1987’s The Majorettes takes place in a small town in Pennsylvania.  It’s the type of town where everyone follows the high school football team, everyone goes to church on Sunday, and everyone admires the baton-twirling high school majorettes, even more so than the cheerleaders.

Unfortunately, it appears that someone is murdering the majorettes, one-by-one.  The first majorette victim is murdered while out on a date with Tommy, the class nerd.  (Poor old Tommy is killed as well.)  Her body is left in a creek.  The second victim is killed while lounging in front of her swimming pool.  The third victim is killed in the shower.  Detective Roland Martell (Cal Hetrick) thinks that the murders are linked to some sort of purification ritual.  Sheriff Braden (Mark V. Jivicky) says that he agrees but he doesn’t really have much time to worry about motives.  Braden’s dismissal of Martell could be due to the fact that Braden is a deeply religious man who we first see observing a creek baptism and singing a gospel song.  Meanwhile, Martell is an agnostic who is having an affair with a teenage girl named Nicole (Jacqueline Bowman).

Who could be the murderer?  Could it be Harry (Harold K. Keller), the slow-witted handyman who is always watching the majorettes while they’re practicing and who peeps on them and takes pictures while they’re changing in the locker room?

Could it be Harry’s mother, Helga (Denise Huot)?  Helga is a nurse who is plotting to murder both majorette Vicky McAlister (Terrie Godfrey) and her grandmother as a part of her plot to inherit the McAlister fortune.  But just because Helga is planning to kill one majorette, that doesn’t necessarily mean that she killed the others.

Or could the murderer be the school’s resident dope dealer, Mace (Tom E. Desrocher)?  Mace spends most of his time hanging out with his gang in their trailer, which is decorated with Confederate flags and 666 graffiti.  Mace was seen with the first victim and quarterback Jeff Holloway (Kevin Kindlin) is pretty sure that Mace was responsible for the murder.  When Jeff goes to the police, Mace decides to go after Jeff.

Anyone of them could be the murderer.  I won’t spoil the killer’s identity, beyond telling you that we learn who the killer is about halfway through the film.  And once the killer is known, The Majorettes goes from being a high school slasher film to being a backwoods action/revenge film, complete with shotguns being fired, vehicles blowing up, and Jeff the clean-cut quarterback suddenly running around with an arsenal of weapons.  Ultimately, The Majorettes feels like 3 different movies in one, with moments of horror balanced with scenes of Lifetime-style melodrama and Cannon-style action.  To be honest, the entire film is a bit silly but there’s enough twists and turns to hold one’s interest.  It’s hard not to enjoy the film’s “just toss it all in” approach to storytelling.

The Majorettes was based on a novel by John Russo, who is also credited as one of the screenwriters on Night of the Living Dead.  The film itself was directed by Bill Hinzman, who played the first zombie to show up in Romero’s classic film.  There’s not much visual flair to Hinzman’s direction but he keeps the action moving and really, that’s the most important thing that one can do with a film like The Majorettes.