Carrie (1976)

Carrie is one of those movies that just has a reputation. It's been around long enough that a lot of people have seen it, and I almost feel like I know the movie even though I hadn't seen it yet. I think the main reason I decided to watch it was because I knew the reputation, but also because I've really been getting into Stephen King.

Carrie follows the story of a social outcast from a staunchly religious family named Carrie White (played by Sissy Spacek) in high school. She finds herself being bullied by a group of other girls but she also is starting to realize that she's developing telekinetic powers.

The meat of the story happens when Carrie is asked to the prom by one of the high school golden boys.

Honestly, the story is pretty bare bones because not a lot happens between the beginning of the movie up until the end. If you're at all tuned into pop culture or have heard of Carrie before, you probably know how the ending goes. I wont spoil it in case you haven't, the movie is kind of a slow high school drama with three ingredients added to make it stand out, added either by Stephen King's unique story telling, or Brian De Palma's unique directing.

The first ingredient is Carrie's telekinesis. The movie is essentially her figuring these powers out leading to the big display at the end. I do wonder how much was pretty ground breaking effects or if it was just a 1970s movie with a low budget making the best of their situation? Regardless, it hasn't aged great, but it's still a fun element of the movie. This only works because Sissy Spacek is a really good actress and creates the gold standard for wall flower outcast. She's super quiet, but is inquisitive of these new powers without having a testing montage. They only manifest from time to time but eventually she's mastering it and using it to control her own story.

The second ingredient is Carrie's mother and the household she lives in.  Honestly, this is the weirdest and scariest part of the movie and I don't think it gets talked about enough. Piper Laurie plays Carrie's mother Margaret and she's this religious fanatic. This could have just been a high school drama if it weren't for this element.

I'll talk about it in a little bit, but the high school element of this movie is boring and melodramatic, but when Carrie is talking with her mom, it gets really weird and it feels more like a horror movie than any other part, and that includes the ending.

The last thing that really works about this movie is Brian De Palma's early creative filming style. I'm not a huge Brian De Palma fan, but as I understand it, this was one of his first major hit films and he was still in a phase of trying out new shots, and doing more with the cinematography.

The result are these weird close ups that don't really feel like they're the same shot as much as they're two shots scotch taped together.

As weird as that sounds, it works to set Carrie apart as not only a unique story, but a uniquely executed film. I would say its an interesting experiment that doesn't always work. Sometimes its really jarring and vomit inducing if you're sensitive to light and fast moving cameras. But its still unique.

Is it a great film that should be considered a classic? I don't really know about that, but I enjoyed watching it just for the film history context and a lot of that comes from the weird shots, the weird performances, and just the overall 70's feel of this movie.

On a side note, I'm pretty sure I'm a wimp if I find myself preferring 70's and 80's horror films more than recent horror films just because they hadn't really figured out how to do jump scares and had to focus more on the story.

The ending is kind of what makes this movie really worth seeing and I mean that in a good and a bad way. On one hand, the movie is not that long but it is all build up to this moment and it is pretty satisfying. But on the other hand, after the movie is done and the shock of the final scene wears off, you kind of wonder what this movie was all about and you realize that it's based off a novella that was only about 200 pages long.

I think this movie is more entertaining as a piece of Stephen King mythology rather than a particular movie achievement. While it takes some risks and innovates, considering the time it came out, I can't really say it blew my mind.

Because the parts that aren't good, really aren't that good at all.

If its not Sissy Spacek or Piper Laurie, its shrill, its melodramatic, and its annoying.

John Travolta is in this movie for some reason and I think I almost forgot while I was writing this.

There are a couple of girls in this movie that are mean and hyper-exaggerate bullies in high school and it makes me hate high school dramas.

And the gym teacher has got to get better at not slapping kids.

At the end of the day, the movie is pretty short and if you get to the end, it does feel like there is a lot of build up to that satisfying ending. But it is still pretty slow paced, outdated, and overacted. It's definitely not a bad film and I'm glad I saw it, but its not one that I'd return to, or even recommend unless you are a big cinematography and/or Stephen King fan. I was on a bit of a Stephen King kick a couple of months ago and I'm not really afraid to say that this movie probably killed that kick.

But those are my thoughts, what did you think? Does this movie stand the test of time? How does it compare to other Stephen King movies? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog?

Thanks for reading!