Director Lucky McKee and Chris Siverston attempt what many directors have in the past and remake their early film, “All Cheerleaders Die.” Now that they’ve reached a point of success, their considerably entertaining horror indie is now reworked in to a bigger scale, bigger budgeted, and gorier horror film. While the movie suffers from its caveats, “All Cheerleaders Die” works as a entertaining and twisted amalgam of “Heathers,” “I Spit on Your Grave,” and “The Craft.”
“All Cheerleaders Die” centers on aspiring filmmaker Maddy (Caitlin Stasey) who has agreed to follow childhood friend Alexis (the gorgeous Felisha Cooper) around during his cheerleader tryouts for the new class. Alexis is the alpha female of the school who dies a horrific death after a freak accident during a stunt. Maddy arrives to school a few days later surprised to find out that Alexis’ boyfriend has moved on to cheerleader Tracy (the insanely sexy Brooke Butler), who’s his new girlfriend and alpha female of the school. Deciding to seek revenge against the cheerleaders, Maddy successfully tries out for the cheerleading team, and infiltrates the status quo.
She’s surprised to see that she somewhat empathizes with the cheerleaders, including Stacy who she forms an affection for, despite her ex-girlfriend (and practicing witch) Leena’s protests. After a terrible incident during a lakeside party, head football player Terry runs the cheerleaders off the road resulting in their horrific deaths. Despite the football team conspiring to cover up the murder, Leena uses powerful stones to revive the cheerleaders from the dead. Though they’re now somewhat normal, they discover that in order to stay alive, they’re forced to consume the blood of hapless men. They decide to band together to strike down the football team one by one.
“All Cheerleaders Die” is definitely a film that could work as a dark exploration of the high school social structure without the horror element, which is a compliment. Much of the writing from McKee and Siverston works within the confines of the budget, allowing for some unique character turns, and strong performances from the cast of mostly newcomers. Brooke Butler is especially a stand out among the cast, portraying the tragic Tracy, and proving she can scream with the best of them. Tom Williamson is also very good as the despicable Terry, who poses a threat to the blood sucking band of demonic cheerleaders.
That said, I would have loved a more coherent explanation of the powers of the stones and what they fully entail, and how character Terry planned to use them. In either case, directors McKee and Siverston deliver a very strong, often darkly comical revenge tale, with great effects, sharp writing, and a clever final scene that will hopefully lead in to a bigger scale horror flick.
The DVD features a twenty three minute Behind the Scenes segment that garners a variety of interviews with the cast (all of whom are surprisingly Australian and or from New Zealand), audition tapes, rehearsals, and discussions with the producer.