Pandemonium (1982) – Nostalgia Central

Not to be confused with the 1987 Australian movie of the same name, this misfiring slasher/horror spoof is set in the town of It Had to Be, Indiana, home of It Had to Be University – or It Had to Be U (that’s the level of humour you can look forward to)

It’s 1963, and fullback Blue Grange (Tab Hunter playing a teenager) has just scored the winning touchdown in the National Championships.

Celebrations are short-lived when five cheerleaders are skewered together on a javelin thrown by an unseen murderer. In the aftermath, the university’s summer cheerleading camp is closed down.

Fast-forward to 1982, and the camp is being reopened with Bambi (Candice Azzara), who survived the 1963 massacre, as the chief instructor.

Pepe the maintenance man (Laverne & Shirley star David Lander) and his crazy mother, Salt (Izabella Telezynska), both caution against reopening the camp, but Bambi presses ahead anyway.

The various victims assemble, including the psychic Candy (Carol Kane), male cheerleader Glenn Dandy (Judge Reinhold in a silly blonde wig), dental hygiene obsessed Mandy (Teri Landrum), Sandy (Debralee Scott from Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman), who gets a lift from President Reagan, and more male cheerleaders, stoners Andy (Miles Chapin) and Randy (Marc McClure).

Also on hand is an incongruous Canadian Mountie, Sgt. Reginald Cooper (Tom Smothers) and his sidekick Johnson (Paul Reubens, aka Pee Wee Herman), who are on the trail of an escaped mass murderer named Jarrett (Richard Romanus), who killed his family with a drill and turned them into bookshelves.

They’re soon being picked off one by one with wearying predictability and a fatal absence of decent jokes.

The script is just terrible. Bad jokes are fired off in scattershot fashion with references to Carrie (1976), Godzilla (1954) and The Wolf Man (1941) thrown in among the slasher references.

The film flopped at the box office amidst almost uniformly dreadful reviews.

Bambi
Candice Azzara
Pepe
David L. Lander
Salt
Izabella Telezynska
Candy
Carol Kane
Mandy
Teri Landrum
Sandy
Debralee Scott
Andy
Miles Chapin
Randy
Marc McClure
Glenn Dandy
Judge Reinhold
Joe the Fry Cook
Alix Elias
Pete
Ebbe Roe Smith
Chip Jr.
Bradley Lieberman
Sgt Reginald Cooper
Tom Smothers
Johnson
Paul Reubens
Fletcher
Jim Boeke
Crystal
Candi Brough
China
Randi Brough
Dr Fuller
Gary Allen
Warden June
Eve Arden
Blue Grange
Tab Hunter
Blue’s Mother
Edie McClurg
Glenn’s Mother
Kaye Ballard
Candy’s Mother
Eileen Brennan
Mandy’s Mother
Victoria Carroll
Mandy’s Dad
James MacKrell
Glenn’s Dad
Donald O’Connor
President
David Becker
Coach
Lenny Montana
Jarrett
Richard Romanus
Male Nurse
Don McLeod

Director
Alfred Sole

Video