Not to be confused with the 1987 Australian movie of the same name, this misfiring slasher/horror spoof is set in the town of It Had to Be, Indiana, home of It Had to Be University – or It Had to Be U (that’s the level of humour you can look forward to)
It’s 1963, and fullback Blue Grange (Tab Hunter playing a teenager) has just scored the winning touchdown in the National Championships.
Celebrations are short-lived when five cheerleaders are skewered together on a javelin thrown by an unseen murderer. In the aftermath, the university’s summer cheerleading camp is closed down.
Fast-forward to 1982, and the camp is being reopened with Bambi (Candice Azzara), who survived the 1963 massacre, as the chief instructor.
Pepe the maintenance man (Laverne & Shirley star David Lander) and his crazy mother, Salt (Izabella Telezynska), both caution against reopening the camp, but Bambi presses ahead anyway.
The various victims assemble, including the psychic Candy (Carol Kane), male cheerleader Glenn Dandy (Judge Reinhold in a silly blonde wig), dental hygiene obsessed Mandy (Teri Landrum), Sandy (Debralee Scott from Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman), who gets a lift from President Reagan, and more male cheerleaders, stoners Andy (Miles Chapin) and Randy (Marc McClure).
Also on hand is an incongruous Canadian Mountie, Sgt. Reginald Cooper (Tom Smothers) and his sidekick Johnson (Paul Reubens, aka Pee Wee Herman), who are on the trail of an escaped mass murderer named Jarrett (Richard Romanus), who killed his family with a drill and turned them into bookshelves.
They’re soon being picked off one by one with wearying predictability and a fatal absence of decent jokes.
The script is just terrible. Bad jokes are fired off in scattershot fashion with references to Carrie(1976), Godzilla(1954) and The Wolf Man (1941) thrown in among the slasher references.
The film flopped at the box office amidst almost uniformly dreadful reviews.
Bambi
Candice Azzara Pepe
David L. Lander Salt
Izabella Telezynska Candy
Carol Kane Mandy
Teri Landrum Sandy
Debralee Scott Andy
Miles Chapin Randy
Marc McClure Glenn Dandy
Judge Reinhold Joe the Fry Cook
Alix Elias Pete
Ebbe Roe Smith Chip Jr.
Bradley Lieberman Sgt Reginald Cooper
Tom Smothers Johnson
Paul Reubens Fletcher
Jim Boeke Crystal
Candi Brough China
Randi Brough Dr Fuller
Gary Allen Warden June
Eve Arden Blue Grange
Tab Hunter Blue’s Mother
Edie McClurg Glenn’s Mother
Kaye Ballard Candy’s Mother
Eileen Brennan Mandy’s Mother
Victoria Carroll Mandy’s Dad
James MacKrell Glenn’s Dad
Donald O’Connor President
David Becker Coach
Lenny Montana Jarrett
Richard Romanus Male Nurse
Don McLeod
Director
Alfred Sole
Video
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The film flopped at the box office amidst almost uniformly dreadful reviews.
Sandy
Pete
Crystal
Blue’s Mother
