Carrie (USA) (United Artists) (1976) ****Decade: '70siMDB
Director: Brian De Palma Cast: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Nancy Allen, William Katt, Amy Irving, John Travolta
I read Carrie the novel before I saw the movie. The book scared me so much so that my mother banned me from reading any more horror novels (I was only 9 when I read it...) Much, much later I finally got up the courage to see the movie, and it too, scared me out of my wits. It still does.
Compared to other genre movies that have followed it, Carrie is not even that gory (though the blood... is certainly plentiful). It is scary because of three things. First, there is the utter cruelty of the kids who are so heartlessly nasty to poor Carrie. Then there is her mother - a fanatical, religious, repressed, and borderline-or-over insane monster. But the ultimate horror is Carrie herself - the repressed emotions exploding in revengeful, destructive anger.
There are a few gratuitous-shock scenes (the director Brian De Palma is rather prone to that) that mar this movie, but otherwise it's a true horror classic.
Posted by bc on October 28, 2005 11:45 PM