Saturday, July 5, 2014

'ALL CHEERLEADERS DIE' but they come back hungry


RATED- Unrated
RUN TIME- 90 Mins
WRITER(S)- Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson
STARRING- Caitlin Stasey, Sianoa Smit-McPhee and Brooke Butler
DIRECTOR(S)- Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson

Synopsis taken from IMDb

Finally, I've dug my way out of screeners for filmmakers and studios, and I'm able to review this one. I've been a fan of director Lucky McKee since his 2nd film, May. Most notably, he's the man behind The Woman, which came out in 2011 and made a name both for itself and him due to the graphic violence depicted, and all around being a very good movie. When I found out that Lucky was doing a new film, I instantly tweeted to him asking him three reasons people should watch All Cheerleaders Die, and he replied:

These reasons weren't necessary for me, as I had already intended on renting it on VOD. And, unbeknownst to most, All Cheerleaders Die is Lucky's remake of his very first film of the same title. No one picked up on it being a remake because no one had heard of the original, which was a low-budget effort. 

All Cheerleaders Die starts off in a shocking way, and I didn't expect what happens at all. It's brutal in a turn-your-head way, but yet it's actually funny for some reason. I think the humor part comes from thinking that the cheerleaders deserve something nasty to happen to them, if only for their uppity and rude attitudes towards others and those less fortunate. 

After the devastation of the head cheerleader dying, the squad has tryouts. Without much appeal, Maddy (Caitlin Stasey) is promoted and given the part. However, Maddy's ex-girlfriend Leena (Sianoa Smit-McPhee) who's a "goth" and misunderstood, names her cat after Maddy and it gets sick. Leena sees this as a bad omen of things to come.

When some football players discover that Maddy and Tracy (Brooke Butler) are hot for each other, it turns into a volatile situation that ends in all the cheerleaders dying. Only, they don't stay dead. They return to life after their blood touches Leena's psychic stones. When they awaken, they don't remember right away what happened, but they know something isn't right. They can feel it. And, they're hungry like never before, resulting in them eating a neighbor. 

Right before one of the jocks can confess to the involuntary manslaughter of the entire cheerleader squad, the girls show up to class looking perfect and ever-so-sexy. This brings surprise of good and bad to the faces of the football team responsible. The jocks are as rude and unlikable as the worst of the cheerleaders are, making it easy to wish them painful deaths at the hands of the zombified girls. 

However, the football team starts seeing weird things like the girls' lower backs glowing green, and know that something weird is indeed going on. Before the entire team is taken out, the girls' secret is exposed. The jocks fight back making the cheerleaders the victims yet-again, and it becomes an undead battle to permanent death for some of them. When the lead jock, Terry (Tom Williamson) decides to digest all of their collective power, he becomes the true enemy who must be stopped. And, he wants Leena to show him how to use her stones that brought the girls back to life in the first place. He must be stopped, and his death is more than deserved. 

The ending is a cliffhanger, which I did not expect. There's good news with that though; there's going to be a sequel! I really hope a part 2 happens after the way this one ends. Summing it up, All Cheerleaders Die is funny, over the top, sexy, gory, and all around entertaining. Lucky McKee does it again with another solid effort!


  1. Great review, dude, been a big fan of McKee since May and his MoH episode. Didn't he do The Woods, too? I really need to catch up on The Woman, I like Jack Ketchum about as much as anyone really can, so curious to see him translated to the big screen. I've never seen The Girl Next Door either...

    1. Yep, he did do 'The Woods'! Both 'The Woman' and 'The Girl Next Door' are great adaptations. The latter had me in disgust and awe. You've gotta catch up on them!

      Hey by the way, I added you to my blog list on the left side of my blog.


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