Carrie
January 25th 2007 00:17
Carrie was a roaring success when it was released in 1976. Moviegoers throughout America made it one of the most attended “proms” in years. It cost under two million dollars and made well over $US30,000,000, with a further $US15,000,000 and more in video rentals (it was one of those early VHS releases).
Although much of it has dated, especially if you compare the high school antics of the “kids” (all of whom were in their mid-20s when it was filmed) and much of the somewhat risible dialogue, but the movie still commands a strong sense of dread and foreboding, a narrative element director De Palma has always managed to elicit so well in his films.
WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS!
Carrie White is an outsider, a wallflower ruthlessely teased and taunted by her bullying peers at school, especially that real pretty and real nasty bitch Christine Hargensen (Nancy Allen). But Carrie has a dark secret.
Chris and her dumb boyfriend Billy Nolan (John Travolta) plan to completely humiliate Carrie in front of the whole senior school. While well-meaning Susan Snell (Amy Irving, who many years later would marry Stephen Speilberg) orchestrates it so her own boyfriend Tommy Ross (William Katt, who years later would become The Greatest American Hero) takes Carrie to the prom as a kind of perverse act of goodwill.
Carrie’s fantatically religious - and deeply sociopathic - mother Margaret (Piper Laurie) forbids Carrie to go to the prom, horrified that everyone will be able to see her daughter’s dirty pillows in the revealing prom dress. There are demons at work. The Devil is at play.
Prom night is upon us and a Prom King and Queen are crowned. Then a prank is pulled, tragedy hits, and chaos erupts. Carrie unleashes the full force of her supernatural power; telekinesis. The prom becomes a scene of mass carnage as Carrie wreaks vengeance.
As Carrie begins her revenge, Brian De Palma utilizes a split-screen technique through much of the action, a device he’d first used to great effect in his earlier movie Sisters (1973). It is both distracting, yet highly potent in creating a sense of disorientation, but also a sense of omnipotent menace and destructive immediacy.
Below is the original 1976 trailer:
De Palma has frequently been criticized for copying Alfred Hitchcock’s methods of cinematic suspense and eye for composition. In Carrie, this is occasionally apparent, but there is a dark, lurid and palpable quality to De Palma’s visual style which is all his own.
It’s not Travolta’s best work (his role is a little thankless and peripheral), and certainly Nancy Allen and some of the other support actors aren’t up to the same calibre as Spacek and Laurie (who was Oscar-nominated), which ultimately makes their dual performances shine with a malevolent glow.
Some of the special effects are a little hokey (the dancing hose for example), but there are also a handful of highly effective sequences and images, such as Carrie’s return home from the prom where her mother waits quietly in the shadows. This troubling scene of confrontation is worth the price of admission alone.
The movie’s opening scene is also of note in which in an almost voyeuristic (De Palma has always possessed that dark fascination) fashion the high school girls run naked in slow motion through the gym changing room while Carrie showers. It’s slightly bizarre as it unfolds, the viewer feeling ever so slightly uncomfortable, there’s something not quite right. (Of curious note, De Palma filmed the scene twice, one with full nudity and one with bras and panties, as he anticipated – correctly – that the film would eventually end up on Network television).
As Carrie washes her body she notices she has begun bleeding, menstruating. She is shocked. Obviously she is a late developer and her sexuality is linked, as it soon becomes clear, with her hidden powers of telekinesis. This visual symbolism of innocent blood spilled juxtaposes beautifully with the evil blood spilled at film’s end, as well as providing the crucial key to Carrie’s burgeoning power.
Carrie does not follow Stephen King’s novel faithfully, nor is it De Palma’s best work (Blow Out, Dressed to Kill and Scarface easily outshine this), but for late night chills and spills watching some curiously familiar actors in younger days it’s a bloody treat.
I still vividly remember as a boy, the poster art with Carrie’s name in averted comas, pixilated around the edges, and undulating in huge letters, with the compelling image of Sissy Spacek and her wide-eyed expression of horror, her body and face drenched in blood. As far as I was concerned it looked like a truly adult horror film up there with The Exorcist (1973).
* the image on this page is taken from the following wikipedia page:
Carrie (film)
It is licensed under the GNU Free Document License.
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Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Comment by Cibbuano
20/20 Filmsight
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Travolta is amusing in this, my favourite role of his is another Brian De Palma work Blow Out.
Im a sucker for De Palmas visual flair and cinematic in jokes. the Hitchcock compariosns have never seemd like a bad thing tome....who else to emulate when making a thriller?
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
yeah, the ending was one spoiler I wasn't gonna let outta the bag ...
Cibby,
watch and enjoy as a late night buttery popcorn horror ride ...
JD,
yeah, Blow Out is my favourite Travolta flick, and 2nd fave De Palma movie (after Scarface) ....
Cheers guys!
Comment by DuskDevi
Rucks and Rolls
Rugby World Cup 2007
Piper Laurie was scary.
I had to modify this bit Bryn after reading your comment to Damo.
Sissy Spacek was perfect, she took Carrie from a wallflower who blossomed at the prom and then...a hothouse flower!
Travolta plays the baddie really well (total ass in 'Broken Arrow' and as Castor Troy pretending to be Sean Archer in 'Face/Off')
Comment by Mrs M
Mum's Word
Anyways...I haven't seen it since. But boy I can still remember all the good bits. Especially the very last scene of the movie.
I remember being freaked out but it didn't give me nightmares. Thankfully.
Brian De Palma is fantastic at creating tension and suspense (The Untouchables, Carlito's Way, Mission Impossible - all have brilliant suspense filled scenes).
As for Stephen King, Salem's Lot freaked me out and I never went back for others. I was skeptical about watching Green Mile after I found out he wrote it.
Anyways, fantastic post Bryn.
Love & stuff
Mrs M
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Some other De palma faves of mine:
Casualties Of War- Penn soars and Michael J Fox surprises with innocent horror
Hi Mom and Greetings with De Niro
Home Movies with Kirk Douglas
The Fury with John Cassavettes
Body Double- a good melanie Griffith film believe it or not.
Obsession
Sisters
Greetings
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
or Bonfire of the Vanities??!! (just kidding)
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Raising Cain is a guilty pleasure, silly and ridiculous but laugh out loud funny thanks to Lithgow......
I like Body Double for its trashy appeal and fun camera set ups, like all non-masterpiece De palma works..(EG: Femme fatale or Black Dalhia), I see Body Double as a good examples of De Palmas style, not good film, but entertaining.
Obsession and The Fury I agree have problems but for me stand on par with his other mid level successes....De Palma drops the ball, but he does in most his films at some stage....
Home Movies I saw on Foxtel last year...unavailable on DVd in Oz.....Greetings and Hi Mom I borrowed off a friend, but you can get em from JB for about 13.99 each.
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
I would love to have seen his original cut of Scarface, before it was trimmed to avoid an X rating ... Apparently there was a shot of the guys hands, sawn off at the wrists, hanging in the cuffs still attached to the shower railing .... yeah!!!
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
According to the latest docos on DVD, a lot of what was rumoured to be cut actually wasn't, but that railing/hand shot would be money.
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
So the hanging hands shot never existed ...??
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD