Thursday, October 10, 2013

Movie Review: "Carrie" (1976)

Image Source
Movie"Carrie"
Director: Brian De Palma
Year: 1976
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 38 minutes

Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is a sheltered teenage girl raised by a crazy religious zealot for a mother. She is relentlessly tormented by the popular girls at school. Carrie begins to discover she has telekinetic powers, first in smalls bursts of emotion or small bouts of anger of fear. These emotions give her the ability to make things explode or move. As she studies the phenomenon, she learns to move objects at will. During prom, she is the subject of a horrible prank and is pushed past her breaking point.

Sissy Spacek has the perfect face for horror movies (in the nicest way possible). Her facial expressions are so great throughout this movie, especially in the scenes at the end in the school gymnasium. With just her eyes wide open on her blood-covered face, you get a true sense of terror, fear, embarrassment, and sheer anger and rage all with one look.

"Carrie" works through building tension to an ultimate payoff. Most of the early horror in the film comes from the cruelty of the popular girls and through the crazy actions of her fundamentalist mother. You really want to slap each and every asshat character in this film. Though Carrie is the character with supernatural powers who is ultimately driven crazy, it is Chris (Nancy Allen) who is the true monster of the film.

It's interesting to note interactions between the gym teacher, Miss Collins (Betty Buckley), and the female students in this movie. Today, if a teacher slapped, restrained, shoved a student against a wall, or cursed at a student, they would more than likely have disciplinary action/s taken against them, or possibly even be fired. It's crazy to see these differences played out on screen showcasing what teachers could get away with then versus now. It's ever weirder to see teachers and administrators smoking inside the school.

My Rating: 10/10
BigJ's Rating: 10/10
IMDB's Rating: 7.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 92%
Do we recommend this movie: ABSOLUTELY YES!!!

2 comments:

  1. Love this movie! I haven't seen the new version yet, although I am curious about it. But this one, the original, is such a classic.

    The old lady in me thinks that maybe we should go back to slapping and screaming at people. The gentle talk-it-out approach certainly hasn't taken society to a better place.

    ~Deb

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The new one has mixed reviews so far. I think it comes out this week, so we will review after watching!

      It's not just you...some kids (and adults) genuinely need to be smacked. Seriously.

      Delete