Carrie. 1976. Directed by Brian De Palma.

(11/9/00-11/21/00)

I am tempted to begin by saying that Sissy Spacek had the role of her career in this, but I haven't seen much of her other work so I can't say that. But that's what it feels like when you watch this picture. Spacek dominates it all the way.

It's a poignant performance and a poignant film. It's more poignant than horrifying though it is a horror film. It works because the situations in it ring true even if they are exaggerated. There is meanness in hisgh school. People, young people in particular, do like to pick on the vulnerable and different. Kids do grow up in dysfunctional families with crazy parents. And kids who are picked on--nice as they may be--do sometimes lash out or strike back blindly when hurt and the consequences can be disastrous.

It's a painful film to watch. It goes for the solar plexus right at the beginning when we see a vulnerable teenage girl in a shower room going into hysterics because she is having her first period and had never been told about that. The other girls laugh at her and humiliate her. Just the fact that we see this vulnerable girl nude or nearly nude under5 such circumstances made me very uncomfortable, set me on edge.

The gym teacher is outraged by this heartless treatment and punishes the girls. This sets the stage for disaster, because the girls are resentful and decide to seek revenge on Carrie. And this is the kind of thing that can and does happen. Someone trying to take a vulnerable person's part--with all good intentions--inadvertently directs more cruelty at the poor soul.

We then see Carrie at home. Her mother--mentally unstable--is a religious fanatic and has a horror of sex. This, too, is true--children have maladjusted parents that they have to cope with and because of this are "different." And scorned because of it. So Carrie is rooted in very real problems and situations.

The actress who played Carrie's mother resembled her enough that it was really believable that they were mother and daughter.

The film is grounded in real situations, but, it being a horror film, something else is thrown into the brew. Carrie has telekinetic powers. We see it right from the beginning. And she goes to the library and starts reading up on how to develop them. This strand of the story isn't developed sufficiently. We never see Carrie working to develop these abilities and we never know exactly what she plans to do with them. Or maybe she is just trying to understand herself and something about her that really is "different." But this is not made clear.

Carrie's peers work out a horrible plan to humiliate her at the high school prom. And at this time of great stress all hell breaks loose. Carrie lashes out with her powers and creates an inferno and just about everyone is consumed. And this too rings true in that when someone is hurt, humiliated and provoked to the point where they lash out in fury they are not selective in whom they unleash their anger on. And it is very sad that most of the people at the prom did not want to hurt Carrie and would have been sympathetic and probably would have been consoling.

I liked some of the effects in this climactic scene very much. I liked the slow motion effects as Carrie goes to the podium and the silence. But I didn't like the split-screen effects when Carrie lets loose with her powers. That's just my own reaction.

Forlorn, Carrie goes home to her insane mother, desperately in need of consolation. And the mother tries to kill her, considering her a witch. This is the last cruelty. Carrie has about as much luck as the heroine of Waterloo Bridge.

At the end we see one girl who survives and is recovering from shock. She is one of the instigators of the plot against Carrie. She has a nightmare in which Carrie attacks her from the grave. This seemed like a cheap shock effect, but the movie seemed to need that kind of jolt at the end and it worked. Actually, that scene serves a purpose in giving us a shot of Carrie's grave with nasty graffiti written on it. "Burn in hell" or something like that. That is the final touch of heartlessness and smugness. At least Carrie doesn't have to be subjected to it anymore. The nightmare about the grave does raise interesting questions about how the story will be remembered.