Michael_Elliott Satan's School for Girls (1973)** (out of 4) Made-for-TV flick about Elizabeth Sayers (Pamela Franklin), a woman who checks herself into a college under a fake name after the suicide of her sister. Elizabeth doesn't believe her sister would kill herself so she goes to the college to see what's really going on and sure enough other girls have killed themselves or is something much darker going on? Yes, the title pretty much tells you what's going on in this Aaron Spelling flick that has some good performances and nice atmosphere but very little else. At 78-minutes the film seems twice as long and the main reason why is that every single scene just keeps dragging on and on to the point where you simply stop caring about what's going on. It also doesn't help that the director seems to think that you're going to come to the film scared and that he doesn't need to do anything except having strange looking actors playing male parts and have scary music constantly going on the soundtrack. Just check out the opening scene where we get a couple males who just look creepy and yet this is supposed to make us scared. This trick happens throughout the movie as every male role is either played by an elderly man made to seem weird or of course there's the one good looking guy and you know what that means. There's a nice music score here but it gets played to death so much that you really can't help but roll your eyes and wish someone would hit the pause button. Even though it's not creepy at all, the film at least contains some nice atmosphere but I've found most TV movies from this era, no matter how bad they are, to have this one quality. Another good thing are the performances with Franklin doing a nice job in the lead role. The supporting cast includes strong performances by Jo Van Fleet and Kate Jackson as well as a very good turn by Cheryl Ladd in an early role. SATAN'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS offers very few shocks, no scares and there's really not too much going for it. In a decade full of Satanic films you can find much better ones to spend your night with.

coxtalan Yes,even the angels once had a dark side. I saw this movie 35 yrs. ago on ABC Movie of the Week when I was 11 years old. I thought it was pretty scary at the time for a TV movie. Of course,TV horror movies back in the 70's had a way of scaring people without being gory. It did for me anyway.This movie is about a woman named Elizabeth played by Pamela Franklin(The Legend of Hell House)who wants to find out why her sister died.(She won't believe it was suicide)So,she goes to the all-girl school her sister attended appropriately named "Salem's Academy".(That should tell you something)There she meets two girls Roberta and Jodie played by Kate Jackson(Dark Shadows,The Rookies,Charlie's Angels,Scarecrow and Mrs.King)(Did I leave any out?)and a young(unknown at the time)Cheryl Stoppelmoor later would change it to Ladd and rejoin Kate Jackson on "Charlie's Angels". Well back to the movie.Elizabeth tries to find out what happened to her sister, but no one seems to know nothing or do they? Why is everyone she talks to seem to be clueless about what happened to her sister Martha or too scared to say anything? Still,she's determined to find out what happened to her sister and she may find out more than she expected.This movie also stars Roy Thinnes(The Norliss Tapes,The Horror at 37,000 Feet)as Professor Clampett. Also,Jo Van Fleet and Lloyd Bochner.Speaking of Charlie's Angels, there was an episode where Sabrina and Kris went undercover at an all-girls school. I've always wondered if that episode was a tribute to "Satan's School for Girls"? I guess I'll never know.

lockwood-10 This is another movie which I have looked for over the years to see on latenight channels but is no longer available I believe. I really liked this because it had an overall scary plot running throughout the movie. Both of my kids, (Nate and Ryann like these types of movies and they are at the right age to spot good quality. I hope if anyone knows if this is still being shown around the country to let me know because I can't find it for anything. If you get a change to watch it, by all means do so. It will not let you down and is a little above a B grade movie. Look at how young all the pre Charlie's Angels are in this flick... Enjoy!

Space_Mafune That's the whole problem with this film. The opening scene is fantastically done with Terry Lumley as Martha Sayers on the run from some unseen but clearly deadly menace that it seems can get to her no matter where she runs and/or hides. It's too bad this level of suspense and thrills could not be maintained when it was star Pamela Franklin's turn (as Elizabeth Sayers) to be terrorized at the school for girls her sister had previously attended. Sure a nice effort is made by a very talented cast including Roy Thinnes, Kate Jackson, Jamie-Smith Jackson and Lloyd Bochner to keep the excitement going but in the end this falters and loses that hard edge it had when it opened. Perhaps some of this is the fault of the limitations inherent in this appearing on television in the 1970s but honestly I feel the real reason is that they reveal too much in terms of clues and visuals making the previously terrifying and mysterious menace seem much less threatening when it is finally revealed, in fact it proves somewhat anticlimactic.