Les sorcières de la nuit

A new student from the East Coast (Mary Beth McDonough) enrolls in Ocean High in SoCal where she immediately meets a potential beau (Patrick Cassidy), which means becoming the rival of his dubious ex, who just so happens to take the black arts seriously (Melissa Sue Anderson). Cathryn Damon plays the mother of the latter while Marion Ross is on hand as a wise mentor.

Although "Midnight Offerings" (1981) was originally released to TV, it's a formidable witchcraft-oriented horror featuring several iconic television stars from the 70s and the younger brother of Shaun Cassidy. It's basically a mixture of "Carrie" (1976), "Summer of Fear" (1978) and the forthcoming "Christine" (1983).

It works well because the story draws you into the drama of the romantic triangle and everything culminates with a hellish, but fitting, climax. King D no doubt ripped-off the set for the occultic rituals for his diabolic photo ops.

The film runs around 1 hour, 30 minutes, and was shot in Los Angeles.

GRADE: B.

It's the Waltons vs. Little House On The Devil Worshipping Prairie. In other words... fun.

The ravishing, outgoing & confident Vivian rules the school. She's pretty, popular and dating the school stud. It's all about her and she aims to keep it that way. Did I mention that she can morph into a crow or a cat and she has a shrine to Satan set up in her bedroom? Enter Robin Prentiss: New girl in town. She's mousey, she's shy, and Vivian's boyfriend takes an immediate liking to her. You know what that means...Meow! Black cat-fight!

If you've seen "The Craft" then you've seen this. There are numerous similiarities, right down to the physical resemblances of the lead actresses. You know the drill: Good witch vs. Big Bad Bitch Witch. Good witch seeks out mentoring from old, dried-up, brittle witch (played here by Marion Ross, "Mrs. C." from Happy Days). They engage in supernatural combat by magically hurling household appliances at each other (the battle in the high-school shop class is priceless and lame, but mostly fun. Think: Attack of the killer paint-sprayer!)

Melissa Sue Anderson is a pure diva riot as Vivian, biggest witch in town, and she plays it to the hilt. Three cheers to Melissa Sue for a truly memorable screen villianess who's not afraid to apply her eye makeup with a butter-knife. Mary McDonough is less fun to watch, and her performance is perhaps a whisker above the realm of bad acting...but hey, the good girls in these kinds of movies are never that interesting to watch anyways.

Look for Vanna White and Dana Kimmel ("Friday The 13th Part 3") in sub-minor roles and pearl-clutching 80's mall fashions.

So bad it's good, accept the offer and have a laugh. Rent it. Then cast a cleansing spell on yourself to help you forget that you did.

A very middling TV movie from a genre which is usually fantastic. MIDNIGHT OFFERINGS just feels rather weak and tame in terms of its plotting and ideas, and Wes Craven's SUMMER OF FEAR, a similarly-themed TV movie from the 1970s which predates it, was a lot, lot, better.

The storyline involves a couple of teenage witch rivals fighting over a jock in your typical American high school. Some of the fun comes from the fact that both girls come from long-running American soaps: evil witch Melissa Sue Anderson is off the back of LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, while good witch Mary Beth McDonough comes from THE WALTONS. Watching these two actresses squaring up is kind of fun, but there isn't much fun overall.

Too much of the running time is dragged out with discussions involving disbelieving characters and the supernatural action, when it hits, is over and done with too quickly. It's not that MIDNIGHT OFFERINGS is a particularly bad film per se - the climax is effective and there are some genuinely spooky moments handled well on the low budget - it's just that American TV movies from this era are often much, much better (like DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW for instance).

God I loved this movie as a kid, it was like "Carrie" squared! Mary from Little House v.s. Erin from the Waltons, with Mrs Cunningham from happy days as the good mentor and Mr Carleson from WKRP as the clueless father? Throw in Vanna White as a cheerleader with only one line and Shawn Cassidys little brother as the male lead and you have a hit!

I loved the whole "good witch, bad witch" aspect, with Robin (the good witch played by Erin from the Waltons) slowly learning to use her powers. Melissa Anderson (Mary from Little house) has never been better than here, as a evil witch not above useing her powers and sexuality to get what she wants. The movie builds suspense through out, and a sense of dread for our heroes, and actually logicially (for 1981) explains why these women are witches and how there powers work. one of my favorite tv movies of all time!

After a high school teacher dies in a tragic, fiery "accident", we're introduced to honor roll student and Homecoming Queen, Vivian Sotherland (Melissa Sue Anderson). It's made clear right from the beginning that Vivian is a practitioner of the dark arts, spouting incantations and performing devilish mumbo jumbo in her bedroom.

Viv's oblivious father (Gordon Jump) is wrapped around her pinky, while her mother (Cathryn Damon) sees through her daughter's overly-sweet veneer.

When new student, Robin Prentiss (Mary Beth McDonough) enters the picture, daring to befriend Vivian's boyfriend (Patrick Cassidy), things get very interesting. Vivian is about to discover that Robin might not be an ordinary girl.

MIDNIGHT OFFERINGS is a wonderfully wicked, made-for-TV horror film, delving into deviltry, and allowing Ms. Anderson to shed her wholesome, LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRARIE image. She's perfect in her delectably eeevil role!

Fearful fun right up to the final showdown...