Lifetime Review: 'Cheerleader Nightmare'

WARNING: Spoilers in review.

Aspiring photographer Sophie (Taylor Murphy) has always had something of a disdain for her high school's cheerleading squad. Her feelings mostly lie in the fact that the team's head cheerleader, Leah Dumont (Mia Stallard) was her best friend before abruptly dumping her for popularity. And as luck would have it, Sophie's mother Paula (Melissa Ponzio) is the cheering coach, leaving Sophie feeling like her mother wants her to be more like the cheerleaders than who she really is (#FirstWorldProblems).

And as if Sophie's vendetta against cheerleading couldn't get stronger, she ends up inadvertently spotting her boyfriend Tyler (Jeremy Shada) making out with Leah at a party while piloting a drone belonging to her best friend Mikey (Johnny Visotcky). When Leah shortly afterwards disappears and is later found dead, Tyler comes clean to Sophie and begs her to keep his relationship with Leah secret, worrying his troubled past will cause the police to suspect him. Desperate to prove her boyfriend's innocence and solve Leah's murder, Sophie teams up with Mickey to uncover the truth--though the killer might be closer to home than Sophie realizes.

In essence, anyone who has watched Lifetime has already seen Cheerleader Nightmare before, as the teen murder mystery plot is a common one for the channel. Plucky, sarcastically witted heroine? Check. Troubled but cute boyfriend? Check. Male BFF with inexplicable technological know-how? Check. Mother struggling to connect with her teenage daughter? Check. Cheerleader Nightmare can best be compared to Stalked by My Neighbor, as both are teen murder mysteries that also happen to follow heroines with a photography habit.

Unfortunately, unlike Stalked by My Neighbor, Cheerleader Nightmare doesn't have the same charm to make it an entertaining watch despite the familiar formula. Observant viewers will likely be able to catch on to who the killer is quickly, as the character lays their innocent act so thick that they might as well tattoo "I'M THE MURDERER" on their forehead. Their reveal could've been played as a plot twist if the plot hadn't made their possible guilt such a big plot point. The climax is similarly frustrating, with the two main protagonists involved (one of whom is a grown adult) making the kind of mistakes you'd expect from horny 20-year-olds in 80s slasher movies.

While the cast isn't necessarily bad, the characters they are given don't have much charm or genuine personality to work with. Taylor Murphy gives a good performance as our lead, but Sophie's character comes off as so hard-nosed and sardonic that it's hard to really get invested in her as a person. The fact that her only motivation in wanting to solve the murder of her former best friend is to help her boyfriend, who ends up being Leah's killer, only further drags down Sophie's character and makes her come off as an idiot for hiding Tyler's connection to Leah from the police. Johnny Visotcky and Melissa Ponzio are given more likable characters in the form of Sophie's best friend and cheer coach mother, and Jeremy Shada transforms Tyler into a genuinely frightening villain once his reveal comes, but their limited screen time renders what good character moments they provide short-lived. The only character who is really given any sort of deeper nuance is alpha-bitch cheerleader Reeva, who has a genuinely touching moment with Sophie that lets her be more than just a Mean Girls archetype.

Outside of a few genuinely entertaining performances and characters, Cheerleader Nightmare is your basic paint-by-numbers Lifetime murder mystery, with nothing really going beyond the standard murder mystery formula. Even the plot triggering drone isn't used for much of anything spectacular or innovative. If you're looking for a Lifetime murder mystery that is both intriguing and has strong characters and plot, check out Stalked by My Neighbor. Sadly, Cheerleader Nightmare is too formulaic and contains too many underdeveloped or unlikable characters to be an enjoyable watch.

Score: 3 out of 10 plot relevant drones.