Before you roll with the new,check out the old school Initiation of Sarah

Over the weekend,ABC Family premiered a remake of the 1978 Tv movie,The Initiation of Sarah which starred Summer Glau(Serenity),Meg Tilly and Morgan Fairchild(who was also in the old '78 version). I watched part of it but was more interested in seeing the original film again. Fortunately,you can do just that at the ABC Family website and I did so the other day.



Kay Lenz stars as Sarah Goodwin,adopted sister of Patty(Morgan Brittany,rocking the big '80s hair)who goes off to college to become more than just the Plain Jane to her openly preffered by Mom perfect sis. This doesn't happen,otherwise we'd have no plot!

Patty is quickly snapped up into the bitchy ANS sorority run by Jennifer Lawrence(yep,Morgan Fairchild,folks!)who take great delight in mocking the girls of rival sorority EPD with such wit as referring to EPD members as "Elephants,Pigs and Dogs". Guess which group wants Sarah to sign up?



EPD is run by Mrs. Hunter(Shelley Winters)who is a professor of ancient religions and believes way too much in the occult. Shelley Winters is the best reason to see this movie-she goes around in witchy black dresses with a huge red shawl and can't help touching the face of whoever she's speaking to for less than a minute. Shelley is the first one to confront Sarah about her psychic powers and encourage her to use them against the snooty ANS girls,especially Jennifer.

Sarah also has a love interest(a teaching assistant played by Tony Bill)and a new best friend at EPD called Mouse who is by Sarah's side during the big scene where Jennifer's taunts force Sarah's mojo to push her into a big water fountain. This sets off the cliched chain reaction where Jennifer gets some revenge which leads to more payback involving hot water in a shower and a big semi-Satanic ritual in a garden maze,I kid you not.




The whole vibe in the 1978 version is Carrie goes to college,while the new remake is more Harry Potter Goth Chicks,with one group of sorority Wiccans vs the other. If you click the title link above,you can see both films online for your own compare and contrast. As for me,I have a fondness for stories about geeky girls who use their special powers to get back at those who scorn them-they make great instructional videos for the psychically inclined.