Obscure Slasher Week: Cheerleader Camp

Ahh welcome welcome to Day 4 of the Obscure Slasher Week and yes did I find a treasure of utter 80’s.  From the dialogue to the clothes, to the more mousse than Bullwinkle this film is dated in its standings.  So it is my great pleasure to bring you the pain and torture that is Cheerleader Camp.

Now let's play pick your first victim!

Spoilers are grody to the Max!!!

Well our youngins are off to Camp Vorhees..er…um I mean Camp Hurrah , a camp so bloody remote from any other walk of life you would need a compass, a Sherpa and probably a machete to get back to civilization.   So naturally this makes perfect sense to have a bunch of horny teenagers out and about with next to no supervision.  Our main protagonist is Alison (Betsy Russell of Tomboy, Trapper County War, Saw III, IV, V, VI and Saw 3D: The Final Chapter) a spunky girl that has woes of inadequacy who wants to strive to be the very bestest cheerleader ever…what a goal let me tell you.  Along with her is her overtly flirtatious boyfriend Brent (Leif Garrett of Walking Tall, The Last Survivors, The Outsiders, Delta Fever and Popstar) and when he is not macking on her, he is instilling words of wisdom on how she can obtain her goals…and then talk her into anal.   Oh please like Leif Garrett never has done that. 

Boy the competition is fierce

Our alumni doesn’t stop there, we still have two Playboy playmates to add into the mix.  Theresa Salazar (Rebecca Ferratti of Gor, Beverly Hills Cop II, Gor II and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective) and Pamela Bently (Former Playmate and adult actress Teri Weigel...you go look up those titles) and good old Pop (character actor Buck Flower from Escape from New York, They Live, Starman, The Fog, Back to the Future II and Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat).  Yessir, this camp looks like it’s in good hands here and there couldn’t be anything to worry about right?  With all the hopes pinned on winning the All States finals, Alison is wracked with nightmares of murders that are haunting her and making her wonder what is wrong with her.

Now comes the part where I use my eyes and observe.  The better portion of shots in this film is a national park in California called Sequoia Nation Forest, which oddly enough Addams Family Values was also shot at for most of the summer camp scenes.   Standard 35mm camera and a fair amount of boom mikes vs. miking your actors but for crying out loud get a better wind sock to cover your boom.  I hear a fair amount of the wind whistling in the breeze there.

Occupado...gurgle..

 

The recording is mono and fortunately the DVD copy did clear up the dialogue a bit better because I could barely hear the audio on the VHS.  The soundtrack sounds like what I like to call “Fun with a Casio.” and the mood lighting in portions feels almost Wes Craven via Nightmare on Elm Street.  A far amount of handheld work and a bit of dolly track.

Wind Tunnel!!

This film too suffers from the disease of multiple titles called the Also Known As syndrome.  Apparently Cheerleader Camp didn’t cover it all for the other countries so we have Bloody Pom Poms, Bloody Nightmare and Bloody Scream.   With it approaching pornography on its extensive nudity, sexual references I am actually amazed they had time to run a horror movie there.  Think of on the lines of Sleepaway Camp with even less direction, story line and clever character creation.