Andre Anthony | Through the Shattered Lens

Opening with a montage of scenes from Night of the Living Dead mixed in with actual footage of civil unrest from the 60s, Festival of the Living Dead imagines a world where a zombie outbreak actually did occur in 1968.

Humanity survived. All of the zombies were apparently put down by human hunters and the plague of the living dead was ended. In order to commemorate the night of the living dead, a Festival of the Living Dead is held every year at the sight of the zombie outbreak. Over the past 55 years, the Festival has become a high-priced event that can only be attended by people who are willing to spend a lot of money for the honor to stay in tents, listen to live music, and set fire to a giant wicker woman. Essentially, the Festival of the Living Dead is Burning Man but instead of basing the festival of new age nonsense, the Festival is based on a zombie outbreak.

Unfortunately, those who attend the Festival have lost sight of what the party is supposed to be about. Now, instead of celebrating the survival of humanity and paying honor to those who lost their lives (sometimes more than once in one night!), the people attending the Festival are just influencers who are hoping to go viral. Early on in the film, Iris (Carmen Bicondova) point out how weird and tacky it is to have a festival celebrating an event where so many people died.

This year, the folks at the Festival of the Living Dead are going to be reminded about what the entire festival is supposed to be about! When one vlogger films himself snorting what he claims to be a crushed meteorite, everyone assumes that he’s just another person looking for online fame. But soon, he’s foaming at the mouth, throwing up, and then savagely attacking the festival staff. Of course, those who have seen the original Night of the Living Dead will remember the much-ridiculed scene in which a news reporter is heard to speculate that the dead are coming back to life due to space dust that was brought back to Earth by NASA. It turns out that reporter knew what he was talking about. It’s not just a case of Hell no longer having room for the dead. It’s the meteorites!

Ash (Ashley Moore) and her friends try to survive the Festival of the Living Dead, which turns out to not be an easy task. Not only are zombies famous for being relentless in their pursuit of the living but the living are famous for reacting to living dead outbreaks in the dumbest ways possible. Ash has one cool friend, that would be Iris. Unfortunately, the rest of her friends are nowhere near as smart. Fortunately, Ash has zombie hunting in her blood. Though the film doesn’t specifically state it, it’s suggested that her grandfather was Ben, the hero of Night of the Living Dead.

Festival of the Living Dead is a loving homage to Night of the Living Dead and its sequels. It’s undeniably derivative but it’s also made with so much love for the genre that it doesn’t matter that you’ll be able to guess who is going to live and who is going to die from the minute they first appear onscreen. Ashley Moore, Carmen Bicondova, and Christian Rose (as the film’s bravest character) all give strong performances and the film’s central joke — which is that everyone at the Festival is either too stoned or too stupid to initially notice the zombie outbreak — is one that works because it’s rooted in fact. Do you seriously think anyone at Burning Man would notice the living dead?

Autumn (Kayla Wallace) has just transferred to a new high school and she has a decision to make. At her old school, Autumn was the star of the dance team but it turns out that this new school doesn’t have a dance program. Instead, it appears that Autumn is going to have to settle for either becoming a cheerleader or working on the school paper.

It’s a difficult decision and it was one to which I could automatically relate. When I was in high school, I was constantly told that I should follow in my sister’s footsteps and try out for cheerleader. I was also told that, with my big vocabulary and love of gratuitous sarcasm, I would be a natural for the school paper. Myself, I didn’t want to be a cheerleader because I wanted to establish my own identity as opposed to just following in my sister’s footsteps. At the same time, I didn’t want to join the paper because, as much as I love to write, I hate being edited. I ultimately decided to do neither. However, Autumn apparently has a bit more initiative than I did at that age because she decides to do both!

That’s right. Autumn is going to try out for the squad and then she’s going to write anonymous articles about her experience for the newspaper! She’s going to be an …. UNDERCOVER CHEERLEADER!

Autumn makes the squad and, not surprisingly, she discovers that there’s a lot to write about. For instance, it turns out that that high school’s cheerleading coach is kind of a fascist who forces the cheerleaders to eat laxatives and who takes an immediate and irrational dislike to the only black girl on the squad. The coach is also obsessed with controlling every aspect of her cheerleaders’s lives and it’s obvious that she’s less concerned with their well-being than she is with winning another championship. She even forces one cheerleader to seriously injure herself for no apparent reason.

When Autumn’s first article comes out, the entire school is like, “Ewwwww! Laxatives!?” Everyone on the squad is trying to figure out who wrote the article. Why they didn’t automatically suspect Autumn, who they already know is friends with the paper’s editor, I’m not sure. While the article does get the coach in trouble, it also leads to a cheerleader power struggle and ultimately a murder. This is a Lifetime movie, after all.

A lot happens in Undercover Cheerleader. In fact, you could probably argue that too much happens in the movie. It takes forever to get to that murder, which is unusual for a Lifetime film. But no matter! Undercover Cheerleader is a well-acted film and one that even has a few unexpected moments of wit. Autumn is an interesting character because, even as she writing articles about how much it sucks to be a cheerleader, she’s also discovering that she likes the other members of the squad. Kayla Wallace does a great job of capturing Autumn’s conflicted emotions about her assignment and she’s well-matched by Maddie Phillips and Ryan Grantham, who play two cynical student journalists.

If you’re a fan of Lifetime films, you should enjoy Undercover Cheerleader.