Jennifer

Jennifer is a 1978 American supernatural horror film directed by Brice Mack, starring Lisa Pelikan, Bert Convy, Wesley Eure, Nina Foch, and John Gavin. Its plot follows a young woman who, ostracized by her peers at an elite boarding school, enacts violent revenge via her psychokinetic ability to control snakes. Plot Jennifer Baylor is a poor young woman from West Virginia who possesses a supernatural power over snakes, an ability to control them and communicate with them. She and her father, Luke, left their home in disgrace, because when Jennifer was 7 years old, some snakes she had been handling killed the town preacher's son. She refused to handle snakes ever again, though Luke now runs a pet store in California and often encourages her to use her power again. Luke is mentally disabled and obsessed with the Bible, is unable to make meals for himself without burning them, and relies on Jennifer to care for him. Jennifer studies on a scholarship at the elite Green View School, where she is an outcast among her wealthy peers, all of whom are from prominent families, and who are largely protected by the school's headmistress, the imperious, pill-addicted Mrs. Calley. Her only real friends are the school's lunch lady, Martha, with whom Jennifer works to help supplement her tuition, and teacher Jeff Reed, the only teacher who sees the corruption in the school for what it truly is. Jennifer becomes an unwitting target for Sandra Tremayne, an entitled bully, when Jennifer exposes that Sandra stole the answers to an exam. Sandra evades legitimate consequences when her father, a U.S. senator, makes a large donation to the school, but Jennifer nevertheless becomes subject to numerous pranks and harassment from Sandra and her friends. Sandra hopes her torment will drive Jennifer to leave the school. Soon, Jane, an overweight student on the fringe of Sandra's social group, protests Sandra's excessive cruelty toward Jennifer, risking her alliance with Sandra. One afternoon, after Jennifer finishes her job in the cafeteria, she takes a shower in the empty gymnasium locker room. Upon exiting the shower, she finds that Sandra and her friends have stolen her clothing and belongings and hung them on pipes in the pool room. When Jennifer climbs a ladder to retrieve them, Sandra's boyfriend Dayton startles her by taking photographs with a flashbulb camera, causing her to fall naked into the pool.