Carrie

Carrie (1976)

On Demand, Seattle, WA

October 14, 2007

**** / ****

“They’re all gonna laugh at you!”

Woah. Brian DePalma’s cinematic version of Stephen King’s first novel, Carrie is a movie about women yet unquestionably stems from the mind of a man, is directed by a man, and is a product of the mid-1970s. That recipe has all the makings of a disaster, especially with that combo of macho dudes explaining teenage girls in the anything goes mid 1970s, but these are two very strange men who somehow make it work. Opening with foul-mouthed girls on a volleyball court and immediately transitioning into a slow motion female locker room scene where a young girl has her first menstruation, this is some hardcore bizarreness. But don’t be fooled. For all its over-the-top awkwardness Carrie is a mesmerizingly touching portrait of the difficult life of a young girl who wants nothing more than to be normal yet never will; Kind of like King and DePalma, only with a better smile. Somehow it all works culminating in a film as powerful today as it must have been in 1976.

Sissy Spacek stars as Carrie White, a picked upon high school senior who is the laughing stock of Bates High. Her “momma,” played by Piper Laurie, is a Jesus freak who locks her daughter in a make-shift confessional in a closet of her kitchen, rips her own frizzy red locks from the roots, and parades around her god awful home chanting away the evils of Satan with her obtuse soliloquies on the perversions of female sexuality. Nancy Allen plays the head high school princess/bully, and William Katt is Johnny, the high school sports hero and Carrie’s unlikely prom date. And then comes the pig’s blood!

Reading the above description this all seems like a fairly typical mid to late 1970s teenage flick. However, what materializes on screen is anything but. Teenagers are mean and vindictive but also sincere and concerned. Teachers are at once gruff yet concerned and as likely to hug a student as to slap one in the face. And the picked upon? Well, let’s just say her telekinesis powers result in some horrifically appropriate revenge. Now that’s angst of a different color!

Pinpointing the magic of Carrie, I believe it stems from the typical nature of the film’s story presented in an atypical way. The harshness of high school is presented in a very real and tangible manner, from the nerds to the queens to the teachers and the administration and all the bullying and beatitudes in between. Take that typical stock, slightly exaggerate it, add a dose of awkwardly clever camera angles and peculiar yet brilliant editing choices (the entire climactic prom scene is genius as is the ending twist) and there remains an underlying truth in Carrie that every teenager can relate to. Combine that with De Palma’s extremely skillful touch in taking every shot, every camera angle, and the entire basic story and turning it into an otherworldly curiosity of the highest order and you’ve got thriller gold that takes no prisoners and delivers the goods precisely when it should. This isn’t a corporate manufactured teen horror flick by any means; this is, in no uncertain terms, the real deal in teenage cinematic horror.

By comparison, Carrie makes any John Hughes film, those quintessential teenage angst flicks of the latter part of the century seem utterly saccharine and antiquated by comparison. And I love John Hughes films! But Carrie’s intensity and purpose are so clear and well orchestrated by De Palma that this film leaps to a whole other level. For all the feathered hair and washed out frames it hardly matters: Carrie is a quintessential classic of the horror thriller genre and an appropriate favorite of strange high school girls everywhere.

Part camp, part truth, part bizarre, and part heartfelt yet strangely touching tale right up until we least expect it (Killer hose anyone?), Carrie is an all entertainment classic that put a spell over me from beginning to end. I was literally unable to look away even for a moment as this unique bit of filmmaking washed over me like an ocean’s crashing waves. For years I wondered why this movie meant so much to so many people. Now I know the answer: Carrie is awesome.