Sunday 5 October 2008

Carrie (1976)

OK, so first off: Brian De Palma and Stephen King are correct; this is NOT a horror film, it is a supernatural thriller. My reasons for saying this are very simple, and are as follows

  1. This film is not scary.
  2. The sympathy and empathy are all for Carrie, who is essentially both monster and victim, therefore we do not fear her.
  3. The two creators say it isn't.

So, anyway, this is a fairly good film. Sissy Spacek as Carrie is possibly one of the best examples of casting I can think of; she is so spooky, sad, and vulnerable at the same time, that you can't help but to sit back and admire the performance. The other performances are fairly good; John Travolta plays a sweary version of Danny Zuko. Although I've just realised that Grease was after Carrie, the point still stands; John Travolta plays John Travolta, and can't do much else. Not a criticism; a lot of actors play versions of themselves - think De Niro, Washington, Pacino, Eastwood et al, who are all undisputedly great actors. Apart from Spacek and Travolta, I don't the names of anyone in this film. I recognise the girl from Halloween who gets strangled with a phone cord, but apart from that, I had no idea who the actors were.

Now, I am slightly embarrassed to say that I had never seen this all the way through up until today, but I'm also unsure as to what the fuss is about. To me, this is by no means a 'classic'. It is fairly good, but nothing special. I was expecting to be shocked by something, anything, but nothing really got me. I guess, given that the film is 32 years old, some of the shocking moments have been tamed by time. In particular, the period scene, the crucifixion scene, and the dream sequence at the end had that feeling of "This is really shocking and out there" about them, but just failed to make the grade.

I don't expect I need to outline the plot, so I won't bother, but there is a link at the top of this entry to the relevant IMDb page, which I will, from now on, be doing on every entry I make.

So, in summary, give Carrie a watch, but don't expect too much. It's good, just not great.

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