All Cheerleaders Die is a 2013 Comedy Horror film written and directed by Lucky McKee (the man behind May, The Woman and the Masters of Horror episode "Sick Girl") and Chris Sivertson (who directed I Know Who Killed Me).
The plot follows a girl named Maddy (Caitlin Stasey) who joins the cheerleading squad following the death of her friend and former captain in a freak accident. When she and the other girls are killed in a car accident unintentionally caused by football players, they are resurrected as zombie cannibal succubi.
This film is actually a remake of a film McKee and Sivertson both shot back in 2001.
This film has examples of the following tropes:
- All Guys Want Cheerleaders: All the cheerleaders are treated as Head-Turning Beauty and Lust Object for both the characters and the audience. Their uniforms are the types that expose their midriffs and legs.
- Academic Athlete: Maddy, who is both very studious and athletic. She mentions she used to do gymnastics when she was younger.
- Adults Are Useless: The only adult presence in the film is a teacher that Vik attempts to report to concerning the car accident with the cheerleaders, but then he sees them all come to the school looking perfectly fine, so he changes his mind.
- Alpha Bitch: Alexis definitely qualifies as this before she dies in the opening scene, being the hot, popular girl with a bitchy attitude and being the captain of the cheerleading squad. She's replaced by her Beta Bitch Tracy, who maintains most of the same attributes.
- Ambiguously Bi: Tracy seems to be bi, as she's been with Terry in the past but later is attracted to Maddy (they also have sex). Her sexual orientation is not discussed in the film however.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Martha's younger sister Hanna (who dresses as the school mascot) is ironically looked at as this by everyone except her sister.
- Attractive Zombie: All of the resurrected cheerleaders retain their attractive appearance.
- Ax-Crazy: Terry was already a psychopath with homicidal tendencies but initially of the stoic and cool kind. Once he gains the stones' power he becomes truly bloody insane.
- Bear Trap: Terry digs a pit trap in the cemetery and lines it with bear traps as part of his plan to destroy the cheerleaders. It winds up killing Tracy when a bear trap closes on her head.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished:
- Averted with Tracy, who gets an ugly bruise on her face after Terry punches her.
- Downplayed on regards to the drowned cheerleaders, who only get a few superficial wounds and look much better than actual drowning victims would.
- Bed Trick: Hanna has sex with Manny while in Martha's body, effectively raping both Manny and Martha, but the movie doesn't seem to realize this. Martha is appropriately pissed off when she learns of it, but the movie never addresses it as rape.
- Betty and Veronica: Tracy and Leena are this for Maddy's Archie, although it's debatable as to who is the Betty and who is the Veronica. Tracy's status as the Lovable Alpha Bitch and her relationship with Maddy being relatively recent, along with Leena's low social status and deep history with Maddy paint them as, respectively, the Veronica and the Betty. It's complicated, though, by the fact that Maddy was at least initially using Tracy to anger Terry, whereas Tracy had been genuine in her feelings for Maddy and with Leena being a bit of a Stalker with a Crush towards Maddy.
- Big Bad: Terry the Jerk Jock who incites all the events on the movie, from raping Maddy to killing the cheerleaders.
- Big Man on Campus: Terry, being the handsome and most popular guy on school and captain of the football team.
- Brainy Brunette: The brunette Maddy is much more studious and intelligent than her fellow cheerleaders, who are mostly Brainless Beauties.
- Brick Joke: When picking Maddy up for the party, Tracy makes a snide comment to Leena (who had been talking to Maddy) about her self-made clothes. Later, when the cheerleaders wake up in Leena's room after she resurrects them, Tracy is the only one who isn't wearing one of Leena's clothes, instead left in her bra and underwear.
- Came Back Strong: All the cheerleaders get Super-Strength after they're resurrected.
- Came Back Wrong: Leena uses her magic to bring Maddy and the other cheerleaders Back from the Dead. She succeeds, but they return as zombie cannibal succubi. And with the exception of Maddy, all their personalities change drastically for the worse.
- Childhood Friends: Alexis and Maddy used to be friends when they were young, which is why Maddy is making the documentary film at the start as a favor to Alexis, despite clearly not caring about cheerleading. It's also why she goes on her Revenge quest.
- Crime After Crime: After Terry punches Tracy, the rest of the cheerleaders intend to report it, which will likely get him kicked out of school. So Terry rams his car on theirs, sending them off the road into the water where they drown.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Terry cutting the stones out of the cheerleaders (or attempting to) is played similarly to sexual violence and violation. In particular, the scene where Maddy confides in Leena that Terry had raped her shortly after Lexi's death, the flashbacks of this event (and Maddy's description of it) are interplayed with Terry's first kill, Hanna in Martha's body with some of Maddy's narration matching what’s happening.
- Domestic Abuse: Terry punches Tracy, his girlfriend, right in the face after she publicly insults him about being a bad lover and praises Maddy as fantastic.
- Drunk on the Dark Side: Terry after swallowing the Wicca stones and obviously taking pleasure in his new power shows his inner haminess in strong contrast with the cold-blooded and almost emotionless sociopath he was before.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Leena, a goth girl, has dark brown hair and nearly alabaster skin. She stalks her ex-girlfriend Maddy at first while practicing Wicca magic in a rather creepy fashion. It turns out that she's Creepy Good though, with her saving Maddy and the other girls who Terry had killed.
- Emasculated Cuckold: Terry is extremely angry at Maddy for seducing Tracy, especially because she's not only a girl but also a much better lover than him.
- Empty Shell: All that's left of the men the cheerleaders feed on are lifeless husks.
- Evil Wears Black: The newly Came Back Wrong cheerleaders start to wear a black version of their uniforms to school.
- Forced Orgasm: When Hanna has sex with Manny in the bathroom and reaches her climax, it causes Maddy, Martha, Leena and Tracy to all experience it due to their Psychic Link. It's particularly humiliating for Maddy and Martha, since the former was trying to intimidate Terry, while the latter was in the school hallways filled with students.
- Foreshadowing: In the prologue, Alexis is telling a dismissive Maddy about cheerleader being the "most dangerous sport in American high school" due to all the injuries. A few minutes later, Alexis ends up breaking her neck while practicing.
- Former Friend of Alpha Bitch: Downplayed. Maddy and Alexis were close Childhood Friends, but grew more distant as they grew older and pursued different interests, but they still remained good enough friends.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: When Leena resurrected the girls, she inadvertently swapped Hannah and Martha's bodies with each other.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: Inverted In-Universe. Terry does not take Tracy hooking up with Maddy very well at all.
- Girls vs. Boys Plot: A more deadly example. Terry essentially sets up a war of the sexes between the cheerleaders (the "bitches") and his football squad (the "dogs").
- Goth Girls Know Magic: The goth Leena is capable of doing Wiccan magic, which she uses to bring the cheerleaders Back from the Dead. She also casually brings her cat Back from the Dead when Tracy accidentally kills it.
- Horror Hunger: The resurrected cheerleaders can only feed on human blood (and are implied to also be draining their souls) and it quickly becomes apart that they need a lot of it. Maddy, Martha and Hanna are pretty horrified about it, but Tracy doesn't really care.
- Hot as Hell: Played With. After initially seducing him into letting his guard down enough for her to pierce his skin, Tracy seems to Mind Control Leena's neighbor Larry into staying still so that she and the other zombie cheerleaders can feed off of him, and it’s during her Psychic Link orgasm that her stone is driven through Ben's skull and allows her to absorb his blood.
- Incompatible Orientation: Vik has a crush on Maddy, apparently unaware that she is a lesbian.
- The Immodest Orgasm: When the girls get to experience Hanna's orgasm, most of them collapse on the floor and moan rather loudly, with only Maddy managing to control herself not to scream. Tracy screams, Leena writhes on the floor moaning, and Martha falls to her knees and calls for Jesus.
- Jerk Jock: All of the football players, with the exception of Vik, but especially Terry. Unfortunately that's not even the worst of him.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: After Lexi's death, Maddy wanted to make a memorial film for her, inviting Terry to be a part of it, noting that despite always seeing him as an asshole, he acted like a boyfriend in mourning and attempted to console him. Then he raped her.
- Justified Title: By the end of the film, all of the cheerleaders are killed by Terry. Maddy doesn't count as she was merely infiltrating the group as part of her revenge on him and was never really one of them to begin with. Though there are multiple cheerleaders who aren't main characters that presumably survive.
- Knight Templar Big Brother: Martha is this for her little sister Hanna, being very protective of her when she's mistreated or exposed to something "indecent".
- Large Ham: Terry after eating the Wiccan stones gets far more dramatic and florid because of how they energize him.
- Letting Her Hair Down: Maddy wears her hair up when she's being her true self, and lets it down when she's playing as her "cheerleader" self, in order to look more "wild" and "sexy".
- Life Will Kill You: Alexis gets a Surprisingly Sudden Death when a botched move during cheerleading practice has her fall in a bad angle, causing her neck to break.
- Lingerie Scene: Tracy wakes up in her underwear after she resurrects, and stays that way for a while, even going outside without a care to get food.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Maddy and Leena both wear makeup and feminine clothing, with Maddy especially being indistinguishable from the other cheerleaders in her style. Tracy, who also has sex with Maddy, is pretty much a Girly Girl as well. Played with, though, in that Leena is more of a Perky Goth and that Maddy is implied to have been closer to a Butch Lesbian before changing her look to join the cheer squad.
- Loser Team Mascot: The awkward and shy Hanna is the team's mascot, and is looked down upon by the cheerleaders.
- Lousy Lovers Are Losers: Terry never managed to give Tracy an orgasm, something she rubs in his face in public to humiliate him.
- Make Way for the Princess: Done by Leena and the newly undead cheerleaders on the first day of school. Featuring stunned reactions from the bystanders, and done in slow motion to catch every swish of the cheerleaders' hips.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places:
- Maddy and Tracy have sex in the woods together.
- Hanna, in Martha's body, has sex with Manny in the disabled bathroom, angering a student in a wheelchair who is pounding on the door wanting to get in.
- Male Gaze: Lots of (often slow motion) shots of the female character's bodies-in particular during their workouts and the pool party-some of which is explicitly from Terry's point of view.
- Ms. Fanservice: All of the cheerleaders get fanservice scenes, but Tracy gets the most, including spending a lot of time in just her underwear.
- Ninja Pirate Robot Zombie: The cheerleaders are resurrected by Leena's Wiccan magic stones as cannibalistic succubi.
- Not Me This Time: Terry is an asshole and guilty of a lot of things, but Maddy was actually lying to Tracy when she said he cheated on her.
- Oh, Crap!: The very final scene has Leena saying this as she sees Alexis rising from her grave.
- Pool Scene: The cheerleaders' traditional annual pool party, with all of the cheerleaders in bikinis. It is here that Maddy plants the first seeds to break up Tracy and Terry.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Some of the Jerk Jocks refer to Maddy as a dyke to insult her.
- Post-Coital Collapse: When the girls suddenly experience Hanna's orgasm via their Psychic Link, they all drop to the floor in ecstasy.
- Psychic Link: The girls and Leena all become psychically linked after they're resurrected, able to sense when the others are having sex or feeding.
- Rape as Backstory: Unknown to any of the others, Terry secretly raped Maddy when she attempted to console him after Alexis' death, leading to her hatred of him and plot to ruin his life.
- Rape and Revenge Terry raped Maddy shortly after Alexis's death when she went to his house to record a tribute to her. She joined the cheerleader squad with the purpose of getting close to him and ruining his life, which she starts by seducing his girlfriend.
- The Remake: Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson shot the original film back in 2001 immediately after graduating from college.
- Romancing the Widow: Downplayed. Alexis and Terry were only dating, but many people disapprove of Tracy hooking up with Terry only a few months after Alexis's death. Tracy herself feels conflicted about it.
- Sequel Hook: The film ends with Alexis rising from her grave.
- Sex Goddess: Maddy is apparently extraordinary in bed.Tracy: [describing sex with Maddy] Three people in my life have made me cum. Myself, of course. This really sweet boy at summer camp, the summer after freshman year. Lovely fingers on that boy. And then, not even ten minutes ago, I got my friggin' socks rocked off.
- Sexual Karma: Protagonist Maddy is apparently an excellent lover, in contrast Jerk Jock Terry is a sociopath and a terrible one.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: When Tracy and Maddy sleep together in the woods, we see them kissing on the ground while they take their clothes off as the scene cuts away. The next time we see them, they're stepping out of the woods with smiles on their faces.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: Tracy seems to lose all sense of modesty after being resurrected, walking around in her underwear in public without an ounce of shame.
- Shaming the Mob: Maddy is outraged that none of the other jocks turn against Terry after he punches Tracy in the face, calling them all pussies.
- Shoulders-Up Nudity: When Hanna (in Martha's body) takes off her clothes to have sex with Manny, we only see her from the shoulders up or with Toplessness from the Back. Subverted in the unrated version, which does show her breasts.
- Showing Off the New Body: When Hanna finds herself in Martha's body, it isn't long before she starts flaunting her form in a way that the conservative Martha never did.
- The Sociopath: Terry is guilty of a laundry list of horrific acts, ranging from raping Maddy and punching Tracy in the face for criticizing his sexual prowess to running the girls off the road and letting them drown while unconscious. Although he did seem just as shocked as everyone else and he clearly didn't mean to kill them, he still showed no remorse about leaving them to die and saving his own skin. He gets worse after he starts eating Leena's Wiccan stones.
- Soul Jar: The Wiccan stones become this to the cheerleaders after they get brought Back from the Dead. Terry rips them off their bodies, which gets them Killed Off for Real.
- Stalker with a Crush: Maddy ex, Leena, keeps stalking her even after they broke up, partly due to being worried over her sudden personality change, partly because she's a Clingy Jealous Girl.
- The Stoner: Several members of the football squad, to the point their van lets out so much steam it looks like a smoking machine.
- The Stinger: The film ends with Alexis being resurrected by one of Leena's crystals. The film then cuts to the title card, which reveals that the film is part one in a series and that there will be a sequel.
- Teeny Weenie: Discussed and defied. Tracy tells Terry using this against him would be too cliche. He isn't big, but ultimately the problem isn't the size but that he doesn't know what to do with it.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: A Verbal Tic of Alexis and Tracy is to end their phrases with "bitch".
- Time Skip: The movie skips to three months after the prologue, where most of the story takes place.
- Token Good Teammate: Vik is the only one that tries to stand up to Terry, quitting the team and trying to report what happened to the girls.
- Token Religious Teammate: Despite being a cheerleader, Martha acts and dresses very conservatively due to being very religious. Terry calls her a "Jesus freak who never puts out".
- Undressing the Unconscious: After Leena brings all the cheerleaders Back from the Dead she apparently brought them all to her place, and dressed them all up in her clothing. Except for Tracy, because she insulted Leena's clothes earlier.
- We Named the Monkey "Jack": Leena names her new kitten 'Princess Madeline' after her crush. Maddy is less than impressed (and more than a little squicked out) by this turn of events. Even Leena admits it's pathetic.
- Woman Scorned: Martha feeds on Manny after she finds out Hanna and he had sex, mostly to hurt Hanna.
- Would Hit a Girl: Terry has no problem punching Tracy in the face after she taunts him about the size of his penis and her hooking up with Maddy. And after he finds out how the girls were resurrected, he shows no qualms with cutting the Wiccan stones right out of them, effectively re-killing them.
