Horror Movie Review: All Cheerleaders Die (2013)

Initially All Cheerleaders Die might appear to be nothing but a cookie cutter ‘mean girls horror’ lacking imagination. However, stick with it as what we have here as a wild ride of a movie that tries its hardest to subvert tropes and expectations.

It works for the most part but inevitably falls into some of the pitfalls it set out to avoid.

However, it doesn’t stop it being an entertaining watch. Held together by a wacky story as well as a strong and game cast.

The star of the movie is Maddy (Catlin Stasey) who is on a mission. A mission to ruin the life of head jock Terry (Tom Williamson) by any means necessary. This includes infiltrating the cheer-leading squad of popular girls and isolating her best friend, Leena (Sianoa Smit-McPhee).

Something Leena takes very hard as she just so happens to be in love with Maddy. Did we mention Leena is a practising witch too? This is important as a showdown between the cheerleaders and jocks results in a set of events that kills all the girls but Leena.

Heart-broken and desperate to save her love, she does some witchcraft using a set of magic stones which infuse themselves within the girls. They are brought back to life but not the same, for starters they’re a lot hungrier and normal food isn’t going to cut it.

All Cheerleaders Die is a wild ride that moves at such a frantic pace, it’s sometimes difficult to keep up. A bevy of characters, all of which have something to say or do, doesn’t make it any easier but at least it is constantly interesting.

Every time it seems as though the film’s plot has settled and we’re going to enter the end game, something new comes along. It is exhausting and doesn’t always work but it is fun.

A lot of that fun comes from the cast who certainly give it their all, playing up to the madness of the plot but also delivering impactful moments too.

With a bit more coherence and focus, we could have had a great horror movie here instead of just a good one. However, it accomplishes a lot and for a modern horror surrounding cheerleaders that is worthy of viewing alone.