The Spell (1977) ** (out of 4) This made-for-TV horror film was shown just three months after the release of CARRIE so it's easy to see why it's been forgotten over the years. Lee Grant plays a mother who starts to get worried when her overweight daughter (Susan Myers) begins to act strange against those picking on her. Soon it appears the girl has supernatural powers that she's using against those who pick on her. THE SPELL is obviously a cheap rip-off of the Brian DePalma classic and I think what really kills this film is the screenplay. It's hard to feel sorry for the young girl played by Myers because she's really just an all around ugly person. In CARRIE we at least cared about the girl and even in the end when we might not agree with what she was doing. In this film there's never a single scene where we feel for the girl and this is really what causes the film to fall apart. Each time we see her she's being rude, ugly or trying to kill somewhat. This here isn't the best way to fall for any character. It's also rather annoying watching the mother walking around so stupid and never really being able to see what's going on. The film is basically told through the eyes of the mother and she goes back and forth so many times that it's hard to relate to her as well. Grant, for the most part, deliver a good performance as the mother and I was also impressed with Myers. A very young Helen Hunt plays the sister and does a nice job with it and we also have James Olson turning in a good performance. The direction is okay but I think a faster pace would have helped things. THE SPELL really doesn't come anywhere close to CARRIE but it's probably best that one doesn't try to compare the two films. Even on its own, this here is pretty weak and is only for those who need to see every film of its type.

This movie is available on Hulu, just fyi :) Okay, so apparently my comment must be at least 10 lines long. So, here's what I thought about the movie. At the beginning, I did feel it was a rip-off of Carrie, but the more I watched, the less similarities there were. As cheesy as most 70s movies are, I thought the acting was good. It had a real eeriness to it. What I hated was that this girl, Rita, was considered fat. It's one thing for stupid kids at school to call her fat, I was smaller than her in school & still got called fat from time to time, but for her father to do so was cruel. She was not fat. I'd love to see what she looks like now, if anyone has a link, I haven't searched it yet. Okay, I think I reached my 10-line minimum. The whole point of my comment was to let people know the movie is available on hulu...that is all :)

This movie is sooo boring. I had yet to see a bad 70's horror movie that I did not like, there is a first for everything. It has already been noted that this is a quickie TV ripoff of Carrie. I knew that by the box art. I was not expecting much gore, but c'mon you gotta give the audience at least 1 likable character. I hated everyone in this boring movie. I love the occult, telekinesis, etc. if you are a director making crappy movies in the 1970's, you can do no wrong by me if you put that kind of thing in your movie. But this movie is the exception, other than the mom, all the actors are lousy. I really wanted the dad to die, but he did not. I really wanted Helen Hunt to die but she did not. If you are looking for a good Carrie rip off, check out Lucio Fulci's Aenigma, it is the exact opposite of this thing, which could be the prototype for every other Lifetime Network movie that followed. I'm not saying all of the Lifetimes are bad, some are OK, but the ones that are boring are very pedestrian like this turkey trot. But where is the moral?

There's one scene in the movie that always stood out in my head. A woman is walking down a flight of stairs, when she is overtaken by one of these spells. Her tongue turns purple and smoke comes out of her head. It was very shocking the way the attack just seemed to come out of nowhere.