Cheerleader Nightmare (2018 TV Movie)
5/10
Who Killed Leah Dumont?
7 July 2020
Warning: Spoilers
A tragedy occurs at Cleveland High School when head cheerleader Leah Dumont is murdered. She met her maker after being pushed down a flight of stairs. The question is: Who Dunnit????

This extremely slow-paced film never developed much suspense. The characters in the community put their heads together to try to figure who is the killer. One pair of thinking heads is the head of the football program, Coach Parke,r and the head coach of the cheerleaders, Coach White. But all they do is think aloud about the behavior of their greasy football players and catty cheerleaders. I was at least waiting for some romantic sparks to fly between the two coaches, but that never happened.

A better team of detectives is Sophie White, the daughter the cheerleading coach, and her nerdy friend Mikey, whose drone has captured images of a party that might reveal clues about the death of Miss Dumont. The last person to see her alive was Ryan Dell, ol' number 87 on the football team and the beau of Sophie.

The photos from the drone reveal that Ryan was kissing Leah. Then, the couple disappeared into the house. Ryan has an unsavory background with his father doing hard time in prison for robbery. Ryan himself came under the long arm of the law for committing vandalism. But Coach Parker swears that Ryan is a good kid who has reformed and deserves a second chance, especially due to his football talents.

The film is unsuccessful in developing a clear bonding between Sophie and her single-parent mom, Paula. The mother wants to instill in her daughter the values of cooperation, teamwork, and leadership apparent in the discipline of the cheerleading squad. But Sophie is a rebel who resists the efforts of her mother. Sophie wants to be her own person and has no interest in superficial organizations like cheerleading. The plot was really strained when Sophie was "grounded" and her cell phone confiscated for no justified reason.

This was a subpar film due to the lack of imagination in the narrative that included plot holes. It was never made clear who slammed Sophie into a locker, bloodying her nose. Was it the backbiting Reeva, who moved into the head cheerleader spot after Leah's death? It was also strange that the police were not deeply involved in the case. It was all up to the members of the community to muddle their way through in solving the deep, dark mystery of Cleveland High.
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