Credit this one to my recent downtime, sick and under quarantine with the influenza over the Christmas holidays, when I had nothing to do but watch movies. I’m pleased to say that none of the films I viewed during my convalescence were lousy. In fact they were all rather good. I got lucky in that respect. (Not so much with the sickness part.)
ALL CHEERLEADERS DIE starts out as your standard teenager revenge story, where the so-over-it protagonist goes undercover amidst the typical vapid and amoral rabble. Like MEAN GIRLS, except that this one actually seemed to be worth watching. (I love me some Rachel McAdams and Amanda Seyfried, but that movie was abysmal.) But then it does a complete 360. All the girls die, the over-it infiltrator and the ditzy teenagers alike. But the protagonist’s ex happens to be a witch, and she resurrects the dead girls, only they all come back as vampires (and two of them have swapped bodies). It’s a caustic parody, and it’s genuinely funny in places. The acting is good overall, and the cast ain’t too hard on the eyes. I recommend this one, even if you aren’t currently stuck in your sickbed. It was a pleasant surprise.