The Spell

She's 15 and at an age that is just so much more complicated when you're fat. Rita discovers that she has telekenetic powers and can seek revenge against those who are cruel to her. Good performances by Lee Grant and a young Helen Hunt. Bostock is downright chilling in the role. Some excellent special effects for this type of movie, and the end scenes are quite scary, actually. Most of all, a good message about teenagers. Sometimes they can be witchy and seem like aliens, but what they need most of all is love.

The Spell (1977)

** (out of 4)

This made-for-TV horror film was shown just three months after the release of CARRIE so it's easy to see why it's been forgotten over the years. Lee Grant plays a mother who starts to get worried when her overweight daughter (Susan Myers) begins to act strange against those picking on her. Soon it appears the girl has supernatural powers that she's using against those who pick on her. THE SPELL is obviously a cheap rip-off of the Brian DePalma classic and I think what really kills this film is the screenplay. It's hard to feel sorry for the young girl played by Myers because she's really just an all around ugly person. In CARRIE we at least cared about the girl and even in the end when we might not agree with what she was doing. In this film there's never a single scene where we feel for the girl and this is really what causes the film to fall apart. Each time we see her she's being rude, ugly or trying to kill somewhat. This here isn't the best way to fall for any character. It's also rather annoying watching the mother walking around so stupid and never really being able to see what's going on. The film is basically told through the eyes of the mother and she goes back and forth so many times that it's hard to relate to her as well. Grant, for the most part, deliver a good performance as the mother and I was also impressed with Myers. A very young Helen Hunt plays the sister and does a nice job with it and we also have James Olson turning in a good performance. The direction is okay but I think a faster pace would have helped things. THE SPELL really doesn't come anywhere close to CARRIE but it's probably best that one doesn't try to compare the two films. Even on its own, this here is pretty weak and is only for those who need to see every film of its type.

THE SPELL opens with a scene that establishes the wickedness of the female bullies who prey upon Rita (Susan Myers), a sad girl with a weight problem. The credits are barely over when one of these meanies suffers from a freak "accident". Rita's mom, Marilyn (Lee Grant) is concerned about her, while dad (James Olson) seems too busy to notice. Rita's sister, Kristina (Helen Hunt) gets all of the positive attention, and poor Rita gets the scorn.

Everyone had better just watch out!

This is a CARRIE clone, and as such, it's very entertaining. Instead of telekinesis, this time, black magic is afoot! Hyper-dramatic and overwrought, the cheeezey chills are bountiful! Some of the scenes are pure platinum! Especially, the bug-eyed, smoldering woman through the glass door sequence, and the double-twist, flying cutlery, house-wrecking finale! A treasure-trove of made-for-TV terror!...

Every teenager has dreamt of having the mental power to smite their enemies. In the late 1970's, Hollywood gave that power to a select few. The made for TV production `The Spell' (1977) was a well done version of the theme, and fell between `Carrie' (1976) and `The Fury' (1978) in both chronology and style. `The Spell' came closest to the altered reality that most of us envisioned when running this scenario in our own teenage mental movie house. No ultra-evil-parents or goody-two-shoes types (Carrie) and no spies and secret organizations (The Fury).

Instead, `The Spell' presents the story of a regular out of place teenager in a regular unfair world. She finds that she suddenly has telekinetic powers, and the revenge that most of us dreamed about becomes a reality for her. The pacing is a little choppy, but the heart of the story unfolds nicely. The world is still unfair, she just doesn't realize that it is now HER that is being unfair to those who don't have her secret power. The result is a ‘teenage telekinesis' movie that actually relies on character rather than special effects for its most important moments. While the parents in the other two movies were either nuts (Carrie) or non-existent (The Fury) the parents in this movie are loving people who are trying to provide some proper guidance to a daughter who just seems to be changing from a timid young girl into a smart-ass teenager. Hallmark moments were never like this

Teenager Rita is harassed by her classmates for being withdrawn and overweight. At home, her father and younger sister treat her like utter garbage; her mother seems to understand her to some extent, though not entirely. But Rita is, unbeknownst to them all, honing her own supernatural skills that jeopardizes anyone who comes in her path.

This made-for-television romp from the golden age for TV horror films riffs on "Carrie" in multiple ways, even imitating key moments from the 1976 film. Yes, so "The Spell" is a cash-in. But what else is there to say about it? More than one may think. It is not exactly a well-made film: It's choppily-edited and the narrative is a bit heavy-handed. The bulk of the film is really made up of twisted family melodrama, which would be rather boring if it weren't the most utterly bizarre family dynamic ever filmed.

I honestly did not realize until about thirty minutes in that the protagonist, Rita, was a blood relative of the family; not only does she look nothing like her on screen parents and sibling, but she is treated by virtually every member of her family like an unwelcome cousin, twice removed—maybe even worse—and for no immediately decipherable reason. They just simply despise her, and her resentment continues to grow (and with frankly good reason). The relationships on which the film is predicated are utterly strange and do leave the audience somewhat adrift, as there is virtually no likable character from beginning to end.

The performances here are memorable, with Lee Grant playing the stern but sometimes-empathetic mother; a young Helen Hunt plays Rita's perfect little sister, and Susan Myers (who, for the record, is not at all overweight) is memorable in the lead role, delivering some surprisingly chilling scenes; her performance at times reminded me of Tina Romero's in "Alucarda," mixed with a bit of Linda Blair from "The Exorcist." There are a handful of scare scenes here that are dated by contemporary standards, though one is so bizarre and unexpected it's almost disturbing. The twist ending is mildly clever, though fairly perceptible by the time the film has rolled into its final act, and the whole thing ends rather abruptly (not uncommon for television films of this era).

Overall, "The Spell" is an amusing film that I personally found utterly absorbing, largely because its core melodrama was so perplexing. It's a fun, frivolous viewing experience for fans of seventies television horror as it does capture the era effectively, and there is a handful of sideshow attractions to be had. Perhaps the most memorable element of it all though is the fact that most of its runtime consists of an introverted teenage girl being groundlessly flanked by not only her peers, but her entire family. The seventies were a strange time, I guess. 7/10.