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.