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Carrie
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Brian De Palma's commercial breakout, based on a novel by Stephen King, helped launch a whole slew of teen-based horror films, and...
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Brian De Palma's commercial breakout, based on a novel by Stephen King, helped launch a whole slew of teen-based horror films, and Carrie the blood-spattered prom queen has taken her throne in the pantheon of modern American myth. High school girls played by Amy Irving (in her film debut), P.J. Soles, and Nancy Allen plot to avenge themselves on ostracized fellow student and budding telekinetic Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) after they get in trouble for pelting her with tampons. When they get popular boy Tommy Ross (William Katz) to be her date for the prom, the stage is set for some heart-rending cruelty and fiery retribution. De Palma expertly uses split screens, slow motion, color filters, and tracking shots to imbue the proceedings with a haunting, allegorical elegance. Piper Laurie plays Carrie's mentally ill, devoutly Christian mom; she's brilliant, as is Spacek. John Travolta has a memorable pre-SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER role as one of the girls' beer-guzzling boyfriends. There was finally a sequel in 19...
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61 Reviews from Epinions.com
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Carrie
Author's Review
It was almost thirty years ago that Stephen King went with a friend to a high school girls' locker room. His friend pointed out how the girls had walls around the showers so they could have privacy, and they had a pad machine. Interested, King went home and wrote it as a short story, but threw it away. His wife Tabitha saved the pages, told him that he should do something with it. And sure enough he did.
So allow me to say something for the people who love Stephen King: Thanks, Ms. Tabitha King. Thanks for being smart enough to know your husband's writing and know it would work, and thanks for the book Carrie, but I want to focus on the movie made from the book.
I'm really not into horror movies. Oh, sure, I love a thriller from Hitchcock, but I could never understand the appeal of Halloween, Scream, Nightmare on Elm Street. But the one horror movie that spoke to me when I was fourteen years old was the movie Carrie.
Who could forget that opening scene when Carrie(Sissy Spacek) is taking a shower after PE class, and blood is going down her leg? Not knowing what is going on, she is positive she is bleeding to death. She cries out in utter fear, and then in a scene of utter cruelity, the girls in her class throw tampons and pads at her yelling at her to "plug it up, plug it up, plug it up!"
That scene is the the start of the unraveling of Carrie White. She lives in an old house with her mother Margaret(Piper Laurie) who is obessed with Chritianity and goes door to door to spread the Word. Now that Carrie has her period, Margaret brands Carrie as a sinner and locks her in a closet to pray for forgiveness. In that scene when Carrie looks helplessly at the cross, you can feel how sad she is and what child abuse can do to someone.
In the meantime, Sue Snell(Amy Irving) feels guilty and decides to try to make it up to Carrie by asking her boyfriend Tommy(William Katt-what happened to him?) to take Carrie to their Senior Prom. He agrees, mostly because he's a decent guy and Carrie liked a poem he wrote for their English class.
Carrie has discovered she has a gift to move things or make things happen; she manages to break a mirror, make a kid fall off his bike after he teases her. She is amazed by her new powers, and is amazed that Tommy asks her out to the prom. She thinks about it, then accepts after a pep talk from Ms. Collins her gym teacher(Betty Buckley)
In the meantime, Chris Jorgerson(Nancy Allen) plots revenge at Carrie; because of the prank at the locker room, the girls are assigned to after school detention. Chris leaves, forfiting her prom tickets. She plots revenge with her boyfriend Billy(John Travolta) In one classic scene, the two of them are in his car, listening to "Heat Wave" by Martha Reeves, and Travolta eyes her breasts. There's no embarrassment to it, it's so matter of fact, so teenage boyish, it can give you shivers down your spine.
The night of the prom comes, and Carrie is thrilled. But Chris arranges it that they win for King and Queen of the Prom. And that's when things go wrong, and that's when Carrie comes undone.
Carrie works on so many levels; the direction by Brian DePalma is so good as he shows a town that is so small that everyone knows everyone, and in Carrie's case it's not a good thing. The kids are great with Travolta, Amy Irving, and William Katt. One of my favorite scenes is when he goes with his friends to try on tuxedos. It's so seventies(they get the ruffled tuxedos) but also so true and bonding.
But it is Sissy Spacek that is the heart and soul of this movie as Carrie. All Carrie wanted, as good Jon Lovitz as Harvey Firestein once said, is to be loved. Is that so much to ask? When people pay attention to her(Tommy, Ms. Collins) she blooms. In one scene she tries on lipstick in the drug store, looking to see what looks good on her, feeling like a pretty girl. This wasn't a girl that wanted to kill her classmates and her teachers. This wasn't a girl that was evil. This wasn't a girl that had malice in her heart. She just wanted to be loved, to be pretty, and go to the prom and have a good time. Spacek makes Carrie real, and she makes us love her, and she makes us cry as she goes on her rampage.
Carrie is 25 this year, and when I saw it at fourteen I felt a release when she killed the people, because I hated the bullies who made fun of me in school so much. But now it is so forbidding; twenty-five years ago it didn't seem possible that a girl could kill her classmates because they were mean to her. Last year at Columbine, it became a reality. Even King admits this fact. While it is great to revisit this movie, there's also a saddness, that something that was thought of as unthinkable years ago, happened. And it shouldn't have.
Note: This is a Halloween Write-off! Please read my other scary epinions by these fine people: amykhar, AmyLEnsor, Blackelve, elizajane, Elorraine,
Emillye, frazzledspice, gracef, jenninca,
jgibson2, jiastar, KingJFS, KristenNC, lcw61, Magick1, Redlass, shelxland,
Willow4, Wovengold, dandj and hhire.
Now remember, have a great Halloween, eat lots of chocolate, and be safe.
Halloween Writeoff-Look up, Carrie!Look up!
| Author's Rating: |
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Pros: great acting by Spacek, strong direction by DePalma
Cons: now more realistic(Sadly) than it was 25 years ago
It was almost thirty years ago that Stephen King went with a friend to a high school girls' locker room. His friend pointed out how the girls had walls around the showers so they could have privacy, and they had a pad machine. Interested, King went home and wrote it as a short story, but threw it away. His wife Tabitha saved the pages, told him that he should do something with it. And sure enough he did.
So allow me to say something for the people who love Stephen King: Thanks, Ms. Tabitha King. Thanks for being smart enough to know your husband's writing and know it would work, and thanks for the book Carrie, but I want to focus on the movie made from the book.
I'm really not into horror movies. Oh, sure, I love a thriller from Hitchcock, but I could never understand the appeal of Halloween, Scream, Nightmare on Elm Street. But the one horror movie that spoke to me when I was fourteen years old was the movie Carrie.
Who could forget that opening scene when Carrie(Sissy Spacek) is taking a shower after PE class, and blood is going down her leg? Not knowing what is going on, she is positive she is bleeding to death. She cries out in utter fear, and then in a scene of utter cruelity, the girls in her class throw tampons and pads at her yelling at her to "plug it up, plug it up, plug it up!"
That scene is the the start of the unraveling of Carrie White. She lives in an old house with her mother Margaret(Piper Laurie) who is obessed with Chritianity and goes door to door to spread the Word. Now that Carrie has her period, Margaret brands Carrie as a sinner and locks her in a closet to pray for forgiveness. In that scene when Carrie looks helplessly at the cross, you can feel how sad she is and what child abuse can do to someone.
In the meantime, Sue Snell(Amy Irving) feels guilty and decides to try to make it up to Carrie by asking her boyfriend Tommy(William Katt-what happened to him?) to take Carrie to their Senior Prom. He agrees, mostly because he's a decent guy and Carrie liked a poem he wrote for their English class.
Carrie has discovered she has a gift to move things or make things happen; she manages to break a mirror, make a kid fall off his bike after he teases her. She is amazed by her new powers, and is amazed that Tommy asks her out to the prom. She thinks about it, then accepts after a pep talk from Ms. Collins her gym teacher(Betty Buckley)
In the meantime, Chris Jorgerson(Nancy Allen) plots revenge at Carrie; because of the prank at the locker room, the girls are assigned to after school detention. Chris leaves, forfiting her prom tickets. She plots revenge with her boyfriend Billy(John Travolta) In one classic scene, the two of them are in his car, listening to "Heat Wave" by Martha Reeves, and Travolta eyes her breasts. There's no embarrassment to it, it's so matter of fact, so teenage boyish, it can give you shivers down your spine.
The night of the prom comes, and Carrie is thrilled. But Chris arranges it that they win for King and Queen of the Prom. And that's when things go wrong, and that's when Carrie comes undone.
Carrie works on so many levels; the direction by Brian DePalma is so good as he shows a town that is so small that everyone knows everyone, and in Carrie's case it's not a good thing. The kids are great with Travolta, Amy Irving, and William Katt. One of my favorite scenes is when he goes with his friends to try on tuxedos. It's so seventies(they get the ruffled tuxedos) but also so true and bonding.
But it is Sissy Spacek that is the heart and soul of this movie as Carrie. All Carrie wanted, as good Jon Lovitz as Harvey Firestein once said, is to be loved. Is that so much to ask? When people pay attention to her(Tommy, Ms. Collins) she blooms. In one scene she tries on lipstick in the drug store, looking to see what looks good on her, feeling like a pretty girl. This wasn't a girl that wanted to kill her classmates and her teachers. This wasn't a girl that was evil. This wasn't a girl that had malice in her heart. She just wanted to be loved, to be pretty, and go to the prom and have a good time. Spacek makes Carrie real, and she makes us love her, and she makes us cry as she goes on her rampage.
Carrie is 25 this year, and when I saw it at fourteen I felt a release when she killed the people, because I hated the bullies who made fun of me in school so much. But now it is so forbidding; twenty-five years ago it didn't seem possible that a girl could kill her classmates because they were mean to her. Last year at Columbine, it became a reality. Even King admits this fact. While it is great to revisit this movie, there's also a saddness, that something that was thought of as unthinkable years ago, happened. And it shouldn't have.
Note: This is a Halloween Write-off! Please read my other scary epinions by these fine people: amykhar, AmyLEnsor, Blackelve, elizajane, Elorraine,
Emillye, frazzledspice, gracef, jenninca,
jgibson2, jiastar, KingJFS, KristenNC, lcw61, Magick1, Redlass, shelxland,
Willow4, Wovengold, dandj and hhire.
Now remember, have a great Halloween, eat lots of chocolate, and be safe.
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