Carrie

Carrie (1976)

Runtime: 98 minutes

Directed by: Brian De Palma

Starring: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, William Katt, John Travolta

From: MGM

Of course I had seen this before; however, that was long before I even joined Letterboxd so last night seemed like the right time to finally revisit this storied adaptation of Stephen King's first successful novel. I've never read said novel but I understand there are definitely differences, especially in the final act. How that act reads just from description, it seems as if the movie not being so over the top in its version of the tale was probably the right call, nevermind the added budget that would have been needed to tell the book's take on events.

Even those who haven't seen the movie in full likely know the plot of how poor high school senior Carrie White has a horribly abusive religious fanatic of a mother who has a warped take on what she worships, and almost as bad is the terror she faces while trying to earn her diploma due to her unusual and introverted ways. It is easy to feel sympathy for her, especially when she “blossoms into womanhood” late while in the shower after PE class, freaks out because she doesn't know what she is, and everyone else is true Mean Girl in reaction. This sets off the chain of events where Carrie ends up at the prom, and all holy Hell is unleashed.

At least the movie presents itself and its over the top nature right away as we end up in the girls locker room and many of them are shown clear as day fully nude. The bold nature of the film manages to mesh well w/ the serious drama involving Carrie & her mom along with the Mean Girls and how they are pissed as Carrie because they were punished by their PE teacher who rightly thought their behavior was crap. “Male gaze” is a valid criticism for a film otherwise about the perils of a girl becoming a woman and her reaction to horrific bullying, but that is De Palma for you... and I have enjoyed plenty of his movies.

The entire final act is pretty great as it's the prom and its aftermath... Carrie's revenge is glorious between the special effects that mostly still work 45 years later and his trademark split screen effect (along with others) are fully unleashed as Carrie fully unleashes her power... although of course the movie always had interesting framing and other interesting cinematographic tricks on display. While it wasn't filmed that way, through editing there were two key characters whose motivations were left ambiguous right up to the movie's big moment; that added dread as it was obvious things would eventually go wrong and it was just a question of who was all to blame for it.

What a cast it has; the likes of Amy Irving, Priscilla Pointer (real life mom and daughter were able to play the same here), Nancy Allen, John Travolta-I had forgotten how amusing the relationship between those two was-and Betty Buckley were highlights. However, it was of course Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie who were both tremendous in their parts and it played a big role in making this as good as it was. Credit also has to go to the Pino Donaggio score, the start of a beautiful friendship between he and the director; in addition, there's the stinger of an ending which was so successful, the likes of Friday the 13th and countless others were “inspired” by it. Also, I do have to laugh that by all appearances, the character named Norma and the school being known as Bates High School were pure De Palma inventions; he's never been accused of keeping his influences a secret.

I've never seen any of the sequels/remakes and that may be for the best. It was a relief that I still enjoyed Carrie after all those years; those powers aren't used often until she gets PISSED at the prom and proper time it spent building the story. I've also never seen De Palma's similar Fury but perhaps one day...