Satan’s Cheerleaders (1977)

Movie Info

Could it be…Satan!?!

The cheer squad of Benedict High School lives life day-to-day as queens of the school, much to the anger of the school’s janitor Billy (Jack Kruschen).  When Billy is fired, his true side is revealed.  Billy is part of a Satanic cult, and he’s found the cult’s the virgins for their sacrifices.  Unfortunately for the cult, times have changed and finding virgins among a group of cheerleaders could be difficult.

Directed by Greydon Clark, Satan’s Cheerleaders is a B-Movie horror-comedy.  The film was released in June of 1977 and frequently was played as a midnight movie.

Webster’s grandpa perving on the cheerleaders…Ma’am and George would be so upset

With a poster touting “Funnier than The Omen, Scarier than Silent Movie”, the tone of Satan’s Cheerleaders was set.  This concept of the horror comedy is a tricky one and with the low budget and quality of the movie, Satan’s Cheerleaders was pretty much damned for failure.

The story for the movie plays out as a dark comedy, but with the cheap look and poor acting, the parody nature of the movie fails.  It just can’t pull off a smart script.  Even though it is only 90 minutes, the time creeps in this film which never finds any sense of direction.  The one really clever plot point of the movie is that the only virgin among the group is the cheerleader coach…who gets raped and loses her virginity.  It is dark but does get the tone that the movie tries to set up…unfortunately, it is too little too late (and with too much random Satan stuff thrown in).

The cheerleaders and the Satanists put on a rousing rendition of Jesus Christ Superstar

The acting for the film is quite horrible, but it does have some standout actors.  It is the last film of Charlie Chaplin’s son Sydney Chaplin who plays one of the Satanists (he stopped acting after this winner).  Horror stalwart John Carradine plays a homeless man in the movie and Jack Kruschen is the Satanist janitor.  The girls are all pretty poor actors but the movie smartly labels each of the generic characters by having their names sewed into their shirts.

The movie looks quite bad.  It has that ultra-cheap ’70s feel to accent the horrible acting.  There is something appealing about the gritty nature of ’70s films, but it doesn’t always equal gold.  I like the style of the film (the whole opening sequence has a disco funk generic music theme under it), but I also recognize that it is quite bad and poorly produced.  The movie was a cheap attempt at a T&A movie, and it looks like it.

I saw Satan’s Cheerleaders multiple times airing late at night on TV.  With no cable, you watched whatever horror you can find.  Often the worst movies were the best, and Satan’s Cheerleaders definitely qualifies.  The movie falls into the “so-bad-it-is-good” category and is definitely worth seeking out for connoisseurs of bad horror.