The night before the big high school football game, a cheerleader’s head is found on the football field hanging from the uprights. The killer then begins making threatening phone calls to the head cheerleader, Heather (Tasha Biering), who as a precaution stays home under lock and key. Meanwhile, the murderer goes around hacking up more cheerleaders with his trusty axe.
Head Cheerleader Dead Cheerleader begins with an angry phone message from an outraged parent who thinks the movie will give cheerleading a bad name. I believe this might be a cinema first. I don’t think the caller was really justified (it’s a Troma level horror movie), but it’s a fun way to kick things off.
As with most Troma wannabes, a lot of the humor is kind of lame, and many of the characters are annoying (the pair of drunk caretakers are particularly obnoxious). Even though the film clocks in at a relatively scant seventy-eight minutes, writer/director Jeff Miller allows things to drag at several junctures. Heather receives one too many surprise visits from obvious red herrings during the second act that cause the pacing to stall. The movie also features what has to be the longest Talking Killer scene in history.
Still, even with those quibbles, Head Cheerleader Dead Cheerleader is kinda fun. Scream was an obvious influence here as there are many scenes where our Final Girl gets threatening phone calls, and characters make a lot of pop culture references. (In one of the film’s best scenes, a trio of hotties play a game of “Strip Trivia”.) The gore is good too. The highlight comes when Debbie Rochon gets her boob hacked off by an axe. I kind of wish she was in it more, but it’s hard to complain when she is given a death scene of this caliber.
In short, Head Cheerleader Dead Cheerleader may not be great, but it has enough rah-rah to make it mostly enjoyable.
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