"Carrie" *** (out of ****)When I started writing horror reviews this month I promised I would mix it up and review well known horror films and some people may not have seen. After reviewing a couple of classic Val Lewton movies I thought it was time to write about one a lot of people have seen.
I've always found "Carrie" to be an odd choice for director Brian De Palma. I like De Palma's movies a lot. He has made some films I truly enjoy, "The Untouchables", "Blow Out", "Dressed to Kill". Sure he's had a few missteps ("Mission to Mars", "Redacted") but I've never associated him with the horror genre before. I wasn't sure he'd be up for the task. Sure he's done his Hitchcock spin-offs (the man actually has the audacity to say he isn't influenced by Hitchcock) but I don't consider Hitchcock's work part of the horror genre. They are thrillers or suspense films.
But "Carrie" isn't your typical horror film. In fact any part that had to do with scare scenes was not what interested me. It was the human drama I found myself connecting to.
Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is a socially shy teenager. She has no friends at the high school she attends. She is the subject of scorn among her female classmates. In the film's opening moments Carrie, while taking a shower, gets her period for the first time. Unaware of what is going on with her body she starts to scream and turns to the other girls for guidance. They offer none but instead embarrass her throwing hygiene products at her. And this event is what triggers the events for the rest of the film.
The way De Palma films this scene is unusual. He does it all in slow-motion. The other girls run around in the shower naked, some friendly playing games with each other (get your mind out of the gutter). Tender music plays in the background. It doesn't seem like the kind of sequence you would find in a horror movie.
But that's not the scary stuff. The scary stuff takes place a Carrie's home with her overly religious mother (Piper Laurie). It is because of her mother's religious views Carrie did not know about her period or for that matter any other piece of sex education. Her mother views her now as a sinner. She reads from a biblical passage which says when a woman bleeds it is a sin. She then locks her in a closet, where there is a sort of shrine, as Carrie prays for forgiveness. This reminded me of Ingmar Bergman, as odd as that may sound. Bergman's father was a bishop and would lock Ingmar in a closet as well in an attempt to put the fear of God in him.
A lot of horror films, or at least the ones I like usually combine religion and horror. Think of "The Excorist", "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Omen" though they also share another trait. My favorite horror films aren't ones in which every five seconds we see a brutal death. I prefer horror films which are a bit more subtle. In all honesty "Carrie" didn't scare me nor do a majority of horror films. What I come away with appreciating after watching a horror film was if it was well-made. Good directing, good acting, good script. "Carrie" has all of those things.
De Palma preoccupies the screen with two things. Blood is important to this film. It starts off with blood and ends with blood. But sex is always around. Again from the opening scene, to the gym coach Miss. Collins (Betty Bickley) who walks around in tight gym shorts.
If you've seen "Carrie" before you know she has special powers. She has the ability to move objects with her mind. At first I thought this was all due to sexual frustration. I thought that is where all her anger comes from. Think Norman Bates in "Psycho" but it seems to be a combination of a lot of things. I think her powers come from repression of all social contact.
In some ways "Carrie" could be De Palma's "Psycho". Both films are about a socially closed young people at the mercy of their mothers. When desires or feelings of any kind build up in them they only know how to express themselves through violence. There is plenty of sexual guilt as well. But De Palma would make a more obvious "Psycho" rip-off in "Dressed to Kill". And I thought Stephen King, whose novel the film is based on, wouldn't really want to bother copying someone else's work.
The only thing I don't like from the script, which was adapted by Lawrence D. Cohen, who also adapted King's "It" and "Ghost Story" with Fred Astaire and John Houseman, is the ending. I felt it over-reaches and tries to accomplish too much.
If you are expecting a lot of bloody scenes and a true freight fest I don't think "Carrie" will deliver. If you are looking for a film about inner demons we all carry and what happens when we let go and the horrors that brings, "Carrie" will work for you.
The film features some of De Palma's regulars like Nancy Allen and John Travolta. Spacek and Laurie were both nominated for Oscars for their performances.
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