Carrie (1976) - Brian De Palma

Carrie was not at all scary in the way a horror movie is usually scary. I felt incredibly sorry for Carrie the entire film; constantly getting picked on and having to deal with her ultra-religious-to-the-point-of-insanity mother. She is so happy when she finally gets asked to go to the prom, and things start to look up, then... well... we all know what happens. If you don't know what happens I am going to spoil the movie for you a bit further into the review. You can continue to read on or you can just come back tomorrow when I have the final movie up for the 31 movies of Halloween.

I chose Carrie to be the lead up to my final movie because what I've heard about it has always sparked my interest, but I had never seen it before. I feel that the movie has a certain relevancy today with the bullying epidemic that seems to be going on in our society; especially at the High School level. Also I am a huge fan of Brian De Palma movies (Scarface, The Phantom of the Paradise, Carlito's Way, etc). The movie is so depressing. Carrie is constantly mocked throughout the entire film, and even when people try to help her things tend to go south and she is humiliated again. All of the humiliation, name calling, and bullying take a tole on her and she ends up killing the entire student body. The famous prom scene is both heartbreaking and terrifying. The acting from Sissy Spacek is so stupendous that you can actually see the joy in Carrie's face as she accepts the win for prom queen...and then the pig blood happens. That joy transforms to embarrassment and confusion and eventually forming into intense rage and fury.

The movie has a overlaying Hitchcock-ian value to it. The soundtrack and sound-effects are all very close to something that he might have had in his movies. It sounds like they are sampling actual clips from the Psycho soundtrack. Don't get me wrong, it works here, the sound really makes the movie. From flying knives to Carrie's entire school's gymnasium going up in flames the sound effects are awesome. This is a really well written and well made movie. I was not at all disappointed. The movie had a job to do and it surpassed expectations with flying colors. The movie has been remade and spawned a sequel already, and in both instances they have not been able to match the originals quality and caliber. This is the best version of Carrie.

The soundtrack, the story, the acting, and the way the movie actually made me feel for the down and out Carrie all combine to merit a 9 out of 10 from me. A lot of critics out there panned this movie for being too depressing and not scary enough. I think that this movie is all sorts of depressing and that is what makes it so scary, can ya dig? If you haven't seen Carrie do me a favor and watch it. I just watched it on Netflix and I am sure that you can find it at your local video store, that is if you even know what a video store is anymore. Carrie finds its way onto my list of 1001 horror movies that you need to see before you die.

Also I just realized that I hadn't said anything about the creepiest looking Jesus Christ figure I've ever seen. That thing is scary. It has light up eyes and it is all pudgy in places. Weird. Also that scene where Tommy and his friends are picking out tuxedos is one of the funniest scenes in a depressing horror movie ever. Oh and John Travolta's mullet is pretty slick. That being said... Watch more horror movies.


Director: Brian De Palma
Country: USA
Style: Dramatic Supernatural Thriller
Did ya know...
They were right in Scream when they said that the pigs blood was made of corn syrup and food coloring. Linda Blair auditioned to be Carrie but turned it down.