All Cheerleaders Die 2013…
“A rebel girl signs up a group of cheerleaders to help her take down the captain of their high school football team, but a supernatural turn of events thrusts the girls into a different battle.” -IMDb
Well, I enjoyed All Cheerleaders Die. I think mostly because it wasn’t what I expected at all. I thought it was going to be more silly than it was. More comedy than horror. That’s what you expect from the title isn’t it? To my surprise it was a little more serious than the title leads you to believe. There weren’t really any laughs that I recall. But, it’s not dark and gloomy considering the subject matter of bullies, battered women, coming to terms with your sexuality and rape. There’s a lot going on here and I think the film did a good job if remaining a teen horror movie without becoming a Lifetime movie.
There were a few things I wasn’t happy with. I thought the movie dragged a little in the middle. It was about an hour into the film before the movie goes from a story of a teen girl’s plan to get even with the mean girls to the wonderfully weird story it turns into. Also, something I’ve said before and I have to say again. There’s an antagonist in every story but if your antagonist is a real asshole, if he doesn’t pay at the end of the film, there’s no real payoff for the audience. You can’t just kill the antagonist. There must be a moment where they know they’ve lost or that they were wrong and their death must be stand out from the rest.
If you just kill the bad guy and there’s not even much of a painful death, there is no real payoff for the audience. All Cheerleaders Die runs into this problem in my opinion. I am sure our antagonists death was painful to the character but it just wasn’t enough, we are talking about a dude that has no problems being a bully, beating women and raping them. Not only did our bad guy not really suffer the way that he should have, he died not learning a thing. He was the same guy from start to finish.
That being said, I liked what the movie tried to do. It took itself just serious enough to be interesting and not silly. The acting was good, and our main protagonist, Maddy Killian played by the smart and stunningly beautiful Caitlin Stasey elevated the film. She, at first has the casual but pretty girl next door quality and then goes to full hot mode cheerleader effortlessly. I thought everyone in the cast was great. Sianoa Smit-McPhee as the gothy Wiccan and love sick friend was played well. She went from being kinda stalkerish to trusted friend and all around good person very well. There wasn’t a time when I didn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth.
As I said, I liked this movie and I am going to recommend it. I am not saying it’s for everyone. But, I am saying it’s entertaining, interesting, fun and sexy. I would like to have had more gore, real makeup effects and less CGI but maybe there will be a sequel…
Cast of Characters:
Caitlin Stasey as Maddy Killian
Sianoa Smit-McPhee as Leena Miller
Brooke Butler as Tracy Bingham
Amanda Grace Cooper as Hanna Popkin
Reanin Johannink as Martha Popkin
Tom Williamson as Terry Stankus
Chris Petrovski as George Shank
Leigh Parker as Manchester ‘Manny’ Mankiewitz
Nicholas S. Morrison as Ben
Jordan Wilson as Vik De Palma
Felisha Cooper as Alexis Andersen