Carrie

I just came back from a special showing of Carrie in the student's cinema of my university and I must say one thing: THANK YOU to the director, for this is one of the best, most moving films I've ever seen. I honestly don't understand the "it's not scary" mentality!

Now, whether you want to call this horror film or thriller or whatever else is up to you, but I think Carrie's scope cannot reaches beyond just one genre! It is a thriller, but at the same time a very humane movie. You can feel the girl hurting, you hate her mother, you dislike her friends! This movie wasn't made for cheap scares: every scene is brilliantly captured. The scary parts may be rare but when they are there you just can't move from your seat!

The acting is also excellent, Sissy Spacek of course deserving most of the credit, but that is not to say that the other actors aren't great too.

Concerning the script, all the credit goes of course to Stephen King. When you see this movie you can really tell the difference between an artist like him an some cheap Hollywood writer (Scream?). There is so much more to the story than: -Booooo! -Aaaaaa!

So, if you want to see a "scary movie", go see Scream or some other shallow horror film. However if you are looking for a terrifying but also moving film, Carrie is just right for you. And please, if you must put this work of art into one genre, its better if you put it in social drama rather than horror film. Of course it's not scary! It's MUCH more than just that.

Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is an introverted isolated girl. She gets picked on by all the other girls. Her mother (Piper Laurie) is a crazy religious type who locks Carrie in the closet. Lead girl Sue Snell (Amy Irving) tries to make amends by getting her hunky boyfriend Tommy Ross (William Katt) to take Carrie to the senior prom. Chris Hargensen (Nancy Allen) refuses to take the punishment and is banned from the prom. Chris plans revenge on Carrie with the help of her boyfriend Billy Nolan (John Travolta). The plan triggers Carrie's supernatural powers.

Director Brian De Palma makes this Stephen King story into a prom epic. The scene is iconic. However this movie is more than just one scene. This is about the great Sissy Spacek. She is absolutely perfect as the shy insecure Carrie. This is about her character. This is about the awkward years. This is a horror, a thriller and so much more.

Watching the TV remake of Carrie last week just made me miss the original version all the more. There were so many elements that made the 1976 movie a classic, but I will try to name just a few...

First of all, the original actresses could never be replaced. Sissy Spacek as Carrie White goes without saying. Sissy gave Carrie a child-like quality that no other actress can touch. You not only root for Spacek's Carrie, but you want to reach in and hug her. Equally irreplacable was Piper Laurie who brings a manic energy to her role as the religious-wacko Mrs. White. I loved how Piper and Sissy's southern accents enhanced their characters. I don't know if it was Stephen King's intention or not, but the way Carrie said "Momma" was just so southern. It was fun seeing Piper and Sissy reunited onscreen as southern sisters in the Grass Harp.

Two supporting actresses in the film who get little credit are Amy Irving and Betty Buckley. Irving brought an intelligent, thoughtful depth to the character of Sue Snell. Buckley as the caring gym teacher stole every scene she was in. One of the most touching moments was Miss Collins taking Carrie in front of the mirror and telling her that she is a pretty girl. Then the terrible realization on her face as she wonders if it is another cruel joke. And who didn't love it when Buckley slapped Nancy Allen's face?

Maybe the single most important element in Carrie is the suspense-building music. I can't express how perfectly the music framed every scene. It should have won an oscar for the soundtrack alone. The two beautiful themes still stick in my mind, "Born To Have It All" which was playing in the shower scene and "I Never Dreamed Someone Like You (Could Love Someone Like Me)" which Carrie and Tommy danced to at the prom. Even the cheesy band playing at the prom fit the mood just right with the lyrics, "The Devil's Got a Hold Of Your Soul".

Carrie is campy nostalgia. It really is a time capsule of that era in history. The polyester, the gym shorts and knee socks, the afros and farrah-hair just take you back to 1976. Where else can you see the stars of Welcome Back Kotter and Eight Is Enough in the same movie?

It is a classic offbeat horror-melodrama merging harmoniously the family Gothic extravaganza, supernatural power, and a woman's movie of a peculiar kind… It remains the cinema's best adaptation of a Stephen King novel…

The film initiated De Palma's inclination for surprise diverts between playful imagination and reality, as in the opening, which swifts from a soft-core porn fantasia of girls taking a shower in the locker room to the fact of Carrie's menstruation for the first time—the first sign of "otherness" that will reserve her as an horrifying monster from her small-minded colleagues…

All the oppression that Carrie undergoes both at home (with a bible beating maniacal mother played by scary Piper Laurie who develops twisted bizarre ideas) and at school to suppress tension which takes the shape of super telekinetic power, the ability to move objects with the strength of her mind… We observe with ambivalence as Carrie's insatiable revenge jumps the line into uncontrolled mass murders ever filmed…

Sissy Spacek is amazing as the mocked, helpless girl pushed over the edge… Her face and body twist like a living special effect to unleash her pent up rage, as well as her character's alarming progress from painfully shy high-school teenager to Angel of Vengeance

Now this Stephen King's horror classic has been confirmed for a remake which stars Chloë Grace Moretz and my diva Julianne Moore (highly likely to take on the role of the religion- maniac mother), both reinterpret two Oscar-nominated performances from Spacek and Laurie, with the juicy fodder, a belated Oscar finally seems to be approaching for my goddess (finger crossed). So it seems to be a properly perfect time for me to watch the original version for the very first time.

Brian De Palma, has been considered Hitchcock at his time by his devotees, the similarity is both haven't received much awards-crammed recognition, but arguably De Palma is a lesser player as his oeuvre encompasses more run-of-the-mills, but CARRIE is by any standards not among them, and it could be his PSYCHO (1960) because De Palma shows off his artistry in a full-fledged sweep. For instance, there are many eye-dropping stunts: the opening credit, slow-motion of volleyball girl's changing room until Carrie's first bloody period running through her fingers; the multi-prisms perspective images after the blood splattering all over Carrie after a long-stewed happiness-hanging-by-a-thread preparation; the havoc of massacre at the prom is more supernaturally gratifying than scary.

The mother-daughter face-off and subsequent house caving into debris scenes may be attributed to produce a more crowd-please impression (despite of its low-budget SFX and the well-expected surprise at the coda), the film could hardly be pigeonholed as a horrorfest, as Carrie is ubiquitous in every school, every class, a bully-defying story has much more drama empathy even after 35 years after its debut, which could nicely explain the ground for a remake now.

Sissy Spacek is against the grain to portray a teenage girl due to her actual 27 years old age, the immense age difference is rarely perceivable if one doesn't know it before and Ms. Spacek is on fire in it, renders an extraordinary transformation from vulnerability to malice. Piper Laurie as well doesn't betray her Oscar nomination to give birth to a conflicting mother role which is hauntingly unforgettable. All in all, thanks to Stephen King's story to surmount many genre clichés and continue to stagger us with the rosy remake in 2013.