Carrie (Brian de Palma, 1976)

Like I stated a couple of reviews ago, I am not a big fan of Brian de Palma as a filmmaker, at least I think he is somewhat overrated. Nevertheless he did make some (cult) classics that I feel I should watch. One of them is his version of the well-known story from Stephen King, Carrie.

I remember watching the first 10 minutes some years ago after which I decided to turn off the TV. Why? Maybe it was because of the horrible opening scene (I mean that it is cinematic kitsch, not necessarily horrible pictures) or because Sissy Spacek annoyed me. To start with the latter, I actually appreciate this actress much better after watching Badlands and 3 Women. Perhaps inspired by the horror-fun of Cabin in the Woods I saw recently I felt like watching Carrie, and I am afraid it did not fully convince me….

De Palma is doing an OK job in telling his story at first. After the shower scene (which is a key scene of course, but unnecessarily stretched in my opinion) we get a good grip on the situation Carrie is in, who is merely an outcast because of her extremely religious mom, portrayed perfectly by Piper Laurie (Twin Peaks). The rest of the cast is kept on the surface, motivations of even Bobby (who is ‘forced’ to take the unpopular girl to the prom and seems to develop feelings for her) are not explained by de Palma. Of course we feel the build up towards the climax at the prom (somehow I knew what was going to happen, just have a look at the dvd cover or movie poster…) but the way towards this scene is not exactly perfect. De Palma devotes a lot of time to certain characters (John Travolta….) which doesn’t seem to add anything and as a result the impact of the prom scene is not as overwhelming as it could have been, but luckily it still is a very strong sequence.

Obviously the director has been putting all his skills in this one notorious scene, and he keeps stretching which builds up suspense effectively, even though we know what will happen. Also we have created some sympathy for the title character. De Palma’s talent makes the prom scene very effective, which again shows that he is a great director (but a good director doesn’t make a good filmmaker necessarily).

Last but not least, overall this picture is not that scary. I guess it was in the 70’s regarding its status, but I never felt a lot of suspense and wasn’t shocked at all, something I did experience during for instance The Exorcist. The horror genre has renewed its standards over the years of course (think about some more realistic movies like Eden Lake) but I was expecting a bit more from such a classic.

This movie didn’t fail completely but some different choices (more character building or background) could have made it a great film. Now I will merely remember it because of one or two great scenes and a strong performance by Spacek, who again proved to be one of the great actresses of her time.

6/10