Frightfest 2022: ‘Powertool Cheerleaders vs. The Boyband of the Screeching Dead’ Review
Stars: Charlie Bond, James Hamer-Morton, Justin Chinyere, Dani Thompson, Faith Elizabeth, Megan Rose Buxton, Carrie Thompson, Liz Soutar, Annabella Rich, Lancelot Narayan, Rohin Dale, David Schaal | Written and Directed by Pat Higgins
On the eve of a televised talent show, an enthusiastic but dysfunctional cheerleading troop is on the brink of falling apart. But when a cursed necklace turns their rival boy band act into a screeching gang of zombies, the girls must learn to use their wits, friendship, and assorted power tools—before the TV finale takes a turn for the apocalyptic…
You know, I had no idea I needed another horror musical in my life after Anna and the Apocalypse but Powertool Cheerleaders vs. The Boyband of the Screeching Dead proved me wrong!
Much like Eating Miss Campbell, which also featured Charlie Bond and James Hamer-Morton, Powertool Cheerleaders vs. The Boyband of the Screeching Dead feels very much like a Troma movie. Not an in-house Troma movie but more like one of their distribution pick-ups – something more akin to They Parker’s Cannibal The Musical. In fact… Powertool Cheerleaders shares one major thing in common with Parker’s film. The light-hearted music!
Yes, for a horror movie about zombies, the occult, a horrifying bloodbath and a terrifyingly bad talent show (scarier than ANY horror film), Powertool Cheerleaders vs. The Boyband of the Screeching Dead has one hell of an upbeat soundtrack. But the songs featured within are also brilliant pastiches of the kinds of songs you’d see in teen movies like High School Musical – all the while knowing, and letting the audience know, that the entire thing is ridiculous in the best self-referential way possible!
From songs that play up the ridiculousness of what’s happening on screen – including something as innocuous as going on a road trip or being interviewed for the TV talent show that underlies the entire film – to brilliant fourth-wall-breaking lyrics like “…is this a rom-com or a teen romance?” referencing the love-story aspect of our two leads – one cheerleader, one singer, who are battling each other for talent show supremacy – a riff on a myriad of teen movies of old, even though this is solidly a camp horror spoof; and the STUNNING and hilarious “I’m just a guy dying on the floor…” song, in which an early victim of the killer boyband espouses how he’s only been on screen for a minute yet has dreams and desires for more.
The songs are both lyrically brilliant and brilliantly self-knowing. And that’s the main takeaway from Pat Higgins’ film. The fact IT knows it’s a film and the audience knows it’s a film, all of which leads to one of the best meta-endings to a film. Ever. As the character Emily reveals she’s not Emily but instead actress and producer Charlie Bond in a song that revels in deconstructing the movie and filmmaking as a whole and its relationship to the audience… and their lives (with the fantastic lyric “…the story’s just a play, and so is yours.”)
I could go on and on about how much I loved this low-budget, big-ideas, fourth-wall-destroying, life-affirming horror movie but I won’t. I’ll just say Powertool Cheerleaders vs. The Boyband of the Screeching Dead is probably one of my films of 2022!
***** 5/5
Powertool Cheerleaders vs. The Boyband of the Screeching Dead screened as part of this year’s Arrow Video London Frightfest.
