Jennifer

This film is basically a rip off of Carrie, girl is bullied throughout the movie and then we get a climatic finish where strange powers are on full display. The problem with this trope is that you have to watch a lot of movie where the powers are not on display and there is filler to the extreme! Another movie that follows this formula is Evil Speak with Clint Howard, but that one was way creepier from what I remember. That being said, I was a kid when last I saw that movie so it may seem silly now. This one I liked the ending and aspects of it, but at times it just was a bit too far fetched.

The story has Jennifer, a nice young lady from rural country going to a private academy. Despite what is said, not all the girls dislike Jennifer, only this one senator's daughter and her clique. Her clique and the daughter are all flat chested, but hang around a girl they call fat, but to me had the best bod of the bunch as she had boobs and was not a zipper. The senator's daughter was not even all that, but she just had to taunt Jennifer and her chubby friend to a ridiculous degree so when the comeuppance occurs I was fully in Jennifer's corner.

Not sure what the deal with the school is as some of the girls seem to live there, but Jennifer lives with her father in a rundown looking pet store. I think the degree to which the head mistress protects the senator's daughter is a bit unrealistic too as sooner or later that girl was going to do something that would have brought down the academy's reputation...not sure there is any private school where the girls can just drive off with a couple of guys and go to a disco and do drugs...

So, the film had its moments and the climax was pretty cool as Jennifer displayed her powers which was not just controlling snakes, but materializing them out of thin air! However, there is so much filler, like watching the mean girls dance at a disco, Jennifer no where to be seen. I guess they did okay as this film was obviously a rush job to capitalize on the success of Carrie.

There are a lot of similarities between Carrie and Jennifer (over-religious single parent, school snobbery, pent up anger sparking supernatural revenge, and I guess even at one point toward the end having Jennifer looking remarkably similar to Margaret White at the end of Carrie). Jennifer's power involves control over snakes, whereas Carrie had control over practically everything.

Jennifer is played by Lisa Peliken, who is excellent in this. She gets a scholarship to a ritzy school, and her poor background and lack of wealth make her an easy target. She almost instantly gets on the bad side of the biggest clique in the school, led by Chris Hargensen-like Sandra. The special effects (especially a giant snake) are poor, but it is a fun, dated movie to watch.

Jennifer is a poor young redheaded woman from West Virginia attending a private girl's school on a scholarship. She and her father had left their home in disgrace, when around the age of seven some snakes Jennifer had been handling in church apparently bit and killed the preacher's son. She refused to handle snakes ever since, though her father now runs a pet store and often encourages her to use her power again.

Her father is a bit of a simpleton, unable to make meals for himself without burning them, relying on his "Jenny" ever since his wife died. While he does operate the pet store, most of the time he's in a back room listening to Christian radio.

Pretty Jennifer is quite smart, though. I'm not sure if her scholarship was based on her low income or her high intelligence. She gets in trouble with a cruel clique at school. They already hated her for being different, but when she snitches on them for cheating on a mid- term exam (only after they accused her of being the ringleader when they were caught), they're literally prepared to kill her.

The main culprit is Sandra, the daughter of a Senator. The school's headmistress is quite eager to kick Jennifer out as well, preferring students with rich and powerful parents.

The swim team invites Jennifer to join them, but the movie does not make much of that plot element. One of Sandra's crew, an overweight girl, also sticks up for Jennifer occasionally, to her own detriment. Additionally, one of the teachers also wants to be Jennifer's friend.

Eventually Jennifer is pushed to the point where she does start using her power.

This was an OK movie, nothing exceptional. Some of the giant snakes, briefly glimpsed, are a bit silly. Is it a rip-off of Carrie? Well, probably. The video distributor was selling it along those lines, with a tagline on the back of the video box reading "Compared to this, 'Carrie' was an angel." The overall plot is similar: misfit child of religious fanatic is picked on at school and resorts to using psychic powers.

Beyond that, I don't know if they're too similar. Jennifer's father is a bit of a loon, and while he pulls a belt out at one point to threaten Jennifer, it's unclear whether he's ever actually delivered on the threat: he doesn't seem to be as cruel as Carrie's mother. Jennifer doesn't become filled with rage like Carrie, attacking innocent people, but acts in self-defense, only attacking those who are prepared to kill her.

Surprisingly effective little low budget shocker here that proves once again that just because a horror movie from the 1970s has a PG rating that doesn't mean it's for kids. This one has some genuinely sick material though not in the department that one might think even with the unexpected brief nudity. It's a Snake Horror ripoff of CARRIE for sure but there's something else going on here. And proof yet again that the key element to any good movie is the writing, not the budget or the stars, unless you consider Bert Convey a star. That must be him singing the opening theme song, and its just so awful you have to love it.

So CARRIE was about a misunderstood waif pushed to the edge by a bunch of stuck-up bored rich kids who torment her at school. JENNIFER is about a plucky young lady from the country who runs afoul of a boarding school's resident teenage psychopath convincingly played by Amy Johnston who literally has the whole world struck dumb by her. She's put the whammy on everyone at the private school the film is set at. Her classmates, her teachers, her boyfriend and his pack of loser buddies (one of which is former "Land Of The Lost" actor Wesley Ure, showing that he really could act after all), the pill-popping boozer headmistress, even the people who despise her hold her in a certain amount of awe. Including John Gavin playing her senator father whom I suspect knows that her daughter is completely psychotic and doesn't give half a damn.

The Snake Horror stuff -- while good enough, given the budget and PG ratings prohibition against overtly sexualized content -- takes second seat to what is actually a pretty good rendition of how a charming psychopath can insinuate themselves so well into the lives of their victims that dislodging them becomes traumatic in itself. The most horrifying scene in the film is when the maniac sets up one of her flunkie so-called friends to be date raped by her equally sociopathic boyfriend. The damndest thing is, I've heard of worse in real life. By keeping its psycho horrors in check the film is all the more frightening. Other than the snakes you could really see some of this happening, suggesting that maybe what we're seeing here were two scripts combined into one: A story about a young lady with a gift for controlling reptiles, and another about a psychopathic Barely Legal who eventually destroys the lives of everyone she comes in contact with. The latter story steals the show.

So yeah, the young lady with the past as a snake handling tongue speaking miracle girl does indeed unleash hell's fury in an amusing display of serpentine pyrotechnics that includes a couple of great ironic justice payback deaths for her tormentors. But to me the real story is about this pretty young psycho and the lengths that she will go to perpetuate the almost hypnotic hold she seems to have on her followers. Kind of makes you wonder about all those bullies and demented weirdos you used to run afoul of yourself as a younger person. I knew they were crazy all along. Nobody can be that cruel & still have a conscience. Here's a movie that shows how it works -- the Snake Horror stuff is just gravy.

6/10

Jennifer is a poor and hard-working student and she possesses a power over snakes,an ability to control them and communicate with them.Her father Luke is a mentally unstable religious nut.The worst of all some wealthy students led by cruel Sandra constantly harass Jennifer at school.Sandra turns many other students and teachers against Jennifer including the school's headmistress.Eventually Jennifer gets revenge on her cruel classmates with the help of her snakes.Vastly enjoyable and fun to watch "Carrie" clone with likable main character.There is no gore,but if you like your horror cheesy and entertaining you can't go wrong with "Jennifer".I'd love to have a date with such a pretty girl.7 out of 10.