This movie in particular becomes an excruciating exercise in waiting for the next death or shot of gratuitous nudity, neither of which are ever really satisfying.

**_Stale late 80’s slasher starts kinda goofy, but turns serious_** High school students in SoCal go to cheerleading camp in the remote Sequoia National Forest where they tragically start dying one by one. Who’s the killer? Will any make it back alive? "Cheerleader Camp” (1988) is a whodunnit slasher that mixes cheerleading antics with elements of the “Friday the 13th” flicks and “The Burning” (1981), not to mention “Sleepaway Camp” (1983). “Body Count” (1986) also comes to mind. I had a bad attitude at first because there was some campy humor along the lines of “Friday the 13th Part III” (1982) and “Friday the 13th Part V” (1985), mostly revolving around the overweight character and the female camp director, not to mention the Englund-like Handyman, albeit less so. In other words, I thought the movie was going to be a full-on joke, but the comedic bits only revolve around those characters and the flick takes a dark turn in the second half. Also, it actually deals with some pretty heavy themes despite being an 80’s slasher with a dash of sex humor. For instance, there are reflections on anxiety, competition/rivalry, relationship abuse, alcoholism, deception, manipulation and false testimony. I was halfway through when it occurred to me that one of the male characters was Leif Garrett, the former teenage heartthrob of the late 70s. Here he is at 26 (during shooting) playi…

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