Excellent film adaptation of Stephen King's first novel

Rating: Null/10 (5 May 2004)

Released in 1976 and starring Sissy Spacek and John Travolta, 'Carrie' is an excellent film adaptation of Stephen King's first novel, which was published in 1974. The second scene of the film, set in a high school women's communal shower stall, is intensely disturbing and sets the scene most effectively for what is to come.
Sissy Spacek captures the pain and awkwardness of Carrietta White, a put-upon young woman who lives with her Margaret, her VERY strict Catholic single mother. Margaret has a proclivity for locking her daughter in a small closet for hours on end when she - Margaret - believes the young woman has sinned. Cruel and unusual treatment, indeed.
What separates Carrie from others is her special gift - that of telekinesis. This is the ability to move objects using only the power of the mind, and is a real and well-documented - if rare - phenomenon.
Great to see a young John Travolta as Billy, Chris Hargenson's (Nancy Allen) jerk boyfriend. This is Travolta's second film; he made his film debut in Robert Fuest's 1975 horror classic 'The Devil's Rain', but was practically unrecognisable in his role. For my money, 'The Devil's Rain' is one of the greatest horror movies EVER and is strangely overlooked - no one seems to mention it when discussing the great horror movies. The film's final shot will haunt your dreams... if you can sleep after viddying it, that is!
Anyhow... back to 'Carrie'. This film contains director Canadian director Brian De Palma's trademark split-screen effect in places, and it works quite well. Great work from Nancy Allen, who was married to De Palma at one stage. Her characterisation of Chris Hargenson is spot-on. Hargenson is a cold hard bitch who loathes Carrie 'with the fire of a thousand suns'! And a big shout-out to Amy Irving as Sue Snell; quite a capable performance. William Katt fits the bill as the high school's resident football star and golden boy; whatever happened to this actor? Have not seen him in anything since Steve Miner's 'House'.
'Carrie' is definitely one of the best King adaptations, although I feel that 'The Shawshank Redemption', based on King's novella 'Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption', is the finest one yet.