Is it terrible? Errr, yeah. Do they really have such things as Cheerleader Camps? The plot is remarkable for a teen slasher movie: not only do the slashing at a summer camp, but it is a summer camp for CHEERLEADERS!
Just the fact that cheerleaders are getting slashed at a summer camp is enough to bring a smile to the face of anyone who loves terrible 80's teen movies, but it is the CASTING that elevates this one to the top of the heap. They have dragged out some of the most bedraggled early 80's teen icons for roles in this. Under what rock did they find Leif Garrett? He doesn't even have a chance to sing. In case you're not up on your trivia, Leif was Brooke Shield's first boyfriend when she was a 13-year old sex symbol (although it was Dean Cain that got to break her in at Princeton). Leif was a Tiger Beat and 16 Magazine staple of the late 70's, battling it out for column space with the Bay City Rollers and even released an album that was a hit, including some of the least inspired Beach Boys covers ever. Then he completely disappeared to the C. Thomas Howell nether regions, only much deeper than C. Thomas has delved. In the Brooke Shields role we have Betsy Russell, who was kind to Phoebe Cates what Phoebe Cates was to Brooke Shields in the early 80's. Rounding out the casting coup are two Playboy Playmates, which is always good for the trivia buff, especially when one of them is Terry Weigel, the only playmate I know of who went on to make hardcore porn. I don't have anything bad to say about Lucinda Dickey, except the idea that the MASCOT also goes to cheerleader camp was just too inspired for words. It simply can't be expressed the joy I get knowing that this film exists. It is a pinnacle of its sort.
