By Geno McGahee
There are several branches of the horror tree. There are legitimately scary films, unintentionally funny films and then there are films like CHEERLEADER CAMP that knows what it is and enjoys it. I find these sorts of films to be hit or miss. Sometimes they try too hard to be funny and become unwatchable and other times, they add just enough humor to make it fun and almost spoofy of the horror genre and the slasher craze of this time. This is the case with the 1988 slasher film “CHEERLEADER CAMP,” a whodunit that is incredibly predictable but incredibly fun to watch.
As the title suggests, we have several cheerleading groups competing at a cheerleader camp. One of the groups is led by Brent Hoover, played by teen idol Leif Garrett. Horror films always try to get somebody of some name and Garrett was the one they found. His girlfriend, Alison (Betsy Russell), has been going through some terrible nightmares as she heads into this competition…basic premonitions of the terror to come. On top of dealing with the nightmares, poor Alison has to deal with her less than faithful hubby. Fellow cheerleader on the squad, Theresa (Rebecca Ferratti), has her eyes on Brent and makes her move, which is not resisted by the cheerleading, rapping hunk. Yes, he raps in this too, but to the credit of Garrett, he obviously had a great deal of fun with it.
The best buddy of Brent, Timmy (Travis McKenna), is an overweight pervert that is deeply into voyeurism. When he’s not video-taping the girls sunbathing, he is trying to get Miss Tipton (Vickie Benson), the camp coordinator, in an sexual act on tape…and he does. Remarkably, the girls in the group that catch Timmy in the act of taping them topless make very light of it. When he grabs their asses underwater, they just laugh it off. Now, Timmy is at least 400 pounds. Maybe they felt sorry for him, but most hot chicks would not laugh it off if a morbidly obese man grabbed their ass or secretly video-taped them.
Lorie Griffin plays the role of “Bonnie,” the ditsy blonde cheerleader of the group and her acting career puzzled me. She started her career in the movie TEEN WOLF and did some TV work. She had a very good look and seemed to have the connections to be a player but she just disappeared. Perhaps she was hard to work with, had a stalker that scared her out of the game, got secretly video-taped by a 400 pound guy…who knows? Whatever the case, I enjoyed her work.
The team mascot, Cory (Lucinda Dickey), has aspirations to be a cheerleader but she could only land the role as the team alligator. Because of her position, she is treated like shit by most of the teammates and especially Miss Tipton. Cory only has Alison as a true friend and helps her through her relationship problems and nightmares.
One actor that I need to mention is the late and great, Buck Flower. Buck was in a lot of films and always makes his presence known. He usually plays the drunk or homeless guy, but here he plays the perverted groundskeeper, Pop. They did not shy away from giving him some great lines, including a note about one of the girls where he says: “She’ll make your pee pee harder than a ten pound bag of nickel jawbreakers.” To make him a suspect, they give him two great lines. At one point, he says, referring to Miss Tipton: “One of these days, that bitch is gonna push me too far.” Then, we have some movie magic happen in front of our very eyes. It is one of the funniest moments and blatant attempts to point to a suspect I’ve ever seen.
The group is performing this act where Timmy and Brent dance in the background on the stage. Leaning against the stage is Pop and when Timmy dances that way, he falls on him and gets up laughing hysterically, saying “Oh god, I tripped over the old geek.” This infuriates Pop, who screams “I hope you die!” If you don’t watch this multiple times, there’s something wrong with you. It is hilarious.
CHEERLEADER CAMP is one of those films that are just pure entertainment. They didn’t break any new ground, didn’t do anything spectacular and actually produced a shitty whodunit in the sense that it was so easy to figure out, but if it’s amusing, it’s good, and this is very amusing. I highly recommend this but you have to be in the mood for it. It’s barely a horror film. It’s just a silly film like EVIL LAUGH… Silly and amusing but if you’re looking for a scare, you won’t find it here.
Rating: 6.5/10
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