The Initiation of Sarah (1978)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Powerful

Absolutely brilliant

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

This mildly entertaining TV movie benefits largely from (mostly) appropriate casting, and decent performances from the cast. Kay Lenz is extremely appealing as Sarah Goodwin, a shy young woman going off to college with her adoptive sister Patty (Morgan Brittany). Patty is determined to become part of a particular sorority, but these snot nosed gals turn up their nose at Sarah, for no really good reason. Sarah finds a home with a more low key sorority, while her new found nemesis Jennifer Lawrence (Morgan Fairchild) looks for ways to humiliate her. Jennifer and her compatriots are playing with fire, however: Sarah just so happens to possess telekinetic powers, which prove to come in handy.Adequately directed by TV veteran Robert Day, this is a quite obvious carbon copy of "Carrie" for the most part. It can boast a different element, though: a conniving, manipulative, crazed house mother played to perfection by "special guest star" Shelley Winters. Lenz is a gorgeous woman, therefore maybe not the best choice for her part, but she takes it seriously and still looks good even when deglamourized like she is here. Filling out the cast of familiar faces are Tony Bill as well meaning teaching assistant Paul Yates, the briefly seen Kathryn Grant as the Goodwin matriarch, Robert Hays of "Airplane!" as amiable lug Scott Rafferty, Tisa Farrow ("Zombi 2") as the aptly nicknamed "Mouse", Talia Balsam ("Crawlspace") as sorority sister Allison, and Michael Talbott (who was actually in "Carrie") as Freddie.The music by Johnny Harris is good, and special effects are used sparingly. This being a TV movie, of course, it likely won't be too satisfying for horror film fans hoping for spectacle and a body count. At the very least, it builds to a reasonably fun finale.Six out of 10.

A withdrawn young girl joins an unpopular sorority in college. It turns out she has psychic and telekinetic powers, and she uses them against a rival sorority.This film is often compared to "Carrie" for the obvious reason it is an outcast girl with telekinetic powers. This is then compounded by a scene that is not completely different from the infamous "pig blood" scene (though thankfully no pigs or blood are used). But there is something to this.There is a good cast, with Shelley Winters, Morgan Fairchild and a pre-Airplane Robert Hays. The female leads are more than adequate (and one wonders why they did not get top billing). And there is enough plot here to really call it something new. Perhaps if it had not been made-for-TV we might have seen an even edgier version of events. What did writer Tom Holland ("Fright Night", "Child's Play") have in mind?

I, too, have always loved this movie. Morgan Fairchild really camps it up as the stuck-up sorority princess. Shelly Winters is suitably creepy. Kay Lenz is somehow a sympathetic yet frightening character. (Ever since I first saw this movie at the age of ten, I have considered Kay Lenz one of my favorite actresses!) I don't know the name of the actress who portrayed Mouse, but I found her performance very authentic as well. What I really wanted to comment on is my indignation over the fact that ABCFamily has a remake out now but is billing it as a new original ABCFamily movie! How can they get away with that? Anyway, this really is a great flick for this time of year.

Here we have kind of a 'Carrie-look-alike' film, but I'd say a little bit moralist. Sarah (Kay Lenz), a weird girl (yes, she does have telekinetic powers) scorned by snobbish dull colleagues is admitted in a strange sorority where she is manipulated by the evil house mother Mrs. Hunter (Shelley Winters). On the other hand, her beautiful and ingenuous sister Patty (Morgan Brittany) joins a renowned sorority where she is forced to cast Sarah away by no less manipulative Jennifer Lawrence (Morgan Fairchild). The entire film has a 'gloomy aura', it's a somewhat sad story which could never have happened if it wasn't for the juicy 70's!... The TV production is poor, nevertheless it doesn't matter once this is a very enjoyable flick.