All Cheerleaders Die (2013) [Blu-Ray]
Director: Lucky McKee, Chris Sivertson
Cast: Caitlin Stasey, Sianoa Smit-McPhee, Brooke Butler
Release Date: Now Available on Blu-Ray & DVD
A Review By: Kevin Lovell
Film Rating: 7.5/10
Disc Rating: 8/10
Plot Summary:
A rebel girl signs up a group of cheerleaders to help her take down the captain of their high school football team, but a supernatural turn of events thrusts the girls into a different battle.
‘All Cheerleaders Die’ tells the story of a teenage girl, who following the accidental death of a friend joins the cheerleading squad in a false attempt to gain the affections and trust of the fellow cheerleaders in order to cause them and the football team a world of hurt and completely ruin their senior year. Before she has a chance to fully enact this plan, a deadly confrontation results in her and the other girls being killed, but thanks to the intervention of her true friend, they are brought back to life and a new plan is developed that is sure to result in blood soaked mayhem one way or another.
‘All Cheerleaders Die’ is really a remake of Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson’s joint Straight to Video debut, both co-writing and directing that version, such as is the case with this one. While I haven’t had the privilege of seeing the initial version, I must say that the two did a fantastic job both writing and directing this one, perfectly capturing that bloody fun tone that can’t help but make you smile. The cast is composed almost entirely of mostly unknown talent, but they all do a very capable job in their respective roles which is always a pleasant surprise in those circumstances, especially with a film in the horror genre.
I could not have been more pleasantly surprised by ‘All Cheerleaders Die’ and would highly recommend it to any who enjoy a solid, fun horror comedy. It delivers a perfect tone that keeps the viewer (or at least this viewer) smiling from the get go as well as delivering plenty of laughs and gore, in addition to a few surprises you wouldn’t expect, resulting in a very clever, original and just downright enjoyable horror comedy that is not to be missed. It’s a fun, unique and colorful twist on the zombie genre, merged with a teen comedy to some degree and well worth checking out if you get the chance; I think most will be as pleasantly surprised as I was by this gem.
VIDEO:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘All Cheerleaders Die’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the film’s original 2.35:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks absolutely wonderful over all on this one. All of the bright and (so often) vibrant, glowing colors really radiate out of the screen beautifully and all of the shapes, movement, as well as everything else look pretty solid as a whole, right down to the edges of the Cinemascope borders. I think both fans and those watching for the first time should be very pleased with this high definition video presentation.
AUDIO:
The Blu-Ray release features a lossless 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack that really contributes to the overall enjoyment of the film as a whole in a big way. It really branches out an impressive amount, almost flooding the speakers throughout all five channels with everything from party backgrounds, crazy sound effects, loud pitching noises and blaring hip hop music, yet never detracting from the dialogue, which is mostly contained to the center channel. Casual viewers and fellow audiophiles alike will surely have a pretty great time with this lossless multichannel soundtrack.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The sole special feature on the Blu-Ray release is a behind the scenes featurette titled ‘Making The Squad: A Behind-The-Scenes Look At All Cheerleaders Die’ which is pretty much exactly what it states in the title and is a nice little treat that provides a little insight and information into the film.
