tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post8159302327337337938..comments2024-03-28T14:49:36.133-04:00Comments on John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Cult Movies and Classic TV: Cult-TV Movie Review: The Initiation of Sarah (1978)John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-50096579147356671592017-01-12T20:09:15.395-05:002017-01-12T20:09:15.395-05:00John, very good review of this well-remembered and...John, very good review of this well-remembered and revered TV movie. I think the biggest reason it's considered such a classic is much of the TV audience consisted of kids who were too young to see the R-rated "Carrie" in theaters without an accompanying adult--and many parents would not take their kids to see occult/horror movies. A movie had to be really good and have a lot of word-of-mouth support for many teenagers to take risks to get into theaters--I mean, the things we had to go through to slip in to see "The Exorcist"! It had to be really worth getting caught, and "Carrie" wasn't. So, a lot of people saw "Sarah" on TV before they ever saw "Carrie" on home video, and they regarded "Carrie" as the derivative work. <br /><br />Yes, it is derivative . . . the entire era was filled with copycats and derivatives of "Carrie", "Black Christmas", "Halloween", "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Rosemary's Baby", "The Omen", "The Dark Secret of Harvest Home", and "Salem's Lot" over the next several years. What I think was striking for many about "The Initiation of Sarah" was that, unlike so many TV occult works, the cast was largely female and yet the story didn't devolve into soapish elements. Many TV movies of that era that were heavily female-oriented tended to turn into Peyton Place With Candles. That gave it a pretty impressive television audience, one that might have been smaller if it had turned off many male viewers. <br /><br />Although I get what you're saying, John, about the cartoonish nature of the mean girls in this story, I have to actually disagree: the character of Jennifer and her snotty friends is much more realistic and true to life than you think! As written and as portrayed by Morgan Fairchild (and this role made Fairchild's career), Jennifer is a very familiar "mean girl" type. Many of us encounter these women over and over throughout life in many settings, as unless something provides a comeuppance, they never just go on to reenact their us versus them tendencies in social settings of all kinds. Just about everybody who isn't a "Jennifer" has dealt with someone EXACTLY like Jennifer at one time or another. Sherinoreply@blogger.com