Episode 267: Karen Lam brings it with Bring It On: Cheer Or Die

Bring It On was a pop culture juggernaut from the moment it somersaulted into multiplexes back in 2000. Audiences loved the saucy, sarcastic, scheming, and stuntin’ squads battling for cheer supremacy at regionals, all leading up to that shining moment when the It of the title has been Brought and the cheer squads do their thing. More than two decades after that first film, the Bring It On ’verse continues with Bring It On: Cheer Or Die – and its director is none other than Vancouver filmmaker Karen Lam (Evangeline, The Curse of Willow Song). Bring It On: Cheer Or Die premiered on SyFy last October and is now available for free on Crave in Canada. The comedy slasher film takes some of the best qualities of the previous Bring It On Films – the quips, the flips, the regionals! – but this time, the Big Bad isn’t another squad trying to steal their routines but a masked assailant who wants to end their lives in increasingly creative ways. In this boisterous and contemplative conversation, Karen Lam talks gateway horror, cheer camp, traveling with cats, and the joys and challenges of making a slasher pic in the Bring It On ’verse. Episode Sponsors: Biz Books + The Drama Class