Lifetime Review: 'The Cheerleader Murders'

Ellie Davis (Samantha Boscarino) is convinced that her town has a curse. In addition to two tragedies that struck students at her high school, Ellie's life was horrifically rocked when her sister was murdered along with her father by her sister's scorned ex-boyfriend. Three years later, while Ellie and her mother Jane (Tessie Santiago) are still struggling to put their lives back together, Ellie has gone on to become a popular cheerleader and the girlfriend of rising football player Nicholas Ryder (Austin Lyon).

After having a fight with her best friends and fellow cheerleaders Dee and Morgan (Amanda Leighton and Hannah Kasulka) and storming out of their study session, Ellie is horrified to discover that after she left, the girls were attacked and kidnapped. Not only that, the culprit appears to be following Ellie and is planning on making her their next victim. With the police hitting dead ends in their search for the missing girls, Ellie takes matters into her own hands. But with everyone around her hiding secrets, will Ellie unmask her mysterious tormentor before it's too late—or will she become the next victim of the town curse?

The Lifetime Movie Network has a set of new cheerleader-themed films set to begin premiering soon, so with that in mind, I decided to take a look back at a Lifetime thriller from a few years back that also explored the drama-rife world of high school cheerleading. As you can guess from the title, however, The Cheerleader Murders is not about catty in-fighting among athletically inclined high school girls, but rather a teenage girl fighting to uncover the truth when it seems a dangerous psychopath is out to get her and her fellow cheerleading classmates.

As The Cheerleader Murders begins, the film seems to begin cultivating a unique style for itself. The opening, in which Ellie explains how she's come to believe her town has a death curse is foreboding with a slight hint of dark comedy, ending on a genuinely disturbing note with Ellie bearing witness to her sister and father's murders. The film also boasts a unique pop-rock soundtrack over the course of its first few acts, with Panic! at The Disco's playing over the first shocking reveal of the film adding to the black comedy shown in the opening. Had The Cheerleader Murders kept this feeling going through its entire runtime, even if in small doses throughout as opposed to going all in to the aesthetic, the film could've become a campy good mystery and a nice little treat to well-versed Lifetime viewers.

Unfortunately, for the most part, this aesthetic is missing outside of the first act, leaving the remainder of The Cheerleader Murders to go through the regular beats of a Lifetime teen mystery. While this certainly doesn't tank the movie, it comes as disappointing to see a good aesthetic be dropped so abruptly.

As for the mystery itself, The Cheerleader Murders brings a lot of suspects to the table, and hardly any feel like half-baked, throwaway red herrings. MINOR SPOILER ALERT: The one exception to this comes in the form of teacher Mrs. Taylor, whose secret affair with Coach Reeves comes completely out of nowhere and is dropped almost as soon as it gets brought up. It doesn't help the fact that Mrs. Taylor is also the least developed character of the film, leaving Annie Monroe with little to work with in that regard. Spoilers Over

Aside from the aforementioned blunder, the cast is strong in their roles, with Samantha Boscarino making for a likable and sympathetic protagonist. Throughout the film, Boscarino allows for the hidden weight of her dark past and the recent horrors that have come into her life put on Ellie to become palpable, added by the excellently shot horrific nightmares Ellie suffers from as a result of her friends' abductions. Throughout the film, however, Ellie maintains a thread of fierceness that drives her to find out what happened to Dee and Morgan. While this leads Ellie to follow the often frustrating Lifetime trope of the heroine needlessly putting her life in danger despite the police not being written as incompetent, it allows for her to stand up as a strong main character unwilling to let the pains of her past to destroy her.

Tessie Santiago is similarly strong at portraying Jane's continued grief for her late husband and daughter, and strikes a poignant dynamic with Boscarino as a mother-daughter duo who remain heavily effected by the tragedy that cut their family in half. There are moments, though, when Jane comes across as callous regarding what Ellie is going through, from snapping at her for her (admittedly) irrational self-blame for the tragedies unfolding around her to speaking about the horrifying events surrounding her daughter within earshot of Ellie.

The same strengths and weaknesses exist in Nicholas; while he is played well by Austin Lyon and shares solid chemistry with Boscarino, he has a particularly nasty moment when he gets mad at Ellie for the crime of needing time to herself after a traumatic experience; a moment the movie seems to frame as justified and something Ellie needs to apologize for. The supporting cast provides a handful of memorable performances, including Henderson Wade as the morally fuzzy Coach Reeves and Devin Crittenden as unstable social outcast Ben, with Crittenden letting a tragic side to Ben emerge as the film progresses. Sydney Walsh also delivers memorable attitude and snark as Ben's mother Liz, and Chelsea Zhang brings an instant lovableness to Stacy, a fellow cheerleader who proves to be an unambiguously kind and supportive friend to Ellie. Then there's Eric Eterbari, who utilizes his sole extended scene as Morgan's grieving but suspicious-acting father to make a solid impact.

WARNING: Spoilers Below

The ultimate climax and reveal in The Cheerleader Murders also allows for a disturbing subtext to be made regarding Nicholas and his father Don--despite the less than perfect execution of the twist. With Don's screentime being very miniscule, his reveal (while made easy to spot to seasoned viewers) is a surprising one. The revelation that Nicholas came to discover Don's secret and was driven to suicide after learning his own father was willing to frame him adds a tragic layer to his character and the story at large. Despite this, the twist is only made possible by Nicholas (for reasons unknown) not telling Ellie what he's learned--a frustrating decision that feels rather uncharacteristic of Nicholas.

Spoilers Over

For its flaws and abrupt mood change after the first act, The Cheerleader Murders serves as a solid teen mystery held up by its unique aesthetic choices (before they disappear from the picture) and a cast that brings their A-game and makes up for some issues of plot and character development. It's hardly the strongest in Lifetime's "Teen Film" genre, but The Cheerleader Murders is still a solid mystery thriller to enjoy during a cozy night-in. Now here's hoping the upcoming cheerleader films LMN has ready to premiere can fare as well!

Score: 7 out of 10 wooden rabbits.