JENNIFER

Lisa Pelican

JENNIFER (1978). Director: Brice Mack. 

Jennifer Baylor (Lisa Pelikan) lives with her father, Luke (Jeff Corey), who runs a pet shop and is a borderline religious fanatic. Years ago Jennifer had the "gift," a power over snakes, which she seems to have lost. Jennifer attends an exclusive girls school on a scholarship, and innocently provokes the enmity of some of her classmates, especially a blond sociopath named Sandra (Amy Johnstone), whose camp follower is a chubby gal named Jane (Louise Hoven). When Sandra and her friends go too far with Jennifer, she unleashes her powers against them to exact revenge. 

Amy Johnstone and Louise Hoven

Jennifer is clearly modeled on the far superior Carrie, with many of the same elements from that more successful and original picture. However, this movie still retains a bit of power in its depiction of the sheer loathsomeness of some of the antagonists, the evils of peer pressure, and the reckless and entitled, even criminal attitude, of teenagers with too much money and little common sense or compassion. In fact, there's so much nastiness on hand that at times it seems like overkill. One effective sequence shows a trembling Jane on the phone with her tired, uncaring mother after the former has been sexually assaulted. (She and Jennifer eventually become allies.) Sequences like this have a certain power, and Jennifer might have worked as a dramatic film if it had stuck to that. 

Nina Foch, Amy Johnstone, John Gavin

Unfortunately, Jennifer is a horror film, and when it comes time to deliver the vengeance a la Carrie, the movie becomes laughably bad. Poor Lisa Pelikan is forced to adopt an attitude like a super-villainess casting spells, and the whole sequence is shot so poorly that you can hardly make out what's happening in any case. This insured that even if audiences liked the rest of the film, they went home sorely disappointed, although there is some catharsis in watching a few of the participants get their comeuppance. This includes the horrible, money-hungry headmistress, Mrs. Calley (Nina Foch), whose death isn't nearly miserable enough to suit most viewers. 

Nina Foch in outsized glasses

As for the acting, Lisa Pelikan -- while no Sissy Spacek in terms of presence -- gives a good enough performance, although in her uncompromising portrait of the unsavory Mrs. Calley Nina Foch walks off with the acting honors. Next is Amy Johnstone, who is blond viciousness personified, and Louise Hoven as the chubby girl who wants acceptance but finds she has made a deal with the devil. Jeff Corey is okay as the father, and John Gavin has a couple of scenes as Sandra's clueless and essentially uncaring father, Senator Tremayne. Burt Convy is amiable as the pleasant teacher, Mr. Reed, who tries to befriend Jennifer, and Ray Underwood is effective as Dayton, the venomous Sandra's equally psychopathic boyfriend. A small role is played by Cher's younger sister, Georganne LaPiere. The film holds the attention but its deliberate pacing may have some viewers hitting the stop button long before it's over.

Verdict: Another Carrie clone which has good scenes and acting but doesn't deliver in the long run. **1/4. 

THE BERMUDA DEPTHS

monster from the depths

THE BERMUDA DEPTHS (1978 telefilm). Director: Tom Kotani. 

Now here's an odd one. As a boy Magnus Dens (Leigh McCloskey) lost his father when their house and laboratory in Bermuda was destroyed by something unseen. Years later, the still befuddled young man returns to Bermuda and encounters an old playmate, a woman named Jenny (Connie Sellecca). He also reunites with his pal, Eric (Carl Weathers) and Prof. Paulus (Burl Ives), who worked with Magnus' father. Eric and Paulus are on the hunt for a creature that may be responsible for the disappearance of ships in the Bermuda Triangle. But Paulus tells Magnus that the woman named Jenny is not real -- she is either a figment of his imagination or the ghost of a woman who died at sea many years before. She apparently lives forever because she sold her soul to a sea god in the hopes he would spare her. And what is her connection with the huge marine animal that pops up sporadically? Is it the sea god? 

Intense: Leigh McCloskey

The Bermuda Depths can't make up its mind if it's a monster movie, a ghost story, or an outre romance, and it doesn't quite work as any of them. It would be easy to just dismiss this as an awful mess, but it's also strangely absorbing and one could argue that at least it's something different. The monster is a big prop and it has a decided connection to Gammera as well as with a pet that Magnus had as a boy. As for the actors, they all play with conviction, with McCloskey etching a portrait of a man with decided emotional issues who is quick to anger. Julie Woodson is given some very effective moments as Eric's wife, Doshan, and Ruth Attaway is fun as the peculiar old cook, Delia. You might wonder how Burl Ives wound up in this but he's fine. 

Big Daddy: Burl Ives

According to Paulus, Magnus' father was trying to come up with the cause of mutations that create gigantism in sea life. Huh? Would anybody actually do that in real life? Apparently his research into gigantism created a monstrous organism that is now romping off the coast of Bermuda. Unfortunately we don't see nearly enough of this creature, although it does figure in an exciting climax. The film takes advantage of beautiful Bermuda locations. Apparently this rather silly if engaging movie has a lot of fans, and a film entitled Back from the Bermuda Depths is in development! 

Verdict: Too weird for its own good. **1/2. 

DIE SISTER, DIE!

Jack Ging

DIE SISTER, DIE! (1978). Producer/director: Randall Hood.

"Life is the one disease that's always fatal."

Edward Price (Jack Ging) has always hated his sister, Amanda (Edith Atwater). because she lives in the family mansion and has control of the money. She has attempted suicide more than once but never quite succeeds. Edward hires former nurse Esther (Antoinette Bower) to care for Amanda, with the instruction that she is not to do anything to save her if she decides to try killing herself one more time. But Esther doesn't realize that the brother and sister are hiding a dark secret. The family doctor (Kent Smith) doesn't have a clue, either.

Edith Atwaterr and Antoinette Bower

Yes, Die, Sister Die! sounds like it might be a good bet for suspense fans, but be forewarned that the movie has little suspense, its revelations come much too early in the story, and the picture has no style or dramatic tension. The script isn't helped by mediocre direction and actors who have probably given better performances elsewhere but seem only vaguely interested in what's going on here. Kent Smith probably comes off best. This is one of those movies that has a workable and even intriguing storyline but muffs it on virtually every level. Hugo Friedhoffer's musical score is incredibly dull and does nothing for the picture. Edith Atwater was also in Strait-Jacket with Joan Crawford. NOTE: IMDB reports the rumor that Jack Ging importuned friend Clint Eastwood to finish the film after the credited director passed away. 

Verdict: If it didn't have enough problems, a slow pace really sinks this. *1/2.