DVD Review: All Cheerleaders Die

By Brad Henderson

Lucky McKee has been on my radar ever since I saw his first feature May and I’ve made sure to follow his career closely. After May, McKee did a small film called The Woods, which I’ve been a fan of for a while and which still holds up. Then, came a thriller called Red that represented a change of pace for McKee, although it still had many horror elements. In 2011 McKee shocked audiences with The Woman, which was brutal, beautiful, and gave him the chance to show his true talents. The Woman is a well-shot horror film that focuses on a more technical and storyline-driven aspect rather than a ton of brutality. Now McKee has another horror film under his belt called All Cheerleaders Die.

I enjoyed All Cheerleaders Die but it does seem like a step back from what Lucky McKee has done with his previous films. That isn’t a knock at him because I have liked all his films; however, this just seems kind of out of the ordinary or even maybe a passion project since it’s based on the short films that he made before May. Either way I dug the film, but it caught me off guard.

All Cheerleaders Die seems like a throwback through and through, like something that would have been released in the ’90s alongside films like The Craft, Fear, and Clueless. Seriously, blend those films together and sprinkle some McKee dust and you have All Cheerleaders Die.

The film itself has a very 1980s-style plot device that I loved: a group of cheerleaders get into an accident one night and they are brought back to life by a friend. The only drawback is that they need to kill in order to stay alive and function. Now there is a lot more to the story but if you follow my writing you’ll know l I don’t spend time on the plot description or give a paragraph summarizing the film. Hell, I think telling you that they are brought back to life is too much information.

One of the problems with All Cheerleaders Die is the CGI. Not all of it is terrible and some is needed, but there are moments when it just looks awful. It doesn’t ruin the film of course, but I’m the type of person who wants to mentally prepare for something like that so when I first see the movie I won’t be taken out of it.

I was also surprised by the acting in this film because of the moronic airheadedness of the characters. I think it’s difficult for women to play that role because it almost always comes across as corny and cheesy, but these actresses pull it off. Not only that, but they don’t overact and they are still likable even though some of them are complete jerks. This is a film where there are no characters that you are supposed to like, but we are forced into liking the cheerleaders due to process of elimination or morality.

I think this is a film that will find its audience soon or in the near future. I was hoping for the same outcome with Jennifer’s Body but that never happened and it’s still underappreciated. I hope that doesn’t happen with All Cheerleaders Die.

All Cheerleaders Die will be released on DVD on July 22 through Image Entertainment.