Atmospheric but predictable

Spelling-Goldberg TV horror movie, starring Pamela Franklin, Kate Jackson, and Roy Thinnes*. A young woman suspicious of her sister's supposed suicide enrolls at the exclusive all-girl boarding school where she'd been a pupil to find out what really happened. It turns out her sister is not the only suspicious death associated with the place. As the investigation progresses more people start dying and it becomes apparent that the school is a cover for something else ('The Salem Academy for Women' might have been a clue to most viewers).

I remember seeing this on TV in my youth. The TV budget shows, but it's pretty atmospheric (lots of storm-lashed nights). Franklin, Jackson, and Thinnes, are fine. The great Lloyd Bochner hams it up as an eccentric, sadistic psychology professor. Interesting to see Cheryl Ladd (under her original surname Stoppelmoor) prominent as one of the pupils (she has several scenes with Jackson - several years before Spelling and Goldberg teamed them up again in Charlie's Angels). Unfortunately the story lets this down. It's really predictable, and the two twists can be seen a mile off.

5/10


*There was a remake in 2000, starring the late Shannen Doherty, in which Kate Jackson, a pupil here, took the role of the headmistress.