EDITOR’S NOTE: This movie originally was on the site on April 1, 2018. Now, Arrow Video has a new release that we’re so in love with. Extras include brand new audio commentary by TV movie queen Amanda Reyes; Welcome to Hell Week: A Pledge’s Guide to the Initiation of Sarah, a brand new appreciation by film critic Stacie Ponder and queer horror programmer Anthony Hudson, co-hosts of the Gaylords of Darkness podcast; Cracks in the Sisterhood: Second Wave Feminism and The Initiation of Sarah, a brand new visual essay by film critic and historian Alexandra Heller-Nicholas; The Intimations of Sarah, a brand new interview with film critic Samantha McLaren looking at witchcraft, empowerment, TV movies and telekinetic shy girls post-Carrie; The Initiation of Tom, a brand new interview with Tom Holland on this his first film writing credit as well as an image gallery, a reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by Luke Insect and a fully-illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Lindsay Hallam and Alexandra West. You can order this from MVD. 

Originally airing on February 6, 1978, this movie reminds me of a very important lesson: the occult was everywhere in the 1970s and it was ready to mess your life up.

The film opens with Sarah (Kay Lenz, House) who joins her stepsister Patty (Morgan Brittany, who was in Death Car on the Freeway and was Katherine Wentworth on Dallas, who was Bobby’s killer before the shower scene retcon) going to the beach. A young man forces himself on Patty and Sarah saves her with telekinesis.

The movie tries to set things up with Sarah as some ugly duckling, but in every other movie I’ve seen Kay Lenz in, she is portrayed as being attractive. That’s the only hollow note in this movie.

The girls go off to college, where they both plan on joining Alpha Nu Sigma. Their mother is even the head of the alumni committee, so it’s a big deal for her to get her biological daughter, Patty, in. For some reason, Patty is welcomed with open arms while Sarah is directed to join Phi Epsilon Delta.

All of the PED girls are rude and ill-tempered other than Mouse (Tisa Farrow, Zombi 2, Anthropophagus), a shy girl who everyone else is mean to. Mouse just wants to play her violin because otherwise, she gets nuts!

Jennifer (80’s sex symbol Morgan Fairchild), the head of ANS, forbids her sisterhood from fraternizing with the PED girls, which tears the sisters apart. Meanwhile, Sarah starts to fall for Paul (Tony Bill, Are You in the House Alone?) while staying wary of den mother Mrs. Hunter (Shelley Winters in an unhinged performance).

Even after she uses her powers to shove Jennifer into a fountain, Sarah doesn’t want to give in to her powers. But once the ANS girls retaliate and throw food and mud at her, she gives in to Mrs. Hunter’s call to hatred and gives in to an initiation ceremony.

That ceremony? It involves blowing off the evil girl’s dresses, permanently ruining Jennifer’s face and killing Mouse, but Sarah decides at the last second to kill both herself and Mrs. Hunter to stop the sacrifice. As the film ends, Patty joins PED and becomes friends with Mouse. They both mourn the loss of Sarah.

These are the kind of movies that made me glad that I went to art school and a downtown college instead of a real university. That said, I would not be eligible for a sorority, so I guess the point is moot.

This movie also has appearances by Michael Talbott (Freddy from Carrie), Robert Hayes (Airplane!), Deborah Ryan (Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park), Talia Balsam (The Supernaturals) and Kathryn Grant (The Night the World Exploded).

Made for Italian TV but shot in English in Sante Fe, New Mexico, Doc West is all about Minnesota “Doc” West (Terence Hill, who co-directed this with Giulio Base) is preparing to send money to a boarding school cross the country when robbers steal everything in the post office. He tries to chase them, but ends up saving a boy named Silver from a rattlesnake and losin their scent.

Silver tells Doc that the gang probably went to Holysand,a place where they learn that Silver’s stepfather Nathan Mitchell (Boots Southerland) has set a fire and is in the middle of battling with rival rancer Victor Baker (Adam Taylor). They’re stopped by Sheriff Roy Basehart (Paul Sorvino) and school teacher Denise Stark (Clare Carey).

After a poker game with Siver’s ranch hand Garvey (Alessio di Clemente) lands Doc in jail — he’s accused of cheating which isn’t true — he ends up fixing Sheriff Basehart’s back problems and winning his trust. Over another game of poker, West tells Basehart that he was a doctor, but had killed a patient while drunk. He vows to never drink or touch a scapel again and rides the west, looking for work so he can send money to his daughter Estrella.

West becomes integral in redeeming the town through his adventures with Silver often getting him in trouble. This movie seems similar to the lighthearted films that Hill is known for and would make a good family introduction to the Italian west. Speaking of family, one of the writers was Marco Barboni, son of Enzo Barboni, who directed the Trinity movie that made Terence Hill a worldwide name.

You can watch this on Tubi.

This tale of Suzanne Pleshette fighting corruption in the Pittsburgh police force — seven years before the murder by cops of Jonny Gammage, never forget — was something I’d hoped would be a Yinzer giallo, but instead it’s simply a by the book TV movie where she takes over a police station dahntahn and roots out the bad apples.

It does, however, have a great shot of her Mount Washington deck and Tony Shalhoub drinking at the Cricket Lounge during the day and one would assume that’s because his character knows that’s when the money-strapped students of Pitt University come to tryouts. I wouldn’t speak from experience.

This was also called Command In Hell and that better be a reference to Pittsburgh being called Hell with the Lid Off and not an insult. It’s bad enough that they call Liberty Avenue “The Sewer” and never even make it to Chez Kimberly.

Danny Aiello is the chief of police, long before he got famous, and nobody in this movie looks, sounds or acts like they are from Pittsburgh.

It’s directed by George Stafford Brown, who was Officer Terry Webster on the 70s cop drama The Rookies, and written by Mark Rogers (the Police Story TV movies) and Stephen Downing, who wrote for T.J. Hooker, Police Woman and Emergency.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Policewoman Gina Pulasky (Helen Hunt) gets accepted like you’d expect a rookie female cop to be accepted by a group of older and gruffer male officers, but then she proves that she can do more than get coffee and be harassed when she handles a domestic disturbance well and shows an affinity for undercover work. She’s also in a romance of sorts with already married cop Will McCaid (Jeff Fahey) and finds herself strangely attracted to the child killer suspect she’s interacting with, Kyle Timler (Steven Weber). A fry cook who is smarter than that job would indicate, she starts working as a waitress and uses her abusive past to connect with him. But soon, she finds herself losing her own identity and perhaps her morals as she gives in and becomes McCaid’s lover.

Directed by David Anspaugh (Hoosiers, Rudy) and written by John Leekley (the creator of Kindred: The Embraced and Wolf Lake, as well as The Omen TV movie), this film gives Hunt a great opportunity to play multiple characters within one role. It’s a solid TV movie and a reminder of a time when films of this quality would be on regular TV every week.

You can watch this on YouTube.

The second movie of The Master — it’s really episodes 3 and 4 of the show — is probably best known for airing on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Yet for those alive in 1984 who loved all things ninja, the idea that we could see Sho Kosugi on NBC once a week was a big deal.

The first part, taken from the episode called “State of the Union,” has McAllister (Lee Van Cleef) and Keller (Timothy Van Patten) dealing with union issues. This may point to my issues as a kid with this series. I had no interest in the human world of this show. I wanted ninja fights. If you read this site on any basis, you will realize this has not changed.

So if you want to see a ninja help Crystal Bernard from Wings then this would be the movie for you to watch.

This section is directed by Alan Meyerson, who also directed Police Academy 5: Assignment: Miami Beach and Private Lessons. The script was from staff writer Susan Woolen.

Woolen would also write the script for “Hostages,” directed by Ray Austin, which has our ninja master and his young student save a senator’s daughter. Randi Brooks (Cherry from TerrorVision), George Lazenby and David McCallum show up as this turns into an espionage film when again, all we want is ninja on ninja.

Of course, I wanted to be Sho Kosugi as a kid.

I still do as an old man.

There was no one more important in middle school than Sho Kosugi. In retrospect, we should have worshipped him even more, because without him bringing the weapons and skills to Cannon’s Enter the Ninja, we would not have the ninja elements that have been used in everything from G.I. Joe to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, video games and a million Godfrey Ho movies.

You can’t imagine the literal madness when the idea that Sho would be on TV every single week became common knowledge.

From January 20 to August 31, 1984, NBC aired thirteen episodes of the adventures of John Peter McAllister (Lee Van Cleef). Let me just quote the narration at the beginning of each episode: “John Peter McAllister, the only Occidental American to achieve the martial arts discipline of a ninja. Once part of a secret sect he wanted to leave, but was marked for death by his fellow ninjas. He’s searching for a daughter he didn’t know he had; pursued by Okasa, once the Master’s student, now sworn to kill him. That Master found a new student. That’s me, Max Keller. But we knew Okasa would be behind us, in the shadows, ready to strike again.”

Max Keller may have been the unexciting Timothy Van Patten but the evil Okasa? That’s Sho Kosugi. Actually, Sho also was Van Cleef’s fight double, the series’ fight choreographer, ninja technical advisor and stunt coordinator.

While the show was cancelled in less than a year, seven movies were made out of the episodes.  In the U.S., they had the simple title of The Master Ninja, but in Europe they got rad names like Ninja – The Shadows Kill and The Ninja Man.

The first film is episodes one and two of the series. In the first, Peter meets Max and together they help the Trumbulls (Claude Atkins and Demi Moore) save their airport from the sheer evil that is Clu Gullagher. And if you wondered, does Gene LeBell show up, you have seen more than enough American kung fu movies. This was directed by Robert Clouse, who certainly understood how to shoot martial arts thanks to being the director of Enter the Dragon, Game of Death, Golden Needles, Battle Creek Brawl, Gymkata and Deadly Eyes (actually, that was has chihuahuas dressed as killer rats). It was written by series creator Michael Sloan, who also created The Equalizer and wrote for the reboot of Kung Fu in the 90s.

The second part, “Out-of-Time-Step” finds the Master and Max helping a dance club as he searches for his daughter. Lori Lethin (Bloody Birthday), Brian Tochi (Takashi from Revenge of the Nerds; more to the point of ninjitsu the voice of Leonardo the ninja turtle) and Swamp Thing Dick Durock all are on hand. This portion was from director Ray Austin, who directed the 80s returns of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. and the Six Million Dollar Man and written by Susan Woolen, who acted in both of those reboots.

Isn’t it strange that in order for western audiences to accept ninjas that we needed Italian western heroes to ease the transition, with Franco Nero battling Kosugi in Enter the Ninja and Lee Van Cleef here? Did no one want to see Jack Palance wear those cool ninja shoes?

So what if we invented an airplane that can fly itself?

Instantly, I see the worst case scenario here.

You know who didn’t? The genius who plans an investor flight and installs new software that lets some viruses in so that the plane starts flying like a maniac.

So the military says, “Let’s shoot it down.”

And the inventor says, “My wife is on that plane.”

Hijinks ensue.

At least this time Fred Olen Ray has a cast with Casper Van Dien, Nicole Eggert, Brad Douriff and Patrick Muldoon, all of whom are in here for name value and occasionally hang back and allow the other cast members to shine.

The strange thing is that the computer malfunctions yet is not evil nor is it out to really kill anyone. So the conflict that you expect in these movies isn’t here. There is a scene where Casper flies in some stealth stock footage and appears inside the refuelling part of the plane, ready to save every one of us.

Anyways, you can kind of consider this a Starship Troopers mini-reunion with Casper and Muldoon in the cast. Unlike the convention that would have them, you don’t need to pay $110 for a photo op.

You can watch this on Tubi.