VCI Entertainment has
lined up a new 2K restoration — from the original 35mm camera negative — of
director Greydon Clark’s 1977 satanic horror tale, Satan’s Cheerleaders, for
delivery to fans as a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack on Nov. 7.
It all seems innocent
enough. Benedict High School
cheerleaders Patti (Kerry Sherman), Debbie (Alisa Powell), Chris (Hillary Horan)
and Sharon (Sherry Marks) practice their routines under the watchful eye of
their coach, Miss Johnson (Jacqulin Cole), and then take a little time off to
play some “touch” football with members of the school’s football team down on
the beach.
Your first thought is
that this is going to be a 1970’s sexploitation flick. High school cheerleaders, football players
and hormones — add in a long-standing rivalry with neighboring Baker High
School — and it all seems to point to just that, sexploitation; drive-in titillation!
But we soon discover that
Benedict High School is the secret home of a coven of witches who are in league
with, Billy (Jack Kruschen), the school’s creepy janitor and events will
quickly take Clark’s film in an entirely different direction.
When Miss Johnson’s car,
filled with the four cheerleaders, breaks down on the way to big game with
Baker, we know in our heart of hearts that this is the victim pool and things
are not going to go well for the girls.
But, wait, it’s Billy to the rescue, but instead of taking the
cheerleaders to the game he drives them to a secluded spot and puts the whammy
on Patti, who starts taking her clothes off!!!
Of course this is all too
much for Billy, who has a heart attack.
The girls and their coach find the local sheriff, whose name just
happens to be B. L. Bubb (John Ireland), and his wife Emmy (Yvonne De Carlo),
and they report all of the crazy things that happened on the way to the game.
As it turns out, only one
of the five among the cheerleaders and coach is a virgin, and the plan is to
offer her as a bride to Satan. The
sheriff and his wife are in on it. Which
one is it? The rest, of course, are
expendable. To complicate matters,
Patti is still under Billy’s spell and the clock is ticking … they might not
make the game!
Satan’s Cheerleaders is one of those mixed-genre indie films from the
period that actually exceeded all expectations. It works both as a sexploitation film — with
some unexpected violence — and a nice twist-and-turn horror film.
Bonus features include a
commentary track with director Greydon Clark (Black Shampoo, Without Warning,
Joysticks, etc.) and a behind-the-scenes photo gallery.
No comments:
Post a Comment