Stephen King’s 1974 book Carrie and the subsequent 1976 film
were what put his name on the map—and you can already see his marks in play.
Inexplicable psychic powers in a youth? Check. Angry religious fundamentalists?
Check. Incredibly vengeful bullies? Check. And with that in mind, does it still
hold up?
Eh. The film is well made on a technical level, and it
certainly has it’s moments, but for a modern audience, a lot of it is focused
on douchebags in bad seventies fashion planning out how they’re going to
senselessly torment poor Carrie, than the character herself. Sissy Spacek does
a fine job as the shy, confused young teenager, and you do emphasize with her
as an outsider who’s uncertain of physical, mental, and, well, metaphysical
changes she’s going through. Unfortunately, most of the other characters, like
her fundamentalist, self-hating mother, feel more cartoonish, so there’s a bit
of a disconnect.
I did find myself wanting to know more about Carrie, what
her powers actually are, and where they came from. I wasn’t too keen on the
‘kid has psionic abilities because well of course he does’ schtick in The
Shining either, great as that one is, and while King’s books themselves
connected this recurring occurrence with The Shop organization, here, it’s just
vague. Perhaps Carrie’s mother remembered to take her ephemerol regularly. And
kudos to anyone who gets that reference.
But, once we get past the assholes shopping for dated suits,
we get to the prom scene, which is what everyone knows this film for. By this
point in time, everyone knows what’s coming, and it is a nice payoff. There’s
some ambiguity as to whether the crowds laughing are something Carrie’s angered
psyche is just seeing, or whether there’s more concern than that, as even the
teacher sympathetic to her seems to be mocking her. After that, everything goes
to hell, and we even get to see her kill John Travolta by means of telekinetic
vehicular mayhem. You do a get sense of the movie giving it all out too early
once we have another climax at Carrie’s house—and it all ends on a predictable,
but satisfying, jump scare.
So, Carrie holds up as a mixed bag, with some good camerawork
and effective scenes here and there, but a lot of it is focused on the
characters you just want to see get mulched at the end. If you can get past the
pastel-colored suits, check it out to see where Stephen King got started as a
name…
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