Cheap Death of a Cheerleader (True Stories Collection TV Movie) (DVD) Price

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Customer Reviews of Death of a Cheerleader (True Stories Collection TV Movie)

Excellent message, but so-so acting
I think Tori Spelling is way better suited for roles like Donna Martin in 90210. She's spunky and hilarious in real life, and so was Donna. I don't think she's good at the dramatic bitch character. Regardless, if you can overlook the iffy acting on her part, the movie is very good. So many girls are teased mercilessly in high school, and just want to belong. Angela, the self-tortured student played by Kellie Martin (who does a much better job acting) decides that she will go to any lengths to be included in the popular crowd, resorting to murder. Despite this being a true story and probably a rare occurrence, the message is clear: kids need to be nicer to each other and just let people be who they are. Cliques and stereotypes tear people down and make school years miserable. Tweens and teens should see this movie.

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Ra Ra Ra... M.U.R.D.E.R spells murder...
This story is about being popular in school and being in the IT club. Both Tori Spelling and Kellie Martin do a fantastic job in this movie. I remember high school and the in-crowd and wanting to be in it. This movie brings you back to that time and makes you wonder. Some people are willing to do anything to become popular, and in this movie... murder may be the key:(

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Tragic Permanent Solution to a Temporary Problem
I remember reading Randall Sullivan's 1985 article which served as the basis for this 1994 TV drama. <
> Interestingly, I was close to quite a few people who were threatened with knives during my pre-and early teen years, and the year before the real-life murder depicted in this story took place, survived a near-stabbing at the hands of two girls in my unsupervised science class, who thought it was a lark to play with the rusty knife the science teacher used to cut minerals, and aim it at the necks of unsuspecting classmates. While my would-be assailants were apprehended quickly, and did not return to that school after that year, this is a story about a teenage girl who was able to hide from authorities for six months after committing a fatal stabbing. <
> Based on the 1984 murder of a beautiful, dark-haired, olive-skinned cheerleader named Kirsten Costas by a less-affluent blonde classmate named Bernadette Protti, the film stars Kellie Martin as Angela Del Vecchio, the youngest daughter of a pious, lower-middle-class family as its "Bernadette". <
> A kind, sweet-tempered, introspective girl, who recently transfered from a Catholic school, Angela suffers from low self-esteem. Spurred by the school Principal's (Terry O'Quinn's) speech on "being the best", given an assembly at the beginning of the year, Angela sets her sights on joining the elite social service group, the Meadowlarks (or just Larks), becoming the school yearbook editor, becoming a cheerleader, and getting the Queen Bee student who embodies all that she desires to be to incorporate her into her social circle. <
> Tori Spelling plays Stacy Lockwood, the Golden Girl, who unwittingly and unfortunately becomes the object of Angela's admiration and envy. <
> In reality, the victim and perpetrator had very little contact with each other, which is one major innaccuracy of the film, although Stacy did slight her killer-to-be about her skiing attire. <
> The incident where Stacy illicitly reads another girl's diary was also portrayed inaccurately. It was mentioned by an acquaintance of the victim in Sullivan's article. But presumably, that incident and many others in the film were staged that way to give insight, if not into the victim's character, than definitely insight into the way she was perceived by the girl who would eventually take her life. <
> Valerie Harper was great as Angela's kind, religious mother, who is supportive of her daughter, but perhaps not fully aware of how devastating the failure to reach certain goals, and the rejection of certain peer group members will really be for her. <
> Marley Shelton plays Jamie, a friend of Angela's who joins in Stacy's mocking of the punk rocker girl (Kathryn Morris)--later a prime suspect in Stacy's slaying--only because she was afraid of Stacy. Margaret Langslide is Angela's other best friend, Jill. <
> The film exaggerates the trendiness of the elite girls to a fault, depicting them wearing obscenely long strands of pearls, but does not exaggerate their clannishness and exclusivity. <
> We see how Stacy makes more of an impression on the School Principal than Angela when both of the young office workers tell him they are going to try out for cheerleading, and we see how Stacy gets away with flouting certain school rules. <
> Words of wisdom from her priest(Eugene Roche) and her sister Theresa(Christa Miller) do little to console her as she fails to reach most of her goals. <
> Angela does become a Lark, and a candystriper. I have observed how teens who work as candystripers are often resentful towards peer group members who don't have that responsibility, perceiving them as people who don't take life seriously enough whether it's true or not. <
> Within a few year's time and with a little more maturity and hindsight, the real killer may have come to realize that the object of her fixation had no real obligation to pay her any attention or to justify her life to her if she didn't want to, and she may ultimately have come to realize that a relationship with her wasn't really all that important. <
> Among the things teens should be made to realize is that in most cases, their peer group members are no more responsible for the success of failure of their families' financial situation than anyone else their age, and to try to make that less of an issue. But Santa Mira (in real life, Orinda, California) is a competitive and goal-oriented community, where it is easy for anyone that age to lose sight of that fact. <
> Shortly after the end of that school year, when Stacy wins a place on the cheerleading squad and Angela doesn't, and Angela's desperation for acceptance by the "In Crowd" reaches an all-time high, she places a call to Stacy's mother, identifying herself only as a member of the Larks, and inviting her to a dinner on behalf of the Larks when no such event is to take place, in order to have time alone with Stacy to try to befriend her. Angela illegally takes the family car out and picks up a reluctant Stacy from her family home. <
> True to Bernadette Protti's actual testimony, Stacy is enraged when she learns there is no dinner for the Larks, and refuses to go to a party with Angela. They drive into a church parking lot where Stacy begins to smoke pot, and Stacy denounces Angela when she refuses to do the same. <
> Stacy hurries over to a nearby residence to ask a couple for a ride home, explaining the precarious situation with her friend in the shadows. <
> Angela tails the car as Stacy is driven home by someone else, and her mind process--in which she fears what Stacy will tell everyone the following day--is revealed to the audience. <
> In hindsight, one would say it is better to be slighted for being weird for a brief time than to have the world call you a murderer for the rest of your life.Angela fatally stabs Stacy as she stands at the front door of a residence, and the heartbreak of the community is deeply felt. <
> For nearly six months, the wrong girl is accused, although in reality there were two girls accused, and one did not return to that school the following year. <
> But using descriptions from witnesses, and psychological profiling, FBI agents, led by James Avery, find the killer, and the community is forced to come to terms with some painful truths about itself in Bernadette's church, and in the trial that follows. <
> The class with which the victim and perpetrator would have graduated just celebrated its 20th year reunion. Surely those marred by this tragedy have a different perspective on it now that many are undoubtably parents themselves, and while the victim could have been a nicer person, she might have at least had a chance to live and outgrow that phase of her life. <
> The killer was released from prison on June 10, 1992 despite the objections of the victim's parents (who moved to Hawaii), and can never return to Orinda as a condition of her release. <
> About the only positive aspect of all this is that the real-life social service group to which both girls belonged became more inclusive, and at too great a cost, many of the young who were affected by this tragedy began to redefine their values. <
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