Cheerleader Camp
| Cheerleader Camp | |
|---|---|
 Cheerleader Camp poster | |
| Directed by | John Quinn |
| Written by | David Lee Fein R.L. O'Keefe |
| Produced by | Jeff Prettyman John Quinn |
| Starring | Betsy Russell Leif Garrett Lucinda Dickey |
| Cinematography | Bryan England |
| Edited by | Jeffrey Reiner |
| Music by | Joel Hamilton Murielle Hodler-Hamilton |
| Distributed by | Prism Entertainment Corporation |
Release date |
|
Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Cheerleader Camp (also known as Bloody Pom Poms) is a 1988 American slasher film directed by John Quinn, and starring Betsy Russell, Leif Garrett, Lucinda Dickey, George "Buck" Flower, Teri Weigel, and Rebecca Ferratti. The plot follows a series of murders that occur over a weekend at a cheerleader camp during a competition.[1]
Plot
Alison (Betsy Russell) is a cheerleader at Lindo Valley who is struggling with feelings of inadequacy and anxiety. She has a dream in which she is performing a cheerleading routine to an empty stadium; suddenly, her arms are slashed open. She awakens only to realize she had been dreaming. With her fellow cheerleaders, boyfriend, Brent (Leif Garrett), and friend Timmy (Travis McKenna), Alison heads to a remote cheerleader camp called Camp Hurrah to compete in a contest, led by the icy Miss Tipton (Vickie Benson).
At the camp, Alison rooms with Cory (Lucinda Dickey), the team mascot who is often ridiculed by the cheerleaders. The girls go to the river where they sunbathe, and are spied on by Tim and the local Sheriff Poucher, who get interrupted by Pop (George Buck Flower), the camp handyman. The next morning, Alison finds fellow cheerleader Suzy's body in her cabin, her wrists slashed in an apparent suicide.
The next day, Alison goes into the kitchen walk-in freezer to get a soda, and finds Suzy's corpse on a shelf. She calls the police, and Miss Tipton explains to Sheriff Poucher that she didn't want to report Suzy's death until the cheer program had finished that weekend. The Sheriff goes with Miss Tipton to her room, and it is revealed the two are lovers. At an assembly the next morning, Miss Tipton plays a video of cheer performances for the students, only to find that Timmy had replaced it with a sex tape of her and the sheriff.
Later, Alison expresses concern over Brent's flirting with the other girls, specifically Pam— Alison has a nightmare in which she cheers along as Brent has sex with her. At the river the next day, Brent and Pam leave to have sex. When Pam declines, he leaves her in the woods, and she is impaled through the skull with a pair of garden shears by an unseen assailant. That evening, Alison has a dream in which she kills Pam.
The next day at the competition, Alison worries to herself that she may have hurt Pam in a fit of rage and not remember it; she asks Cory what she had done the night before, and Cory tells her she'd been sleeping. The team has to come up with an alternative routine for the Queen's Competition due to Pam's absence. During the announcement of the winner, Theresa leaves to search for Pam, while Bonnie wins the title of cheerleading queen. Cory and Brent follow separately into the woods to look for Pam and Theresa, and Miss Lipton sends Pop to search for her as well. Theresa finds Pam's body in the woods, and is chased down a dirt road by a van which slams her body against a tree. Meanwhile, Miss Lipton stumbles drunkenly into the woods, where she is stabbed in the back.
Timmy goes outside to urinate, and finds Theresa's corpse leaning against a tree. Back at the camp, Alison is approached by Miss Tipton, who dies in front of her. Brent announces at the party that Theresa has been found murdered, causing the cheerleaders to flee the party in a panic. Timmy, Brent, Bonnie, Cory, and Alison are the only remaining students left. When their van doesn't start, they decide to leave on foot.
The four hear gunshots in the woods, causing them to run separate directions; Alison returns to the van followed by Brent, Bonnie, and Cory, who claims someone attacked her in the woods. Brent retrieves Timmy's video camera in the woods. On the video tape, they watch Timmy be impaled by an axe. The four set a booby trap using a bear trap in the tool shed, which inadvertently kills the Sheriff. They then encounter Pop, armed with a shotgun; Cory, believing Pop to be the killer, shoots him to death.
Back at the camp, Cory and Bonnie go to call the police, leaving Brent alone with Alison. He attempts to have sex with her, but she resists. Cory stumbles in, saying she can't find Bonnie; Brent goes to look for her, and Cory tells Alison she thinks Brent may be the killer. Armed with a handgun, Cory sends Alison to shoot Brent. She sees Brent standing over Bonnie's dead body, and shoots him to death. When the police arrive, they charge a distraught Allison with the murders. In the ambulance, Alison insists she only killed Brent, but the detective says that Cory blamed all the murders on her. Alison screams as she is taken away, while Cory, dressed in a cheerleading uniform, cheers in front of the camp at dawn.
Cast
- Betsy Russell as Alison Wentworth
- Leif Garrett as Brent Hoover
- Lucinda Dickey as Cory Foster
- Lorie Griffin as Bonnie Reed
- George "Buck" Flower as Pop
- Travis McKenna as Timmy Moser
- Teri Weigel as Pam Bently
- Rebecca Ferratti as Theresa Salazar
- Vickie Benson as Miss Tipton
- Jeff Prettyman as Sheriff Poucher
- Krista Pflanzer as Suzy
- Craig Piligian as Detective
- William Johnson as Chief Ronnie
- Kathryn Litton as Timmy's girlfriend
- Tommy Habeeb as Assistant Detective
- John Quinn as Ambulance Attendant
Production
Cheerleader Camp was shot in 1987 in Bakersfield, California,[2] and Camp Nelson.
Release
Cheerleader Camp was given a limited theatrical release on June 1, 1988,[3] but the release was not expanded due to the distribution company going bankrupt.[4] It was released on VHS by Prism Entertainment through Paramount Home Video in 1990.[5] It was later released on Region 1 DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment in 2004.[6]
Critical reception
Allmovie wrote, "Cheerleader Camp won't hold pleasure for any except the most dedicated Z-level celebrity watchers."[7]
Sequel
A sequel was planned by producers of the original film, but the project was eventually scrapped and made into another, unrelated film (Camp Fear) that was produced and financed by another production team.[8]
However a film was shot in 2014 based on the original Cheerleader Camp 2 outline called Cheerleader Camp: To The Death.
References
- ^ New York Times Review Summary
- ^ "Cheerleader Camp". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-09-28.
- ^ "Cheerleader Camp (1988)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2015-09-26.
- ^ Quinn, John. Audio commentary on Cheerleader Camp [DVD]. Anchor Bay Entertainment. 2004.
- ^ "Company Credits for Cheerleader Camp". imdb.com. Retrieved 2011-04-19.
- ^ "Cheerleader Camp (DVD)". dvdempire.com. Retrieved 2011-04-19.
- ^ Fred Beldin. "Cheerleader Camp (1988)". Allmovie. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
- ^ Cheerleader Camp DVD (DVD Liner notes). John Quinn. Anchor Bay Entertainment. 2004. DV12736.
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