All Cheerleaders Die

A zombie and a cheerleader work together to show their community what can be achieved when they embrace their differences, the Netflix original movie reveals. The film stars Milo Manheim as zombie football player Zed and Meg Donnelly as human cheerleader Addison. According to the official synopsis, they are both beginning their senior year at Seabrook High in a town that’s become a safe haven for monsters and humans. Zed is anticipating an athletic scholarship that will make him the first zombie to attend college, and Addison is gearing up for Seabrook’s first international cheer-off competition.

However, when one of the cheerleaders is bitten by a zombie squirrel and begins to mutate, their world falls apart. Suddenly they’re not only battling normal jocks, nerds and plastics but also the undead. To add to the chaos, the mutating virus is transmitted by a voodoo curse and spreads with alarming speed.

The script, written by Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson, takes full advantage of its premise. It deftly veers between horror and comedy, and the result is a highly entertaining movie. The cast is impressive, and they all deliver spot on performances. The gore is decent, and one kill with a chainsaw is especially well executed. But the clunky direction ultimately sabotages it.

All Cheerleaders Die owes a huge debt to Diablo Cody and Karyn Kusama’s 1999 film Jennifer’s Body, a horror comedy that was largely dismissed at the time but has since been re-examined as a feminist classic. The film puts female friendships front and centre while addressing issues that #MeToo would tackle years later.