Film / The Wrong Cheerleader

Official poster

The Wrong Cheerleader is a 2019 Made for TV Thriller directed by David DeCoteau. It is part of The Wrong franchise, a series of female-driven Lifetime movies (with no plot connection) starring Vivica A. Fox - who also produced in conjunction with Hybrid LLC.

Becky Snyder (Cristine Prosperi) is a well-liked and academically gifted high school student who receives little romantic interest from the boys. After Becky makes the school cheerleading team coached by Ms Flynn (Fox), things seem to be on the up when her best friend Jen (Kalen Bull) introduces her to new student Rob (David Meza).

Captivated by Rob's charm, Becky soon finds herself in peril when his love develops into obesession and he begins to stalk her. Initially Becky defends Rob despite his violent outbursts, but ultimately Jen and Becky's mother Eliza (Lesli Kay) are able to convince her just how dangerous her boyfriend really is.

The Wrong Cheerleader premiered on the Lifetime Network as part of the five movie Cheer, Rally, Kill event in September 2019. An extended ending version titled The Wrong Cheerleader: Back in Action (one minute longer in runtime) premiered on Lifetime Movie Network in January 2021.

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The Wrong Cheerleader contains examples of:

• Affably Evil: Despite being a crazy and violent stalker Rob appears to have genuine affection for Becky. After upsetting her he apologises by bringing her a bouquet of flowers, though he does spend the whole night watching her house beforehand.
• All Guys Want Cheerleaders: Essentially the premise of the movie. Despite being physically attractive and likeable, none of the male students are interested in Becky until she makes the cheerleading team.
  • Lampshaded by Jen during a training session.
    Jen: Guys are finally gonna notice you.
• All Men Are Perverts: Pretty much every male character acts creepily toward Becky: Rob the obsessed stalker, an unnamed guy who looks up her skirt, trash talking football players. The only exception is Jen's boyfriend Chris who shows genuine concern for her safety and wellbeing.
• Ankle Drag:
  • Happens to a female early on when she hides under a bed to escape a hooded stalker. In classic horror style, the terrified victim screams as she's pulled to her doom.
  • Subverted as it turns out she lives. The girl in question is Rob's former girlfriend Amanda who survives to tell her story to Becky and Jen before suffering a presumably fatal attack in a restaurant kitchen.
• Anticlimax: After a tense build up where Rob breaks into Becky's house, there's a notable drop in tension and little suspense in the final ten minutes. This culminates in a weak Motive Rant from the villain, who is subsequently outsmarted by Becky and all too easily defeated.
• Badass Teacher: Ms Flynn takes it personally when somebody threatens her 'girls'. Definitely not a woman to mess with.
• Big Bad: Rob the dangerous psycho stalker who develops a crush on Becky.
• Chekhov's Gun: An early sequence has Rob stalk Jen through the locker room. After Ms Flynn arms herself with a mace spray and scares him off she asks Becky and Jen if they have their own protection. When Rob confronts Becky during the climax, she uses her own mace aerosol to escape his clutches. And then the coach shows up with her spray to put him down.
• Childhood Friends: A conversation between Becky and Jen implies this when they discuss events from years gone by. They're teenagers so it can be inferred they've been close since a young age.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Whenever someone else shows the slightest interest in Becky, Rob takes offense.
  • While out in a diner Rob grabs another boy by the scruff of the neck and makes his intentions very clear. In his defense the other guy was a pervert who tried to look up Becky's skirt.
  • Rob kicks off in the locker room when his football teammates discuss Becky in a demeaning manner, and violently assaults another player.
• Cruel Cheerleader: Averted. Unlike most movies that feature cheerleaders, the girls here are generally portrayed as victims as opposed to an Alpha Bitch-led clique.
• Cute Bookworm: Becky is both clever and attractive. Unfortunately for her teenage boys in this movie prefer dumb cheerleaders to intelligent beauties.
• Danger Takes a Backseat: Late on Rob surprises and chloroforms Eliza in this manner.
• Double Date: After Becky makes the cheerleading team Jen surprises her by setting one up at a pizza restaurant. One couple is Jen and her boyfriend Chris, who get along but have the occasional disagreement. The other pairing is Becky and Rob who genuinely like one another at first. Unfortunately it's all downhill from there when it becomes apparent Rob has a psycho stalker complex.
• Double-Meaning Title: Initially the title is something of a mystery.
  • While there are exceptions The Wrong part normally prefixes the movie's antagonist - The Wrong Student, The Wrong Stepmother etc. Here a male stalker is the villain, so Becky could be considered the wrong cheerleader since trying out fot the team was in retrospect a bad idea.
  • There are two title drops near the end of the movie, indicating that Becky was the "wrong cheerleader" to mess with, but no real explanation is provided.
• Easily-Overheard Conversation: Rob seems to have no problem hearing Becky's conversations, even from a great distance when many other people are present. Such locations include a crowded picnic area and a busy diner.
• The End... Or Is It?: The extended ending to Back in Action has Rob - apparently released early from prison or never convicted of murder/kidnapping - take a sinister interest in another dark haired cheerleader while she practices outside.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • There's a major continuity error in the sequence where Rob breaks into Becky's house. When he goes to take a picture of a letter it is clearly daylight outside, but dark when he enters and leaves the house itself. This is presumably a scene edited in after the original sequence was filmed to explain Rob's presence and set up the Back in Action ending where he kidnaps Eliza. Also his gloves suddenly go missing in this scene.
  • Slowing down or watching stills of the second attack on Amanda suggests the person may someone other than Rob, as their hair is at an odd angle, they are roughly the same height as Amanda, and they appear to be wearing a wig / head covering of some description. This implies the killer may have been someone else in the original script.
• Freudian Excuse: Rob has an abusive father which explains why he's a bad-tempered alcoholic. This allows the viewer to feel some sympathy for him, though whatever he built up with the audience is likely to be lost after Rob slaps Becky in the face during Jen's birthday party.
• Glamorous Single Mother: Eliza - despite being a single parent to Becky - appears comfortable and happy with a good work/life balance, though at times the relationship with her daughter becomes strained. And she is definitely not happy when Becky's grades slip.
• Has a Type: During a conversation between Becky, Jen and Amanda, it's established that Rob fancies cheerleaders with long, dark hair.
• High-School Dance: In a sense. Here the party is for Jen's birthday with the teenage students casually dressed as opposed to the fancy formal wear associated with more traditional American proms. Still, this is a key scene in the movie where Rob finally gets violent with Becky.
• How We Got Here: The movie opens with Rob attacking Amanda at her house, though we only learn exactly the signficance of the scene later on.
• In the Hood: Rob does most of his stalking in a black tracksuit, but covers his head with a hood when sneaking about practise gyms, locker rooms and teenage girls' homes. Seems he's a fan of Assassin's Creed.
• Instant Sedation: It takes merely a few seconds for Eliza to be rendered unconscious when Rob surprises her in her car with a chloroform-soaked rag.
• It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: At the outset Becky has everything going for her. She's a gifted student in good health with many friends and a bright future. It's only after she tries out for the school cheerleading team that Becky's performance at school nosedives (much to Eliza's disapproval) and events take a sinister turn. Perhaps having a love interest wasn't so important after all.
• Love Makes You Crazy: Desire for Becky's affection sends Rob completely over the edge, leading to many a tense encounter between the two - and violent clashes with potential rivals.
• Market-Based Title:
  • For some reason the movie was renamed The Wrong Cheerleader: Back in Action (the alternate version title) on IMDB from January to October 2021, but this has since reverted to the original The Wrong Cheerleader.
  • While in development the working title was Crazed.
  • For release in France the movie was given a rather long winded title: Ma fille, sous l'emprise de son petit ami. The English translation is My daughter, under the influence of her boyfriend.
• The Mole: Jen's boyfriend Chris is arguably one, supplying her (and Becky in turn) with plenty of dirt on his football teammate Rob.
• Motive Rant: Rob's "reasoning" at the climax is rather lame and illogical, even by Lifetime psycho standards. He says Becky has turned everyone against him, when in reality she's the only character who defended him for most of the movie. Which he should know since he's spied and eavesdropped on her conversations throughout.
• Mr. Fanservice:
  • Viewers sexually attracted to men will be happy to know one scene features the young, athletic Rob shirtless on a tennis court.
  • A later scene has the topless Rob work out on a bench press while staring at photos of Becky. More sinister and creepy, but a treat for those into bad boys.
• Ms. Fanservice: Not to be outdone, the cheerleaders do quite a bit of dancing and Becky shows off plenty of skin (nothing explicit obviously) in the aforementioned tennis court scene, as well as wearing an array of tight, form-fitting jeans throughout the movie.
• Non-Answer: When Rob gives Becky flowers first thing in the morning after spending the night in front of her house.
  Becky: Have you been here all night?
  Rob: I just couldn't bear to stand to think how badly I treated you.
• Not Quite Dead: Amanda White - the female attacked during the pre-credit sequence - later shows up alive and well, and is able to provide Becky and Jen with key information on Rob's violent past. Only to get Killed Off for Real moments later.
• Played for Laughs: The cheerleader trial scene involves some students making very poor attempts with others giggling in the background and the coach looking distinctly unimpressed. The overconfident Brittany in particular stands out as being awful.
• Police Are Useless: No surprise given this is a Lifetime TV movie. Naturally it's left to the protagonist and her circle of friends to take down the psycho stalker.
  • Detective Wilson refuses to take action against Rob giving an argument that cyber stalking is too tricky to investigate. Seems the local police are still living in the 20th century.
  • In one particularly idiotic statement, the detective suggests ignoring minor offences and waiting for Rob to kill someone before taking action. He's likely referring to the investigation into Amanda's disappearance, but it sounds stupid nonetheless.
    Detective Wilson: What I'm saying is - if you want to see this man put away for a long time - a charge of murder goes a lot further.
• Pop-Up Texting: Three examples: Amanda at the beginning of the movie, Rob/Becky and Becky/Jen. Seems to be a thing among teenagers.
• Relationship Sabotage: Jen - arguably with good intent - goes to extreme lengths to convince Becky that Rob is dangerous.
  • After a violent incident at a diner where Rob confronts another student, Jen has a lengthy discussion with Becky and Ms Flynn.
    Jen: Ms Flynn, if a guy threatened another guy for just checking you out, would you be flattered or a little creeped out?
  • Jen visits a friend (Sarah Peters) at Rob's old school to dig up dirt on him, and later arranges a meeting between Becky and Rob's ex-girlfriend Amanda who he stalked and abused. This doesn't end well for the witness.
• Revised Ending: Appears to be the case given some major plot holes such as Jen not assisting Becky after Rob slaps her at the birthday party, or Rob going to great trouble to impersonate a school principal to kidnap Eliza when he could have done this at her house several minutes earlier. Trailer footage indicates a very different ending was filmed originally with Jen revealed as the main villain.
• Self-Defenseless: Averted with Ms Flynn's mace spray. Upon being doused, Rob crumples to the floor in agony and clutches his eyes. And that occurs mere seconds after Becky sprayed him.
• Smash to Black: Soon after the hooded stalker grabs Amanda in the opening sequence the movie suddenly cuts to a black screen showing the title. This is normal for The Wrong franchise, and allowed the extended version Back in Action title to be added as a replacement later.
• Stalker with a Crush: As Rob's obsession with Becky intensifies he shows up everywhere: Becky's home, around school, cheerleading practice. This is one guy who wants her and won't let anyone else stand in the way.
  Rob: The only thing that matters is us.
• Title Drop:
  • Like all movies in this franchise the Vivica A. Fox character has to speak the title verbatim. Here the line comes after Ms Flynn subdues Rob with her mace spray.
    Ms Flynn: Looks like you messed with the wrong cheerleader.
  • Becky adds another for good measure, getting the final line of dialogue.^note In the original movie - there is additional dialogue from Rob and an unnamed cheerleader in the extended Back in Action ending.
    Ms Flynn: He's obviously a very disturbed young man.
    Becky: Yeah. Who made one big mistake. He did mess with the wrong cheerleader.
• Trailers Always Spoil:
  • That scene from the Lifetime preview where Ms Flynn sprays Rob in the face - it's from the end of the movie.
  • Potentially a massive spoiler in the Cheer Rally Kill promo which combines clips from five movies. About half way through, a girl with distinctive white fingernails pulls a mask off a blonde female. On closer inspection, this is almost certainly a clip of Becky unmasking Jen as a surprise villainess. This scene never made it into the original 2019 movie or the 2021 Back in Action update, so ultimately a subversion (unless a different version airs in the future).
• Villain Ball: When Rob descends into full psycho mode and breaks into Becky's house he photographs a letter to obtain information he can use to set Eliza up. Why he would need to do this is unclear, since Becky and Eliza are already in the house with him. Also attacking them at night in an isolated location makes much more sense than subduing Eliza and holding Becky hostage in broad daylight outside a school (where Ms Flynn is around to conveniently come to the rescue).