BRING IT ON: CHEER OR DIE (2022)

BRING IT ON: CHEER OR DIE (2022)

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(Comedy, Horror, Student Tears) [PG-13]

In this one, Abby Synger leads a group of cheerleaders out to an abandoned school on Halloween weekend to practice their cheers because they keep getting their butts handed to them by another cheer squad. The school just happens to be the location where a cheerleader's death happened years later after she fell from the top of a tower of cheerleaders. Whatever the heck that is called. 

Okay, first off, this is the 7th movie in the BRING IT ON movie series. Admittedly I might have watched BRING IT ON back in 2000, but I haven’t seen any of the other films. The only reason I checked this one out is that I heard they were doing an 80’s style slasher with this installment and that is exactly what we got. The fact that the cheerleading squad is for a school with “diablos” as their mascot means most of this movie is a killer in a diablo mascot costume chasing down everyone at the cheerleading practice. 

As bad as this might all sound if you are a fan of slashers like CHEERLEADER CAMP, but like me, didn’t really care for all the nudity, this one might be for you. It kind of has the same vibe as that movie only it’s not a “pervert friendly” as slashers from the 80s. Running at a short 91 minutes it’s also not going to eat up a ton of your life if you end up hating it. I will say that the reveal feels a little too soon and the final minutes are probably even more cheesy than the rest of the movie. We also don’t get a final girl in this one, we get a final group. So that is lame, but it is what it is. I guess you can’t go with the formula every time; they certainly didn’t do that in “every” 80s movie. Just the really good ones. 

Acting wise there is nothing special going on here that kind of adds to the campiness, so I didn’t mind that. Kerri Medders was more than adequate in this as Abby. I can’t say that I have seen any other films she’s been in though. Sierra Holder is good as Jackie but wasn’t given a ton of lines. She is best known for the TV series “Locke & Key”. Alten Wilmot is perfect for the role of Mateo and provides most of the comedic lines. This looks to be his first-ever feature film. Madison MacIsaac doesn’t get a ton of screen time, but she is solid in this. It looks like her first acting role. Marlowe Zimmerman is good as Paige and is asked to show a range of emotions. It will be interesting to see her career unfold, but this was only her 3rd film. Erika Prevost is also sold and had the most experience of all the cheerleading crew when it comes to acting. She also gets too little screen time. I haven’t seen anything she’s been in, but I find it interesting that 2 of her last 3 films were Christmas related. It seems like there are 100 Christmas-themed movies coming out every year. Most of them are Hallmark-style crap. I think both Marlowe and Erika are going to have a hard time not getting cast in a bajillion movies moving forward. The only super famous actress in this is Missi Pyle. She plays Principal Simmons in this and is only in the movie for about one minute. She is perfect for the role. You might not recognize her name, but if you saw her, you would know exactly who she is. She is probably most famous for playing Laliari in GALAXY QUEST. 

Regarding the pacing, this one pretty much starts throwing punches about 15 minutes in, but there are some lulls in the middle. We also get a lackluster ending as I eluded to earlier. The characters are fine overall and I actually wanted a few of them to “not die”…lol. The score is shaky at best, but I thought the score was pretty solid. 

The scariest thing in this whole movie is the credits. The fact that the production crew and actresses are wearing masks bugs the heck out of me because if you are going to have a tryout or whatever is going on in these credits, you should at least pay for a Covid 19 test if you are that worried about it. Granted, some people have health conditions that suggest they most certainly SHOULD be concerned, so I am not discarding that. But masking people that are flipping around and getting a lot of movement going is ridiculous. Partly because when you are doing strenuous things you are breathing out more mucus etc. Because of this, you run the risk of your mask developing mold, bacteria, fungi, etc., and now you are breathing this back in. It’s literally how someone close to me got bacterial pneumonia and almost died. I am not saying any of this is going to happen, but the risk is definitely there, I know firsthand. By the way, this isn’t hysteria, the hospital actually told us they were seeing a lot of bacterial pneumonia at the height of masking regulations. Health Canada also issued a warning about some types of masks. The smarter move here would have been to just test everyone, or just quarantine the sick till they get better, like they did on the production of the Netflix show WEDNESDAY. 

Overall, this isn’t a mind-blowing slasher you need to run to, but if you are doing a “comedic horror” movie to break up the “super serious” horror flicks you might be watching all of October, this is a decent flick. 

I have to give this one a 5 out of 7. I know that is a bit high but I love the fact that they had the guts to even try this genre-bending theme in a series that is mostly known for cheerleading and drama. 

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