Scuola diabolica per ragazze

I woke up this morning to find a note from my younger sister asking me to tape the movie because it was on while she was at school. So I did.

I didn't think it was too bad, but it would have been better if thy had done it with a different ending.

Shannen Doherty plays your seemingly average girl, Beth Hammersmith. However, after her sister apparently suicides, she receives a message saying "Our Deepest Sympathies--The Five". And out of curiosity, she enrols at her sister's college. On her first day, she gets a note saying "Join Us--The Five".

She meets the Dean (Kate Jackson). And her roomate allison (Julie Benz). And her roomate's friend Paige. And "Sabrina the teenage b tch"--a girl named Lisa (along with her four goth "droogs", if I may use that term).

I'm not going to reveal anything more about this movie in the case that you the reader have not seen it yet.

However, I will tell you that the ending is a little too saccharine for this kind of movie. Had they changed it, the movie would be a lit better (and yes, I do understand that this movie was based on a 1970s TVM that also featured Kate Jackson)

Satan's School for Girls is not one of the slasher films that seem to be gathering box office money. In fact, if it were released in theatre's, I am sure it might not do that well. But as a TV-Movie, it really attracted an audience. When Shannen Doherty's sister commits suicide, Shannen (Beth) is positive that she was murdered. To find out how or even more, Beth enrolls herself into her sisters college, where she finds out secrets she wished she had never known. Being a huge fan of Shannen, I found this film a must-see, but I found that her character was a lot alike to Prue Halliwell, the witch she plays on Charmed. She even has powers in this film. But, like always, her performance was good, just similiar to her previous work. You might recognize Kate Jackson in this film, as the colleges head mistress. She even starred in the original film, yes, this is an Aaron Spelling remake. Julie Benz also turned in a great performance as Shannen's unsuspicious room-mate. The middle of the film is where the climax really begins, when you start to unravel the basic plot of the story. The ending may leaved some shocked, I didn't suspect it at all.

Shannen Doherty seemed a little old to be going to college (even if it was to investigate her sister's "suicide") - but my friends and I sure had fun watching her battle everyone from Goth girls to Kate Jackson. There were more twists in the plot than I expected, and several of the performances were good - i.e. the lead Goth girl, Julie Benz as the head Satanic girl, the guy from 90201 who played Shannen's boyfriend, and yes, even Ms. Doherty. On the downside, the special effects were pretty cheesy.

What a great movie! For once, a tv movie that doesn't pretend to be any more than it is: light-hearted entertainment. I felt that the actor's and actress's portrayals of their characters were right on. They all knew the movie was just meant to be in fun, and it looked as though they honestly enjoyed themselves while making the film.

Aside- I would consider this to be the second in the Everyone Wants To Be Shannon Doherty series of movies (The first was the often rerun on VH1 flick Friends Till The End).

This movie had everything going for it as far as being a one of the awful horror movies that is so bad it's funny: it has a really horrible storyline, an even worse script, cheap special effects and some of the worst overacting I've seen in years.

The only downfall of this movie was Shannon Doherty, who, though extremely hot, wretched the entire "crappy movie" experience for me with her unnerving indifference. It's like she knew that this was a bad movie to begin with, and so she didn't even try, she might as well have been reading her lines from a teleprompter (which I think she was.

As I said, this ruined the experience for me, nothing is more funny to watch then people trying to make serious horror films and failing miserably.