Beautiful college freshman and her plain-Jane adoptive sister shop around their university for the perfect sorority, eventually separating once they've been accepted into rival houses off-campus--one the popular clique for the spoiled and pampered, the other a haven for misfits. So far, so good for this TV-made thriller with an exceptionally fine cast, particularly Kay Lenz as Sarah, the psychology major harboring a life-long secret: when she's angry, she can make things 'happen.' Unfortunately, the teleplay by Don Ingalls, Carol Saraceno and Kenette Gfeller, working from a treatment by Saraceno and Tom Holland, is too intent on aping the 1976 theatrical feature "Carrie" (one might call it Carrie Goes to College). Characters are introduced, but not taken into consideration; there's speculation about Sarah's biological mother that might have provided some insight into Shelley Winters' odd-acting housemother, but none of this is built upon. It must have been troubling for Lenz and the supporting cast to see their hard work go up in flames (literally); the movie sidesteps all the points it has initially made about being true to one's self in order to have a cataclysmic conclusion. Had the telekinesis and black magic been taken out of the mix, they might really have had something here.
Review of The Initiation of Sarah
The Initiation of Sarah
(1978 TV Movie)
Well-produced "Carrie" clone for television...but imagine this story without the telekinesis
2 August 2016