Customer Reviews

The Spell (1977)

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3 star:		(2)
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If you get the chance to see this movie, don't pass it up. Very obviously inspired by "Carrie", it is nonetheless a fairly effective made-for-TV thriller in which an overweight 15 year old finds she has powers that enable her to take revenge on people who bully and tease her. The film stars the capable Lee Grant in the role of the mother, and Susan Myers plays the troubled teen, Rita, with some flair, mixing moments of intensity with a general childish air and a touching propensity to say please and thank you when asked to! Unlike Carrie, she actually has a fairly normal family, and Grant in particular makes for a very supportive parent who tries her best to get to the bottom of Rita's problems. The meat of the action, of course, lies in what Rita actually does to her enemies, but don't get too excited because as you might expect from a TV movie there's little in the way of bloodshed or violence.

That's not to say that there is nothing worth seeing, however, as the film does have one stand-out scene which everyone who has seen it seems to remember. When Rita's mother pays a visit on a elderly lady to see how she is, this (previously unseen) character walks down the stairs to welcome her, but before she can say anything she starts choking on her own tongue, her eyeballs turn zombie-white and her head swells up and goes purple! Seconds later she is billowing smoke and crashing through a glass door, before collapsing on the ground and dying in agony. This brief but remarkable (and horrific) scene comes as a real surprise when up until then all we have seen is a near miss hit-and-run car accident, and one of Rita's tormentors falling off a rope in gym class. It certainly gave me nightmares as a child. The remainder of the film follows Grant as she uncovers how Rita is carrying out her psychic reign of terror, and attempts to stop her.

Although well acted by the cast (including a very young Helen Hunt as Rita's more popular sister), the overall effect is weakened by some indistinct plotting and not very good continuity. Some characters and events are barely fleshed out at all. At one point we are introduced to a psychic researcher (or something) who has a tape recording of Grant, seemingly explaining her situation in some kind of therapy session. This is very badly inserted into the film, as its hard to work out when it is supposed to be happening. Similarly, the old lady who burns up is a character who has only ever been vaguely referred to by the cast, and as soon as she does appear she is dead before she utters a single line of dialogue. Other events and character motivations are tossed into the background in a similarly hap-hazard manner. This seems to be a film made in a hurry, and to make it worse, several scenes are also quite sloppily edited together.

Sadly, as the video is now deleted and no DVD seems in the pipeline, it's unlikely that The Spell will resurface for re-appraisal any time soon. What works is the likeable cast (I always enjoy watching Lee Grant), and the one totally out-there shock scene, but apart from that it is rather mundane and not really capable of standing out among the many other late 1970's TV thrillers. However I would still recommend a viewing if you come across it.

The 70's was a weird decade. With movies like The Exorcist and The Omen, the supernatural was a prevalent element in horror movies. Even stranger it spread into the tv movies of the time. Lifetime they weren't. Witchcraft, entities, and haunted houses were regular topics. (I have two listmanias devoted to this.)

The Spell is admittedly a "Carrie" rip off. A fat girl is taunted at school and criticized at home. It also doesn't help that her sister is a pretty, popular and young Helen Hunt. With the help of her young gym teacher the girl obtains occult powers and uses them to punish her enemies. Unfortunately the movie isn't as interesting as its premise but it's all right. 2.5 rounded to 3.

I was around when Carrie was an original movie in the theaters & of course liked it.. This TV-version "The Spell" was enjoyable for me back then as well. And I recently was able to catch it on television. Me, personally, I like the movie and would watch it again but it's very difficult to see the old TV-movies from years ago..