History Film / AFriendToDieFor

* TheCheerleader: Angela and Stacy both aspire to be one. Stacy makes the cut, Angela doesn't.

* IronicEcho: Stacy pleading for help after she escapes from Angela's car by telling the people at the nearby house "my friend is acting weird." Angela finally gets her wish to be considered a friend by Stacy, but under horrifying circumstances. Even more chilling, these [[TruthInTelevision were the actual words spoken]] in the real life incident.

** Ex Lax, I mean, Ed Sax, the materialistic and shallow School Principal who is full of crap.

* PrecisionFStrike: Monica when standing up to Stacy, who called her a witch; "I don't need a broom to fly away from you, you bitch!"

* YoungestChildWins: Sadly inverted with a dose of TruthInTelevision. Angela has four older siblings which have left home and become independent by the time the story begins. It’s implied resources have become low by the time Angela is a teenager and both her parents are old and tired.

* RealityEnsues: Big sister Terri tries to infuse this into Angela's life when she tries to tell her her dreams of living in a beach front home overlooking the ocean and by supporting herself being a ''writer'' like Danielle Steele. Terri lives in an apartment and works a basic job to get by, having no money to do much else and says that, realistically, she would be in the same boat, especially being so young and without much in the way of any long-term career plans. This angers Angela so much that she storms off to her room.

* ChekhovsGun: The knife in the Nova that Teresa uses to cut and eat cucumbers in the car is later used to stab Stacy.[[note]]TruthInTelevision, but very controversial in the RealLife case. The parents of Kirsten Costas are vocal in saying they don't believe this explanation for why a knife was in the car, and feel that Protti took the knife with her with specific intent to kill[[/note]]

* NiceGirl: played straight with Angela’s two friends, Jill and Jamie, who are sweet, pleasant, and loyal. Jamie has a crisis of conscience at the climax of the film while Jill remains moral throughout the film. In the end they both forgive and support Angela.
Subverted with Angela herself. Her two friends are convinced that she is by far the nicest girl in school but ultimately she is a SocialClimber BitchInSheepsClothing.
* NiceHat: Jill wears a classic 90’s Blossom hat for the first half of the film by ditches it after the tragedy occurs.

* RealityEnsues: Big sister Terri tries to infuse this into Angela's life when she tries to tell her her dreams of living in a beach front home overlooking the ocean and by supporting herself being a ''writer'' like Danielle Steele. Terri lives in an apartment and works a basic job to get by, having no money to do much else and says that, realistically, she would be in the same boat, especially being so young and without much in the way of any long-term career plans. This angers Angela so much that she storm's off to her room.

* YoungestChildWins: Sadly inverted with a dose of TruthInTelevision. Angela has four older siblings which have left home and become independent by the time the story begins. It’s implied resources have become low by the time Angela is a teenager and both her parents a old and tired.

* LonersAreFreaks: Monica gets singled out by Stacy and her crew due to having no friends and being "weird".

* NeverMyFault: Principal Saxe gives a so-called RousingSpeech to his students to "be the best" which basically implies for them to indulge in materialism and improving Santa Mira's image by succeeding at competitive sports then lavishing attention to those who do while dismissing or outright ignoring those who don't. Yet, when interviewed on the news about the murder, he blatantly denies that there was a problem with either subject and writes Angela off as a "sick kid".

''A Friend To Die For'' (also known as ''Death of a Cheerleader'') is a 1994 TV movie that first premiered on Creator/{{NBC}}. It starts Creator/KellieMartin, Tori Spelling, Valerie Harper, Creator/TerryOQuinn, Creator/MarleyShelton and Creator/JamesAvery.

The plot has a teenage girl named Angela Delvecchio (Martin) wishing to rise through the ranks of the high school hierarchy and win over the acceptance of popular and wealthy fellow student Stacy Lockwood (Spelling). As the film progresses, as the paths of the two girls meet and ultimately clash, one of them is driven to desperate means with fatal results.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: While the kids at Santa Mira immediately jump to the conclusion that Monica killed Stacy, the police are more methodical in their investigation and gradually uncover Angela's guilt.[[note]]A bit of a case of HistoricalHeroUpgrade. The Orinda police had initial interest in Bernadette Protti, but she passed her polygraph exam and they discounted her after that. They didn't check out her babysitting alibi; it was a private investigator hired by the Costas family who figured out that she was lying, and he gave the police that information. It was only that incident, coupled with the FBI profile matching her almost perfectly, that led the police to refocus on Bernadette[[/note]]

* ChekhovsGun: The knife in the Nova that Teresa uses to cut and eat cucumbers in the car is later used to stab Stacy.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Angela and Jill. The former and Jaime were also implied to be this before they transferred from their old school.

* InWithTheInCrowd: Angela namely but Jaime is a more downplayed version, she's not nasty like Stacy and her GirlPosse, but still goes along with much of the group's antics and never speaks up in defense of anyone.

* RaisedCatholic: Both Angela and Jaime used to attend a Catholic school and even go to confession. Specifically, Angela's mother is a devout woman who spends an hour of everyday reading the Bible and praying.

* BookEnds: beginning and end of the film showcases loons swimming in a pond and an instrumental accompanying a shot of the prestigious Santa Mira High School.

The film is ''[[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory very]]'' [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory loosely based off of]] [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kirsten_Costas the 1984 murder of Kirsten Costas]] and plays up a lot of the facts of the case for entertainment value (namely in painting the likeable and popular Costas as a mean girl). That said, the film was still well-received by fans and even spawned a remake 25 years later, this time actually named ''Death of a Cheerleader'' where Martin makes a small role.

* BookEnds: beginning and end of the film showcases loons swimming in a pond and an instrumental accompanying a shot of the prestigious Miramonte High School.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Boy howdy. The victim is painted to be an unlikable bitch who viewers aren't supposed to sympathize with whereas the killer is the one painted as innocent and killing impulsively.

* NeverMyFault: Principal Saxe gives a so-called RousingSpeech to his students to "be the best" which basically implies for them to indulge in materialism and improving Miramonte's image by succeeding at competitive sports then lavishing attention to those who do while dismissing or outright ignoring those who don't. Yet, when interviewed on the news about the murder, he blatantly denies that there was a problem with either subject and writes Angela off as a "sick kid".
* PennyAmongDiamonds: Angela is considerably less well-off than the majority of the students at Miramonte.

''A Friend To Die For'' (also known as ''Death of a Cheerleader'') is a 1994 TV movie that first premiered on Creator/{{NBC}}. It starts Kellie Martin, Tori Spelling, Valerie Harper, Creator/TerryOQuinn, Creator/MarleyShelton and Creator/JamesAvery.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Angela and Jill. The former and Angela were also implied to be this before they transferred from their old school.
* InWithTheInCrowd: Angela namely but Jaime is a more downplayed version.

* LightIsNotGood: Stacy is almost always seen wearing light-colored clothing, usually white. Yet, she's one of the most unpleasant people in the film.

* NeverMyFault: Principal Saxe gives a so-called RousingSpeech to to his students to "be the best" which basically implies for them to indulge in materialism and improving Miramonte's image then lavishing attention to those who do while dismissing or outright ignoring those who don't. Yet, when interviewed on the news about the murder, he blatantly denies that there was a problem with either subject and dismisses Angela as a "sick" kid.

* ProducePelting: In the aftermath of Stacy's murder, Monica is pelted with garbage at an assembly by other students who believed that she killed her.
* RaisedCatholic: Both Angela and Jaime used to attend a Catholic school and even go to confession. Specifically, Angela's mother is a devout Catholic who spends an hour of everyday reading the Bible and praying.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Angela gets two well-deserved examples in the film; first from Monica, who calls her out for sucking up to Stacy in order to wine her "friendship" and the other from a girl she was counseling in drug rehab who correctly pointed out that her kind doesn't care about people like her out of righteousness but to gain brownie points.
* UnfortunateNames: Principal Ed Saxe has a derogatory nickname made up by the upperclassmen of "Ex-lax". Considering how stuck-up and full of shot he is, it may cross for being a MeaningfulName.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Angela and Jill. The former and Angela were also implied to be this before they transferred.

''A Friend To Die For'' (also known as ''Death of a Cheerleader'') is a 1994 TV movie that first premiered on Creator/{{NBC}}. It starts Kellie Martin, Tori Spelling, Valerie Harper, Creator/MarleyShelton and Creator/JamesAvery.

* AlphaBitch: Stacy, who loves to bully and mock those she doesn't like, namely loner goth Monica.