“Oh, and you too, Sarah. I want you to have a good time, too.”

Drake’s rating: There is so much big hair in this movie

Drake’s review: My last two reviews have been a Canadian flick from the early ‘80s that was a step-by-step homage* to a horror classic and a fairly decent TV movie from the 1970s. But what, you may ask, would happen if you jammed those two concepts together into a single film? Is it even possible?

Well, yes it is, as a matter of fact, and I have the proof right here, as The Initiation of Sarah is a TV movie from 1978 that thought that Carrie was just the ginchiest and needed nothing more than a small-screen clone sneaking into living rooms everywhere via ABC some eight months before an edited version of DePalma’s classic played on CBS stations throughout the nation. Because sometimes you don’t have to be the best, you just have to be the first.

Still, The Initiation of Sarah is actually a pretty decent low-budget take on Carrie. While it lacks DePalma’s intuitive touch, it does have a good cast led by Kay Lenz (House) as the titular Sarah, a mousy young woman who is overshadowed by her glamorous adoptive sister Patty (Morgan Brtittany, Death Car on the Freeway). When the two go off to college, it’s Patty who’s accepted by their mother’s sorority, Alpha Nu Sigma, while Sarah joins the decidedly less prestigious Phi Epsilon Delta. Honestly, though, Sarah is much more at home there, making a friend of shy girl Mouse and enjoying the quiet of the rather staid sorority house.

But not everyone is ready to just let Sarah be. Alpha Nu Sigma’s president, Jennifer (Morgan Fairchild, Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge) seems personally offended by Sarah’s very existence and is resolved to make her life hell, while The Phi Epsilon Delta housemother, Mrs. Hunter (Shelley Winters, The Poseidon Adventure), encourages Sarah to use her growing powers to take revenge on those who have wronged her.

What powers, you ask? Well, since this flick is aping Carrie, Sarah is a telekinetic who can push people around and, confusingly, is able to age Jennifer near the film’s climax. I think. The latex work is a bit dodgy here, so you just kind of have to roll with it. But her powers seem to grow stronger as she uses them more and more, egged on by an agitated Shelley Winters who seems to occasionally forget her lines, but then just rolls on through the scene with wild-eyed abandon anyway.

Unlike Funeral Home’s take on Psycho, The Initiation of Sarah does change up the material a bit, no doubt just enough to keep DePalma and Stephen King from dialing up their lawyers. Carrie’s psychotic mother is replaced here by a Shelley Winters who, while also psychotic, has an entirely different agenda in mind for her young charge. And they’re all in college, not high school, and no one douses Sarah in pig’s blood.

They throw mud and rotten food instead, so… Yeah, look, this is obviously Carrie with the serial numbers filed off and the violence toned way, way down, but it’s still an enjoyable romp for what it is. Kay Lenz plays the subdued Sarah with ease, then starts projecting an icy confidence once her powers start to grow, while the Morgans are right at home as the beautiful sister with divided loyalties and the beautiful sorority president who wants sadistic revenge for a simple telekinetic push into a pond.

But to be fair to Jennifer, she was sporting some truly vintage big hair, and that dunk into the water ruined her perm. In the ‘70s, that could ignite a feud that would last decades.

*French for rip-off. Note that I do not speak a word of French, so it’s more than likely I’m wrong.

Intermission!

• Hey, Mr. Handsy, no means no! You deserved more than just a dunk in the ocean.
• For those who are curious about the dates, The Initiation of Sarah premiered on ABC on February 2nd, 1978, while Carrie ended up on CBS on October 3rd.
• Robert Hays of Airplane! fame as the supposedly hunky frat jock pumping iron is certainly causing me to do some heavy lifting of my own to suspend my disbelief.
• And he’s doing bench reps on an empty basketball court? But why???
• How much do you want to bet that the Morgan Fairchild shower scene was played up prominently in the ads for this flick?
• Man, that many candles around that much hair spray is not a good idea.
• Shelley Winters forming a secret sorority cult around Sarah was not on my bingo card.