Horrible carnage

From a poor background, co-locating in a pet store with her depressed father, Mensa-grade intellect sees the beguiling Jennifer (Pelikan) given an opportunity to break free from her lower-class shackles amongst the well healed at a prestigious girl's school. But after prolonged bullying and passive subversion from the arrogant head mistress (Foch), Jennifer reveals her penchant for snakes, and her telepathic ability to command them to avenge her mistreatment.

A strong cast (Bert Convy as a sympathetic teacher, John Gavin in one of his last film roles before taking up politics) and some effective special effects are the cornerstones of this blatant "Carrie" knock-off, the parallels so shameless (particularly in the characterisations) that if you removed the snake aspect, you'd be watching an inferior remake.

Pelikan is capable and actually looks better than the material with which she's got to work, and Foch in particular is a strong, assured presence as the pompous principal, whose belief it is that only money and status can achieve worthy character. The giant snake head effects aren't bad, and you wonder how the actors feel about some giant puppet head clamping down on their skulls – not what they'd have anticipated at theatre school. But it's all about the audience, and it's cheesy and fun, so thumbs up.

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

I received my videotape of Jennifer today and I saw it. While the effects near the end were a little shoddy, it was an overall good effort. The writing, acting, character development and suspense were very good. If they had today's digital effects with which to do the snake attack scenes, the film could have been a gem.

I only saw the last half-hour of this film. I have been looking all over the four corners of the earth and finally found it available for order on the internet. When I see the whole thing, I'll make additional comments. I'm tired of maudlin films with reprehensible characters who get killed or suffer misfortune, only to have the other characters weeping or remorseful over the misfortune that character deserved to get. But that's not the case with Jennifer. It is uncompromising and doesn't pull any punches when exacting revenge on many of the film's vicious characters. Some of you have criticized the effects, but be understanding that without today's digital and computer effects, they were limited in what they could do. A good effort, with some reasonably well-known stars adding spice to the film.