Random Movie #3: Carrie

For our third randomly selected Netflix movie, Becky and I saw Carrie, the 1976 horror film adapted from Stephen King’s first published novel.  Becky selected this particular movie for the bucket mostly, I would imagine, because of her interest in seeing the remake that stars Chloë Moretz and Julianne Moore (which we were able to see together shortly after watching this movie).

Carrie White is a shy, awkward girl who simply does not fit in at school.  Despite being a senior in high school, she gets her first period while showing after gym.  Believing that she is bleeding to death, she becomes hysterical and begs the other girls for help.  Instead of calming her down, they laugh and throw tampons at her while screaming “plug it up.”  In the aftermath of this incident, Carrie begins to develop telekinetic powers, which her fundamentalist mother is convinced is witchcraft.  One remorseful classmate, eager to atone for what she did to Carrie, convinces her boyfriend to ask the social outcast to Prom.  Another classmate, however, enraged at her punishment over the incident, plans the ultimate way to humiliate Carrie.

The story of Carrie is far more tragic than it is horrific.  Like the more recent Let the Right One In, Carrie emphasizes the human violence done to its protagonist rather than the supernatural violence that she inflicts on her tormentors.  Carrie is a quiet, meek girl who is mercilessly bullied by her classmates, physically and emotionally abused by her mother and generally ignored by the teachers and administrators that could otherwise have helped her.  Even Ms. Desjardin, her gym teacher, slaps her in a moment of supreme vulnerability in plain view of her bullies.  While Ms. Desjardin later punishes the girls for what they did, it is only after she shows all of them what you’re supposed to do to Carrie White.

If there was one this that the film could be faulted for, it is the overly inventive direction of Brian De Palma.  While I can appreciate the numerous directorial decisions that he makes in presenting Carrie’s tragic story, they do keep the movie from aging gracefully.  During the montage where Tommy and his friends choose which tuxedos to rent, rather than cutting from tux to tux, De Palma fast-forwards through the "unimportant" parts.  When Carrie’s own head is spinning from Chris’ unimaginably cruel prank, De Palma recreates this by using a rotating kaleidoscope lens.  During the carnage of prom night, De Palma uses a split screen to show co-current violence against the students and faculty.

Some of these techniques worked very well; the split screen particularly strikes me as well executed, evoking the chaos and confusion of Carrie’s rampage.  Most, however, are distracting, dated and poorly executed.  Taken as a whole, it is a visual cacophony that is far more interesting than good.

The film features an absolutely outstanding cast.  Sissy Spacek perfectly embodies the frightened, introverted Carrie White.  She is alternatingly able capture the intense savagery of her rage and the complexity of her accompanying guilt.  Piper Laurie plays what is by far the most terrifying character in the entire film: Mrs. White.  While both she and Spacek channel the jilting, unnatural, overly-stylized body language of German Expressionism, Laurie excels well beyond Spacek in this capacity.  She succeeds in creating what is by far the most unsettling on-screen presence since Max Schreck's Count Orlock, similar to Carrie's own physical mannerisms during her prom-night rampage.

Carrie is ultimately an incredibly good, though incredibly dated, film.  While De Palma’s unique filming techniques do not hold up well in contemporary viewings, the tragic and emotional core of the film (not to mention Spacek and Laurie's exceptional performances) does.  I rate this film a strong 7.5, on par with I Walked with a Zombie, The Last House on the Left and Suspiria.  Becky rates the film a 7.