"The Secret Lives of Cheerleaders" is about initiation rites. On the surface, the rites are those abhorrent practices of hazing of the members of the Roosevelt High School cheerleading squad. But on a deeper level, the rites of passage pertain to a movement from adolescence to adulthood for Miss Ava Scott.

Ava has transferred to Roosevelt after a painful experience of loss at the death of her father. Ava began to use Adderall, and she landed herself in a program for troubled teens. Ava's caring mother Candace tries to be supportive. But Candace also does not listen thoughtfully to her daughter or honor her with much trust.

Ava' great adversary in the film is Katrina Smith, the head of the cheerleading team and the darling of Coach Sinclair. Katrina lords it over the other team members and conducts late-night initiation ceremonies that are blatant examples of hazing. No one will stand up to Katrina because cheerleading appears to be so much a part of the lifeblood of the school.

The filmmakers were successful in developing the conflict between Ava and Katrina. When Ava begins to realize that she is becoming like the superficial Katrina, she takes action to define her own identity. The team nickname for the cheerleaders is the Lionesses, and Ava begins as a cub. But by the end of the film, she has emerged as a lion in her own eyes to become the genuine pride of Roosevelt High.

I liked this movie for being realistic and showing so common stuff around us, happening in our real lives like girls, makeup, school, hot guys, ego, pride, conflicts, law, parenting... Probably most of us have some association of our life events vs events in this movie. Also good topic: evil, justice, fixing problems especially relationship ones. But nothing special. Too much talk, walk, and mainstream usual things we can even see without a movie. Also not extreme like some other lifetime movies where there is stabbing, killing, overdose, and other more serious and scary crimes.

Every cheerleader movie I've watched so far has this set-up: trouble young girl with daddy issues moves to a new school, decides to be a cheerleader despite never doing it before yet because she's a dancer, she's amazing at it, then someone who should be her new best friend screws her life up and someone either dies or comes real close to it. Resolve and credits.

This is coming from the guy who has watched 542 slashers.

Ava lost her dad, got into trouble - she did Adderall! - and then went to a new school and her mom Denise Richards is convinced that she's going to go back to being a bad girl. Homecoming queen and cheer captain Katrina doesn't want any new girl getting in her way and she has an arsenal of evil tricks and initiations to take out our heroine.

Director Peter Sullivan's IMDB page goes between horror, Lifetime movies and Christmas films, which is pretty much the only movies that make money. This one is decent, but I was really hoping for even more insanity. Then again, the majority of my watching is devoted to giallo and regional films, so I'm pretty desensitized.