Summer Glau

Witchy film is a wiccan update

The Initiation of Sarah. Sunday night at 8, ABC Family Channel.

The ending is tacky, and some of the special effects should be downgraded to "ordinary" - but "The Initiation of Sarah," an ABC Family Channel telemovie premiering Sunday night at 8, has enough "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" flavor to make it watchable.

There’s no pretense of higher meaning. "The Initiation of Sarah" is a story about rival sororities in which the young women and their house mothers are witches, of the real, spell-casting variety. Newly arrived sisters, Lindsey (Summer Glau) and Sarah (Mika Boorem), get caught up in a tug of war between the supernaturally powerful women of Alpha Nu Gamma and Pi Epsilon Delta.

Which sorority will each sister pledge? And if they’re accepted, will they make - or be - the necessary sacrifices?

In the end, it all comes down to battling initiations, with everyone wearing the requisite flimsy nightgowns and color-coded shrouds. This eternal battle between good and evil is like Red States versus Blue States - except, in this sorority row, it’s Red Shrouds versus Blue Shrouds.

Writer Dan Berendsen and director Stuart Gillard, to their credit, don’t take any of this too seriously. Characters speak glibly, almost "Veronica Mars"-like, as when the two sisters approach Alpha Nu for the first time - the somewhat mousy Lindsey eagerly, the gloomy Sarah with proper trepidation.

"Why do you judge people before you know them?" Lindsey asks her sister, challenging her antisocial attitude.

"Isn’t that what they’re about to do to us?" Sarah responds.

The villainous Alpha Nu girls, led by blond and beautiful Chorine (Joanna Garcia) and black and beautiful Ezme (Tessa Thompson), want Sarah for a blood ritual. Over at Pi Epsilon, faculty advisor Dr. Hunter (Jennifer Tilly) wants Sarah for her own purposes - and isn’t above casting her own spells, from time-shifting to shape-shifting, to achieve them.

The young women are surprisingly good in this - especially Glau, who played River the mystery cargo in both TV’s "Firefly" and the movie "Serenity." When she undergoes a magical makeover, she’s not only bewitched, but bewitching. And as the sisters’ mom, Morgan Fairchild has only a few scenes, but provides an intentional link to this telemovie’s inspirational source.

Back in 1978, when telemovies were young and generally crudely done, ABC presented the original "The Initiation of Sarah," starring Kay Lenz in the title role. Don Ingalls, Carol Saraceno and Kenette Gfeller wrote the teleplay, which was less self-aware and entertaining. Fairchild, just before taking off as a soap diva in "Flamingo Road," played one of the sorority’s sexy, snooty blondes. In the new "Initiation," she plays a former pledge - but one who hasn’t entirely given up her wicked, wicca ways.