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Carrie
(1976)
This film is probably one of the most influential
horror films of the 1970s, if not all time. The story revolves
around Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) a shy, dowdy, high-school
girl who is constantly tormented by her class-mates and the
butt of every joke in the school. She lives alone with her
mother Margaret (Piper Laurie), who is a violent religious
fanatic. After a traumatic first menstrual period, which occurs
in the school showers after a PE class, Carrie develops the
previously latent power of telekinesis (the ability to move
or change objects by the power of the mind) which in turn torment
those who do her harm.
This is a very well-made film, and almost certainly one of the classic horror movies. Virtually anyone who has ever been to high school will be able to relate at least in some way to the film. Carrie is the outsider in the school, the one who doesn’t fit in, and no matter how much she may want to or how hard she tries, she simply can’t be like (or liked by) her classmates. Stephen King, who wrote the novel in 1973, has stated that the book was about how women find their own channel of power (in Carrie’s case she finds power through her strong telekinetic ability). In a still quite shocking scene, at the start of the film, Carrie is in the showers soaping herself down when she notices blood running down her leg, she has started her first period and, not knowing what’s happening, thinks she’s bleeding to death and runs into the changing room for help where her classmates respond by pelting her with tampons and chanting “plug it up! Plug it up!” This hugely traumatic experience releases her power, and really sets the tone for the film.
The film is shot in a very stylised manner, with many early scenes having a slightly soft-focus, dreamlike quality to them, before turning more nightmarish later on. Certainly high-school has a very harsh depiction in this film, full of constant torments and petty cruelties, so it's fairly realistic. Carries mother, Margaret White, is depicted as a pretty monstrous character, still guilt-ridden over the "sin" that created Carrie in the first place, Margaret pulls her daughter’s hair, slaps her and locks her in the cupboard.
For all the darkness, there is quite a lot of humour in the film, though, particularly in the scene where, in detention for teasing Carrie, the girls are made to perform callisthenics to “Baby Elephant Walk” style music. The cast is superb, especially Sissy Spacek as Carrie. The film features an early appearance by John Travolta as the dim-witted boyfriend of Carrie’s chief tormenter.
The film was a huge success on it’s first release and kick-started Stephen King’s career. As always with De Palma films there is a lot of technical trickery (red filters and split screens mostly) as well as references to Alfred Hitchcock films, in particular Psycho (1960); the high-school is named “Bates High School” and the music score references Bernard Hermann's famous Psycho themes.
-Robert
Foster
Other
Thoughts: Mark Moreland 
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All contents ©
2004-2009 Thoughtsonfilm.com |
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Director:
Brian
De Palma
Writer: Lawrence D. Cohen, Stephen King
Starring: Sissy
Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, John Travolta
Distributor: United
Artists
Runtime: 98
min
Rating: R
Release Date: November
3, 1976
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