Genre: Horror

Rating: R

Synopsis:
Chris (Hillary Horan), Sharon (Sherry Marks), Debbie (Alisa Powell) and Patti (Kerry Sherman) are cheerleaders at Benedict High. Unbeknownst to them, the janitor, Billy (Jack Kruschen), has been watching them while they shower and vowing revenge on them for their cruel taunts. On their way to the first game of the season with their coach, Ms. Johnson (Jacqueline Cole), Billy causes their car to be forced off the road and then kindly offers them a ride. Billy takes the girls to an altar in the middle of the woods and performs a ritual on Patti. Fortunately, when Billy tries to touch Patti, some kind of strange force strikes him down. The girls are unhurt but Patti begins acting strangely and none of the other girls can remember what happened at the altar. They contact Sheriff B.L.Bubb (John Ireland) to report Billy's kidnapping but they soon discover that Sheriff Bubb and his wife (Yvonne de Carlo) are the high priest and priestess of the satanic cult that Billy belonged to. The Sheriff tells his wife that they have been ordered by their satanic master to sacrifice one of the girls to him because she is an 'unsoiled maiden'. Chris, Sharon and Debbie try to escape but quickly find that everyone in town belongs to the cult and are quickly recaptured. Meanwhile, Sheriff Bubb decides to punish Ms. Johnson for the girl’s escape attempt by raping her. Mrs. Bubb tries to warn her husband that Patti has 'the power' and urges him to kill her immediately but he refuses to listen and continues his preparations for the sacrifice. This time, all the girls escape and make their way through the woods to the altar that Billy took them to, with the Sheriff hot on their trails. Mrs. Bubb sends two dogs to kill the girls but Patti is able to turn the dogs and send them to kill Mrs. Bubb. Again, the girls are captured by the Sheriff, who tries to proceed with the sacrifice, but when he tries to find out which of the cheerleaders is a virgin, he discovers that none of them are. That's when Patti steps forward and announces that Ms. Johnson was the one to be sacrificed until the Sheriff raped her. Suddenly, Billy reappears and kills the Sheriff for spoiling the sacrifice. Everyone, including the other cheerleaders, then bow down before Patti. The movie ends with an injured football player being helped off the field and Patti ordering him back in to win the game, which he does.

Type of mind control: Magic/Possession

Mind control scenes:
The mind control in this movie is very subtle. When Billy takes the girls into the woods, Patti seems to go into some kind of trance and removes her clothes before laying on the altar. The other girls then stand around, seemingly transfixed, while Billy performs his ritual. The fact that none of the other girls can remember the ritual supports the idea that they were also in some kind of trance. Following the ritual, Patti begins to act differently but we never learn exactly what happened to her. She now seems to have some kind of special abilities, which she uses to turn the dogs on Mrs. Bubb. She also seems to use these abilities to order the injured player back into the game at the end of the movie.

Subjective Rating: 2 out of 5
As stated above, the mind control in this movie is very subtle, perhaps too subtle. It's never quite clear whether Patti is actually possessed by Satan or whether she is acting differently voluntarily. Other possible occurrences of mind control (e.g. the other girls being hypnotized while Billy performs the ritual on Patti) are unclear or simply mentioned in passing. The most obvious mind control is when Patti orders the injured player back into the football game but if the player is really injured, perhaps more than mind control is being used.