"THREE CHEERS FOR PEP SQUAD" by Celuloyd.

What do they say about a woman scorned? Oh, yeah, don't "F" with her. That's pretty much the plot of Pep Squad, a movie whose title may give an unsuspecting viewer the wrong idea. This movie, shot on what looks to be 35mm in the middle of the country somewhere (my guess is Kansas), features only a few scenes with actual cheerleaders. The story is, on the surface, the old cliché of the girl who loses homecoming queen and gets revenge on the winner, except writer/director Steve Balderson takes Pep Squad a tad further. The girl, Cherry, in this case played by Brooke Balderson, is the daughter of the town Gynecologist and has more disposable income than a team of homosexual veterinarians (look it up), which comes in handy later in the film. It turns out she isn't even picked to compete for queen, and she makes sure every person in the school knows that she is NOT happy about it, then, one by one, and with tongue planted firmly in cheek, proceeds to dispose of her non-competition. Nevertheless, that fortunately isn't the only story line.

A few other students, including Julie, a writer for the school newspaper (Summer Makovkin), Scott, the popular but wimpy class president (Adrian Pujol), and Beth, the new girl (Jennifer Dreiling), referred to from here on as "the three," have had it up to here with their sadistic, molesting principal and take matters into their own hands. Through some very comical moments, they kidnap him, take him to the writer's house (of course, while her parents are out of town), and tie him up in the basement while they decide what to do with him.

As the story continues, Cherry teams up with "the three" to settle some unfinished business, and their antics provide some real belly laughs, even if as you are cracking up, you are saying to yourself, "should I be laughing at THIS?"

This photography in Pep Squad is some of the best I've seen on an independent level and rivals (and actually outdoes) many major motion pictures I've seen. The lone exception to this is a scene that is supposed to be a high school track party. I ran track in high school and no party I ever went to looked like this…naked women walking around, people having a lotta fun in a hot tub, colored lighting that makes it look like a strip club or a night in the Playboy mansion…and it's supposed to be some high school kid's back yard! However, judging by the satire of the rest of the movie, I'm guessing this is just another scene that Balderson takes "over the edge."

Another detail that goes almost unnoticed on a conscious level, but really makes a huge difference in the professionalism of the film, is the costume and set design. A great deal of importance was placed on the look of each and every character in Pep Squad, from the touch of red in every aspect of Cherry, to the white, virginal look of Beth, to the retro look of Terra (the busy-body, played by Amy Kelly). There are many extremely funny moments, as well as some truly disturbing moments (considering the rash of school violence lately) in Pep Squad, but as scorned-prom-queen-demented-principal-we're-all-the-same-on-the-inside movies go, it ranks at the top of my heap. RAH RAH RAH for Pep Squad!