD flick. The reason for the high hopes? This is from director Jim Wynorski who created some of my favorite "B" films of the 1980's including Chopping Mall, Sorority House Massacre 2 and Big Bad Mama 2. My expectations were certainly met because this is the best throwback to the 80's slashers that I've seen in quite a while. Does that mean the film is good? Hell no. Everything from the acting to the screenplay is bad but the director knows how to deliver the cheap laughs, nudity and dumb violence. The director is smart enough to know he has bad actors and a bad script and instead of trying to create a good movie he uses this badness to add to the film's charm. The film uses the soundtrack to the 1980 hit Humanoids From the Deep and also lifts a scene from The Slumber Party Massacre. The scene lifted from that movie has the girl in that clip reprising her role 21 years after the fact. Reading at IMDb says this was originally meant to be the fourth film in that series. Again, please don't take the three stars as saying this is a horror film everyone should rent. If you check at the IMDb you'll see that everyone but I hated this film.

I'm a huge fan of the Slumber Party Massacre and Sorority House Massacre films, so i was expecting a little more from Cheerleader Massacre. It's not a bad film, but not a great one either. The first 10 minutes i was thinking "this bites" but it did get progressively better. There was a horror/slasher movie released back in 1987 called "Cheerleader Camp" which is still the better of the two.

My main complaint with Cheerleader Massacre is the acting, most of the performances are hollow and seem really fake. I really expected better acting quality from a Jim Wynorski project. I also think that this was shot on Digital Video, it just does not have that "Film" look. And i could have done without the erroneous flashback to a scene from Slumber Party Massacre...it obviously looks like it really is from an older movie, and most of us have seen it before anyways. Brinke Stevens was only in the film for a minute or so and i don't really understand why it was included. It did nothing for the story, never followed through with it and simply didn't make much sense in the long run.

I haven't yet viewed the film with the commentary track on the DVD, so perhaps it will shed some light on some of those above problems. There is a deleted scene in the DVD which is worth the price alone, i guess it was cut from the actual film (major frontal nudity) so they could get an R rating.

All in all, Cheerleader Massacre is worth it for fans to see it once. Some people will like it more than others.

I've never expected too much from a film by trashy B-movie director Jim Wynorski: a silly premise, some cheapo effects and a bit of nudity from some busty babes, and I'm usually fairly happy.

Well, Cheerleader Massacre delivers on the former and definitely the latter, but unfortunately is a tad light when it comes to the splatter. And when a film has the word 'massacre' in the title, and scrimps on the gore, then Houston, we have a problem.

Wynorski's movie centres on a group of cheerleaders who, along with their teacher, mini-bus driver and a couple of guys, become stranded in the mountains during a snowstorm. They make their way on foot to a deserted mountain retreat, where they find food and shelter. And a crazy killer who wants them all dead! From the outset, good old Jim ensures that his film features plenty of scenes loaded with T&A, and includes the obligatory shower scene, along with numerous other moments in which tasty women get nekkid (including a spot of raunchy softcore sex and a very gratuitous three-babes-in-a-hot-tub scene). None of the women look young enough to be cheerleaders (and are never even seen in their outfits), but who cares about such details when they're all too willing to strip off in the name of art?

I do care, however, about the movie's numerous lacklustre deaths. With such an extremely lurid title, I had been hoping for some inventive bloodletting to go with all of the bums, bush, and boobs; instead, practically all of the killings occur off-screen or feature next to no gore. Only a silly post-decapitation scene (achieved with cheap-as-chips CGI) comes anywhere near to delivering the goods.

Still, if you're feeling in the mood for some titillation, or a bit of slasher silliness minus the grue, then, at 82 minutes, at least Cheerleader Massacre won't be too much of a waste of your time.

I didn't have high hopes for this movie when I started watching it, and I was still dissapointed. The actors who are supposed to be teenagers looks more like they passed 30 and are getting old fast. The season shifts from summer into winter into summer into fall into winter again, all in the same day. The mountain can't be that high.

They tell stories and you see flashes of it, where they say it's snowing, but when they show it, it's sunny. And of course since this is a B movie there are lots of nudity to try to keep the viewer watching when the scripts falls through. After only a minute the first breasts are flashed, and it follows that mood though the movie. Watch this movie if you want to laugh at a really bad movie, with a stupid script that has got all the cliches of a horror movie.

Stop me if you hard this one before, some cheerleaders, their coach and a couple guys are trapped within a cabin in the woods when an unseen killer kills them off one by one. Shame on me, after I totally wrote off Jim Wynorski after the horrid "Busty Cops" (it was a long time coming as his last truly good film was 1990's "Hard to Die"), I still for some reason got my hopes up for a supposed sequel to "Slumber Party Massacre". Sadly even my mediocre expectations were not met. This outing is not nearly as fun as even the three previous films in the franchise (and yes I'm including SPM 2, that should tell you something) Furthermore how can you have a slasher film with this little gore??? I mean Come on now!!

My Grade: D

Eye Candy: Ricky Ray gets topless; April Flowers and Charity Rahmer show boobs and buns in a shower scene (April gets nude again later in the film), and Tamie Sheffield gets topless and bares buns