A Faithful but Dated Adaptation.

Rating: 7/10 (17 October 2011)

Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is a hopelessly awkward teenage girl: loathed as a pariah by her classmates and abused by her profoundly Christian mother (Laurie Piper). The only person who shows her the slightest human kindness is her gym teacher (Betty Buckley), who rescues her from the torments of her classmates when she gets her first (incredibly belated) period while showering after gym. Along with her late-coming adolescence, Carrie develops telekinesis, which she hones despite her mother's accusations of witchcraft. Sue Snell (Amy Irving), one of Carrie's tormentors, tries to make up for her actions by convincing her boyfriend (William Katt), who Carrie has a crush on, to take her to the prom. Chris Hargenson (Nancy Allen), however, despises her punishment for what she did to Carrie and wants to make her pay.
"Carrie" (1976) demonstrates an intense level of fidelity with the novel upon which it is based. Brian DePalma demonstrates his technical proficiencies as a director in his realistic (if extreme) treatment of adolescence. The problem arises, however, with entrenched in the decade of its origin the film is. It is hopelessly, infuriatingly, obviously seventies. The decisions to use of kaleidoscope lenses, to rotate the camera opposite the rotation of Tommy Ross' and Carrie White's dancing and the a-typical use of sound after Chris dumps pigs' blood on Carrie - while it certainly conveys its cinematic message with all due clarity - are hopelessly dated techniques that permanently entrench the film in its specific time and place (instead of existing within a sense of timelessness).
Fans of Stephen King's novels will find this to be delightfully faithful to his novel (a statement which cannot be said about even some of his best adaptations). Fans of horror films - as well as distinctly seventies films - will likewise find this to be a welcome and fairly-executed inclusion into their folds.