The latest Lifetime movie hit today with Death of a Cheerleader, the remake of 1994’s television movie A Friend to Die For.
This time around, Aubrey Peeples, Morgan Taylor Campbell, and Sarah Dugdale star in the based-on-a-true-story movie about a girl who murders a cheerleader in her school and the mayhem that results.
Here is a look at the new movie and who plays Bridget Moretti, the killer in this version of the movie.
Death of a Cheerleader (2019)
As mentioned, Death of a Cheerleader is not only a remake of A Friend to Die For but also is based on a true story.
The true story is the murder of Kirsten Costas by a fellow classmate named Bernadette Protti in 1984. After the two girls had a fight about a fake party invitation by Protti, she stabbed Kristen five times with a butcher knife.
It took the police six months to figure out that Protti was the killer. Protti was released after seven years in prison. She was 16 at the time of the murder and 23 when she got out of prison.
The story was turned into a documentary in 1987 titled Landscape Suicide and then the 1994 movie A Friend to Die For was released.
In that earlier movie, Tori Spelling (Beverly Hills 90210) was the cheerleader and Kellie Martin (Life Goes On) was the killer. A girl named Monica (Kathryn Morris from Cold Case).
Now, the story is back.
This time around, the cheerleader is named Kelly Locke (Sarah Dugdale) and she is a lot more sympathetic than the original movie. The girl wrongly accused of the murder is named Nina and is portrayed by Morgan Taylor Campbell and she is the narrator this time around.
Who plays Bridget Moretti?
The killer this time is named Bridget Moretti and is portrayed by Aubrey Peeples. It is a little strange seeing Peeples portraying the awkward outsider, based on her past film credits.
She broke out thanks to the ABC series Nashville and her major movie breakthrough came in 2015 as the lead in Jem and the Holograms.
Death of a Cheerleader premiered on Labor Day on Lifetime as part of the networks focus on cheerleaders. It is followed by The Secret Lives of Cheerleaders (Sept. 2), Identity Theft of a Cheerleader (Sept. 7), and The Wrong Cheerleader (Sept. 8).