Satan's Cheerleaders (1977)

[Derf]

I saw the title, Satan's Cheerleaders, and couldn't resist buying it. The premise is that a warped janitor (Jack Kruschen), who is also a member of a satanic cult, spies on some cheerleaders through a hole in the shower wall and chooses one of them to be his and curses the rest to death. What he doesn't know is that the prince of darkness also apparently has a crush on this particular cheerleader. Anyway, on the way to the big game, the janitor follows the girls' car and chants until it nearly crashes. He then conveniently offers them a ride, but "detours" to a nearby satanic altar. Here, the cheerleader he has chosen strips and climbs on the altar, where Satan has his way with her (nothing graphic; just a lot of quick, zooming-in-and-out shots, close-ups of the satanic image, and face-shots of the cheerleader writhing in ecstasy. The janitor objects, claiming the girl is his, Satan promised (what are the chances of the lord of lies breaking his word? Go figure.), at which point he is killed the first time (he dies several times), via heart attack.

The girls run to Sheriff B.L. Bubb (John Ireland) for help, but, you guessed it, he is also a satanist--the lead satanist in fact (with a name like that, how could he not be?). His wife, Emma (Yvonne De Carlo) is the high priestess, and she recognizes the "chosen" cheerleader from somewhere. She then warns her husband to kill the cheerleaders because if he doesn't, the cult will be destroyed by the chosen one. It turns out that the chosen cheerleader is apparently a reincarnation of some grand high exalted priestess (Emma finds her picture in Satan's Book). I won't spoil the ending, even it is not at all suprising or shocking (although there is one semi-clever twist involving Sheriff Bubb).

The movie is half serious, half tongue in cheek. The actors play it straight, but the dialogue is (I hope) purposely atrocious, with the cheerleaders making constant double entendre jokes, while their sponsor, Ms. Johnson, never catches on that, surprisingly, the girls are all sluts to some degree. Some of it was painful to watch, some of it hilarious. I enjoyed it for the most part. I probably would have had more fun with it if I had watched it with friends, but very few people around here appreciate the haute couture of bad movies (yes, I know I'm not using haute couture in a proper context, but foreign phrases always sound better than plain old Amurrican talk, don't you think?).

Cameos by John Carradine and Sydney Chaplin add to the movie, and Yvonne De Carlo is always nice to watch. The title alone makes it a classic bad movie in my book, and these otherwise good actors that apparently really needed a paycheck make it watchable.

[lester1/2jr]

just knowing it has a john carradine  cameo was enough for me to want it.

[alandhopewell]

I saw the title, Satan's Cheerleaders, and couldn't resist buying it. The premise is that a warped janitor (Jack Kruschen), who is also a member of a satanic cult, spies on some cheerleaders through a hole in the shower wall and chooses one of them to be his and curses the rest to death. What he doesn't know is that the prince of darkness also apparently has a crush on this particular cheerleader. Anyway, on the way to the big game, the janitor follows the girls' car and chants until it nearly crashes. He then conveniently offers them a ride, but "detours" to a nearby satanic altar. Here, the cheerleader he has chosen strips and climbs on the altar, where Satan has his way with her (nothing graphic; just a lot of quick, zooming-in-and-out shots, close-ups of the satanic image, and face-shots of the cheerleader writhing in ecstasy. The janitor objects, claiming the girl is his, Satan promised (what are the chances of the lord of lies breaking his word? Go figure.), at which point he is killed the first time (he dies several times), via heart attack.

The girls run to Sheriff B.L. Bubb (John Ireland) for help, but, you guessed it, he is also a satanist--the lead satanist in fact (with a name like that, how could he not be?). His wife, Emma (Yvonne De Carlo) is the high priestess, and she recognizes the "chosen" cheerleader from somewhere. She then warns her husband to kill the cheerleaders because if he doesn't, the cult will be destroyed by the chosen one. It turns out that the chosen cheerleader is apparently a reincarnation of some grand high exalted priestess (Emma finds her picture in Satan's Book). I won't spoil the ending, even it is not at all suprising or shocking (although there is one semi-clever twist involving Sheriff Bubb).

The movie is half serious, half tongue in cheek. The actors play it straight, but the dialogue is (I hope) purposely atrocious, with the cheerleaders making constant double entendre jokes, while their sponsor, Ms. Johnson, never catches on that, surprisingly, the girls are all sluts to some degree. Some of it was painful to watch, some of it hilarious. I enjoyed it for the most part. I probably would have had more fun with it if I had watched it with friends, but very few people around here appreciate the haute couture of bad movies (yes, I know I'm not using haute couture in a proper context, but foreign phrases always sound better than plain old Amurrican talk, don't you think?).

Cameos by John Carradine and Sydney Chaplin add to the movie, and Yvonne De Carlo is always nice to watch. The title alone makes it a classic bad movie in my book, and these otherwise good actors that apparently really needed a paycheck make it watchable.

     Movies like this were the backbone of all-night tv in the 70's-80's; it played several times on MOVIE 5 during 1978 and '79.
Get together some friends, some Old English, some Chokin' Red, and it's Movie Time!

[RCMerchant]

I love the scene with the dogs....Yvonne tells them to attck,John Ireland calls them back...attack-back! Attack! Come Back!
Kills me.

[Chainsawmidget]

I enjoyed the movie, It was surprisingly lighthearted and far less explotative than the tile would suggest.  Normally I wouldn't view these as good things, but it worked here. 

[JPickettIII]

just knowing it has a john carradine  cameo was enough for me to want it.

2nd that!

[Warp Ninja X]

I remember watching this movie and Star Hops, The Pom Pom Girls, The Van, Van Nuys Blvd, and Supervan right after American Bandstand on channel 5 Cleveland in the late 70's early 80's good times.

[alandhopewell]

I remember watching this movie and Star Hops, The Pom Pom Girls, The Van, Van Nuys Blvd, and Supervan right after American Bandstand on channel 5 Cleveland in the late 70's early 80's good times.

     True dat! MOVIE 5, along with Channel 8's LATE NIGHT MOVIE / 8 ALL NIGHT, were the places to be for great American cheese.