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Pep Squad (1998) 
 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0131534/

Written and directed by first-time filmmaker Steve Balderson, Pep Squad is a colourful, shocking and generally amusing comedy set in the brutal realm of modern high school. The mania begins as soon as several girls are nominated for prom queen, with one notable exception – the hateful and despicable Cherry has not been nominated, and man, is she angry. Cherry takes to murdering a handful of the candidates, while a trio of relatively “normal” teens finds itself embroiled in a web of unrelated kidnapping, murder and basic teenage mischief.

 Brooke Balderson ...  Cherry 
 Amy Kelly ...  Terra Simpson 
 Jennifer Dreiling ...  Beth Violet 
 Summer Makovkin ...  Julie Thurman 
 Adrian Pujol ...  Scott Mendota 
 Eric Sherman ...  Lester 'The Molester' Anderson 
 Betti O ...  Miss Nelson 
 Meghan McDonald ...  Suicide Chick 
 Tricia Johnson ...  LaTaqwa 
 Miriam Climenhaga ...  Kelly 
 Richard McCauley ...  Tommy 
 Nancy Pujal ...  Barbara Violet 
 Mike Rogers ...  Carl Violet 
 Fran Albright ...  Wanda Clark 
 Molly McPeak ...  Thelma Melvins 

Beth, Julie, and Scott have the school principal bound and gagged in their basement, the result of the vile educator’s licentious advances on Beth. Unfortunately, a truly bizarre prom queen candidate named Terra (Scott refers to her as the world’s most absurd person) has witnessed the crime, and promptly blackmails her way into the twisted proceedings. Julie decides to hire Cherry to kill Terra, partially because Cherry’s been murdering people left and right, anyway and partially because Cherry hates Terra. (Several of the movie’s more entertaining moments come as profane and insane screaming matches between Cherry and Terra.) 

On a technical level, Pep Squad is quite impressive – especially considering the relatively meagre budget the filmmakers had to work with. As a director, Balderson keeps things moving along at a brisk pace and you’d be hard pressed to find another low-budget movie that crams in as much off-kilter colour as Pep Squad does. For the most part, the cast is a pleasant surprise as well; Brooke Balderson’s rabid performance as Cherry could sear the paint off your walls (that’s a compliment), and the lovely Summer Makovkin (as Julie) delivers a smart, sexy performance as well. The highlight of the cast is Amy Kelly as Terra, an actress who seems to think she’s playing Divine in a John Waters-directed biopic. Kelly’s performance is strange, obnoxious and over-the-top hilarious. 

If you were under the impression that topics like pedophilia, kidnapping, mass murder, and teenagers blowing each other away with shotguns are “too real” for comedy, then it’s too bad that nobody told Steve Balderson. Pep Squad rockets from shock to jolt to outright assault, never once pausing to apologize, and the result is a solid little “sick joke” of a comedy, one that would never be released by a “normal” studio (seeing as how the big studios generally like their black comedies to come “already eviscerated” a la Jawbreaker or Teaching Mrs. Tingle). 

Much like those really nasty jokes you reserve for only your closest friends, Pep Squad will probably be most appreciated by those with an open mind and a penchant for sick humour that knows no boundaries. If this movie doesn’t offend the living hell out of you, I bet you’ll have a ball with it. 


B-Movie Film Festival 
 
2000  Won B-Movie Award Best Screenplay Steve Balderson 
2000  Won B-Movie Award Best Supporting Actress Brooke Balderson 
2000  Nominated B-Movie Award Best B-Movie Steve Balderson  

Fantasporto 
 
1999  Nominated International Fantasy Film Award Best Film Steve Balderson