It is hard to be disappointed by a slasher and thankfully The Majorettes does not. It features a lot of the same tropes and cliches and many find it hard to get away from them with the genre being what it is and needing certain requisites to be called a slasher but it ends up being a lot of fun as it all ends as it began – with a serial killer on the loose.

Directed by Bill Hinzman and written by John A. Russo, the first man appearing in Night of the Living Dead and the second best known for co-writing it, the two start out with the best of intentions and then slowly but surely, let it get away from them and yet no matter how ridiculous it seems, it is always a good time. It all begins when some girls from the local cheerleader squad start getting killed off. Is it the janitor who likes to watch them at every turn, taking pictures of the underage girls when they are in the locker room? Is it the biker gang that seems to run unchecked or the drug dealer that likes to hang out with them? Perhaps it is even the mother of the janitor who is aware of his perversions and is looking to get a little payday. There are numerous red herrings thrown in the pot right from the start and it could be any one of them though it is fairly easy to see that it is not making the audience wonder just who it truly is.

There is a certain point in the film where all of this comes to light, where everything converges in the strangest of meetings and yet, it all tends to work, at least for the most part and from there, is where it all goes off the rails. There are two threads by the end of the second act, one where the real killer is teaming up in a way with a couple of the other suspects while the biker gang goes off and does their own thing and it is with the latter where they end up kidnapping a girl whom everyone is interested in. Vicky, as played by Terrie Godfrey, is a potential victim of the real killer, the subject of a murder by blackmail and a hostage that the bikers mean to use to punish Jeff who is portrayed by Kevin Kindlin. It is not long after this that the slasher film the audience has been watching turns into a poor man’s Rambo and while some might think it overly silly and perhaps just a touch too cheesy, it ends up being a lot of fun and ultimately works in its favour instead of just dialling it in like other slashers tend to do. Was it needed? Not at all, but it was definitely unexpected and it held the attention of the viewers until the fateful end.

When first released, The Majorettes would never win any awards nor make any waves but now years later, it is definitely worth revisiting or discovering for the first time. The acting is not as good as it could be and they could have done without the kitchen sink, yet at the end of the day, it was very entertaining and what is better than that?

3.5 out of 5