PANDEMONIUM (1982) ** ½

In 1978, Halloween kicked off the slasher movie craze.  By 1982, the genre was in full swing, so much so that not one, but FIVE slasher parodies had flooded the market.  Those films included Saturday the 14^th, Student Bodies, Wacko, National Lampoon’s Class Reunion, and Pandemonium.  Out of all of them, I’d say Student Bodies is the most successful, but Pandemonium certainly had the best cast.  

In 1963, a group of cheerleaders at It Had to Be U are turned into (literal) shish-kabobs.  Twenty years later, Bambi (Candy Azzara) returns to the school start up a cheerleading camp.  The cheerleaders die off one by one at the hands of a psycho killer, and it’s up to an eager Mountie (Tom Smothers) to stop him.

Directed by Alfred Sole of Alice, Sweet Alice fame, Pandemonium is a bit all over the place.  For every joke that lands, there are two or three that crash and burn.  For this sort of thing, that’s not a bad average at all.  I liked the scene where Bambi tells her backstory while a subtitle reading “EXPOSITION” flashes at the bottom of the screen, the entire “House of Bad Pies” sequence is hysterical, and even though it’s racist AF, the Godzilla scene made me laugh.

The cheerleaders are all well-cast and likeable.  Judge Reinhold (with a bad blond dye job) gets some laughs, Debralee Scott is quite sexy, and Carol Kane is amusing as always.  The supporting cast is loaded with stars, many of whom are reduced to a walk-on part (or worse, completely wasted).  There are a lot of Groundlings involved (including Phil Hartman, Paul Reubens, and John Paragon) which makes me wonder why Elvira wasn’t called in to at least cameo.  The best cameo comes from Eileen Brennan, doing a mean Piper Laurie impression during the scene that spoofs Carrie.  Speaking of Carrie, the ending manages to predate the telekinetic vs. slasher battle in Friday the 13^th Part 7 by six years, so that’s worth something at least.