Alison Wentworth, Betsy Russell, is a cheerleader haunted by nightmares about an upcoming competition. She arrives at Camp Hurrah to train with her teammates, and she shares a cabin with Cory Foster, Lucinda Dickey, the mascot who is often teased by the other cheerleaders and by Camp Hurrah's head coach Miss Tipton, Vickie Benson. Alison's boyfriend Brent Hoover, Leif Garrett, immediately begins flirting with a blonde cheerleader named Suzy, Krista Pflanzer.
The group heads to the river to sunbathe, watched by Timmy Moser, Travis McKenna, a member of Alison's team, and by Sheriff Poucher, Jeff Prettyman. The camp's handyman, Pop, George 'Buck' Flower, interrupts their sunbathing with a quick, noisy intrusion. The next morning, Alison discovers Suzy in her cabin with her wrists cut—an apparent suicide. Later, in the kitchen walk-in, she finds Suzy's corpse on a shelf. The police are called, and Miss Tipton explains to Sheriff Poucher that she hid the death to protect her job until the program finished. The Sheriff promises to handle the matter, and their reluctant tryst is captured on Tim’s video camera.
As a prank unfolds, the sex tape is broadcast to the camp the next day instead of footage of the cheer routines. In parallel, Brent begins flirting with teammate Pam, Pamela Bently, Teri Weigel. Alison has a nightmare in which she cheers alongside a group of mascots as Brent has sex with Pam, a vision that gnaws at her as the day of the competition approaches. At the river the next day, Brent and Pam leave to be together, but they argue, and he leaves Pam in the woods where she is murdered with garden shears by an unseen killer. That evening, Alison dreams she is the one who killed Pam. The next day at the competition, Pam is nowhere to be found.
Cory competes in the mascot dance contest, but the victory is awarded to another team by Tipton. During the improvised routine, Tim falls off the stage, knocking Pop to the ground, and the handyman mutters, >I hope you die!< The Camp Queen competition sees Theresa Salazar, Rebecca Ferratti, increasingly worried about Pam and going to find her. Cory and Brent each follow into the woods to search for Pam, and Miss Tipton sends Pop to help as well. Theresa discovers Pam's body in the woods and is chased by a van before being crushed against a tree.
Meanwhile, Alison and Bonnie Reed, Lorie Griffin, contend for the Queen title, with Bonnie ultimately winning. Tim, after having an encounter with a cheerleader from another team, returns to the party and reveals that Theresa's body has been found. Brent announces there is a killer on the loose, prompting the cheerleaders to panic and flee in their cars. Miss Tipton staggers drunkenly into the woods to search for Pam, but she is killed as well. Alison, Cory, Bonnie, Timmy, and Brent try to drive away, only to find their car sabotaged and undriveable.
Gunshots crack through the woods, and the group splits up; Alison heads back to the van, followed by Brent, Bonnie, and Cory, who claims she was attacked in the woods. Brent retrieves Timmy's video camera and they watch Timmy being killed on tape. The group rigs a bear-trap booby trap in the tool shed, which inadvertently kills Sheriff Poucher. They then encounter Pop, armed with a shotgun; Cory accuses Pop of being the killer and shoots him with a revolver. Back at the camp, Cory and Bonnie go to call the police, leaving Brent alone with Alison. He tries to have sex with her, but she resists. Cory returns, saying she cannot find Bonnie; she hints that Brent may be the killer. Armed with the revolver, Cory tells Alison to shoot Brent. They find him standing over Bonnie's corpse, and Alison shoots him. When the police arrive, Alison is charged with the murders, with Cory insisting that Alison would do anything to be number one. In the ambulance, Alison swears she only killed Brent, but the detective—Craig Piligian—says Cory has shifted all blame onto her. As Alison screams in the back of the vehicle, Cory, dressed in a cheerleader uniform, cheers in front of the camp at dawn.
