A triumph!

Rating: 9/10 (24 August 2005)

"Carrie" is quite possibly one of the best films I have ever seen. It is not quite the classic it is hailed as, but it has all the elements of a great film. And more.
Sissy Spacek made her name with this film, and befittingly so. Her acting is so incredible. That first look of confusion on her face when she sees the blood flowing out of her is so innocent, so genuine, that I almost thought I was sitting there in that locker room watching it all happen in real time. Her female tormentors are cold and merciless, and I nearly cried out when they began hurling sanitary napkins at her.
The chief tormentor, Chris Hargensen, is played by Nancy Allan. And she delivers. She has the perfect image of a glamorous, popular girl. Although unlike the novel, she's more of an oversimplified girly girl who plays a mean trick, not the ruthless Chris Hargensen of the novel who goes out of her way to hurt misfits. But this Chris is a more realistic one, and it makes the movie easier to understand.
Then what of Carrie's mother, Margaret White (played by Piper Laurie)? Her first scene shows she's an amiable woman...kinda creepy, what with the overly religious routine. But she seems okay, right? Wrong.
Margaret arrives home after Carrie's "incident" in the showers and gets a disturbing call from the school. She turns from amiable religious woman, to heartless religious zealot. She bashes Carrie around with a Bible, saying what she has done is sin and that God's vengeful hand is at work. (Just a note, but the musical that spawned from this film, "Carrie: the Musical," had a very compelling and bone chilling song in this scene) She then drags her into the closet to pray, all the while quoting an unheard of section of the Bible entitled "The Sins of Women." The closet is very creepily designed, with a grotesque cruciform figure with glowing eyes.
All in all, the film basically builds up to the big finale. There are a couple of things worth mentioning though. Betty Buckley (who also played Margaret White in the musical version) delivers a good performance as the gym teacher, although her motives as to why she is helping Carrie are kind of subtle. John Travolta fills the role of Billy Nolan, Chris's scuzzy boyfriend, pretty well. William Katt and Amy Irving (portraying Tommy Ross and Sue Snell) are both respectable as well, but both, especially Katt, don't get enough time to really develop their characters. For instance at the Prom, Tommy kinda just falls in love with her out of nowhere. Most of the cast is at, or above good acting throughout. But Spacek and Laurie continue to do wonderful, the other being the only person they truly love and hate. Spacek especially. You literally FEEL her emotions. When she's upset, you're upset. When she smiles, you smile. And you really feel her hope building throughout the entire prom. Speaking of which, I thought the whole slow motion scene was kind of dragged out. Just drop the stupid pig's blood on her already! Although the scene where she's imagining everyone's laughter is very effective.
As for the destruction scene itself, I craved more blood. It left a bit to be desired, considering most of them just kinda died. It was almost...well, humorous watching her spray them with the hose and then watching them tumble over the tables and chairs.
The final scene at the White Home however makes up for this. It being both Spacek and Laurie's final scene, they go out with a bang. The set is extremely eerie, with candles everywhere. The one thing I didn't like was Margaret was just kinda hanging out behind the bathroom door when Carrie went in to wash. And then just walked right up to her. Laurie's motherly holding and stroking makes you want to go "Aww..." and it looks like for the moment, Carrie might be all right. But Marge unexpectedly pulls a knife on her, and she rolls down the stairs. The look in Laurie's eyes is utterly petrifying, especially when she does the sign of the cross over her with the knife. But uh oh. Margaret forgot her daughter's got telekinesis. Carrie impales her, so that she eventually mimics the appearance of the cruciform in her closet. Laurie's dying breaths are extremely convincing, and Spacek nervously looks away each time she allows herself to look. Feeling pained and remorseful, she grabs mom, takes her into the closet and caves the house in.
Later, Sue Snell dreams about leaving flowers at the sight of where the White Home once stood, when Carrie's dead hand gives her a good IL' yank and scares the audience. No matter how many times I watch it, I never can exactly time when the hand grabs her.
All in all, this film is just one wonderful piece of work. You should watch it, whether you want to see the novel's tragic plot put on film, Spacek and Laurie's marvelous performances, or even if you just want to see Nancy Allan naked. Nine out of Ten.