“All Cheerleaders Die” on IMDB
Horror, 90 Minutes, 2013
Cheerleaders can be bitchy, sometimes. Jocks can be violent, sometimes. Goths can be creepy, sometimes. Bitchy cheerleaders are killed by violent jocks and are raised from the dead by creepy goths and become flesh-eating demons, sometimes.
There’s a lot going on in this movie. While some misses the mark pretty wildly, enough works to carry it. The most challenging component is the sheer number of characters. There are no less than a dozen primary characters and at least twice that number of important intertwined relationships. All of these need to be explained before the action really starts (so that they can be turned on their heads). The first half of the movie feels like a crash course in teen interaction.
The script deserves credit for juggling all this as effectively as it does, but some simplification would have likely been the more effective route. There’s also an identity crisis. The movie can’t really seem to decide if it wants to be light-hearted camp, sexy slasher-horror or a parody of John Hughes teen movies. Again: there’s a lot going on.
The effects are crap, but no more crap than similarly budgeted flicks. The relative quiet of the first act is drowned out completely by the frenetic over-action of the third. It ends well enough, but “unbalanced” is likely a word that will come to mind.
Overall, the movie really just bites off more than it can chew. Being more choosy with its themes would have given it the breathing room it needs. As it stands it’s not bad, but does feel like the condensed first season of a failed CW TV show.
