Depressing Shocker , Maybe Too Depressing

Rating: 8/10 (8 March 2008)

CARRIE is based on the eponymous book by Stephen King and is brought to the big screen from Brian De Palma . It is arguably the highlight of both mens' careers which is a shame because it was King's debut novel and an early contribution to cinema from De Palma . Many people have gone in to the plot in great detail so I won't bother , but does anyone agree that the supernatural elements of the plot are the weakest parts ? Put it like this Carrie White is becoming a woman , is bullied and humiliated by her class mates and lives at home with an unbalanced religious theocratic mother . If you've not got a hell of a lot of sympathy for her you're probably a corpse . If you've ever vaguely had the problems Carrie is suffering from then you will find this movie very depressing
That's not to say CARRIE is a bad film , it's not but it's a very uncomfortable watch and much of this is to do with the cast . Spacek , Laurie , Allen , Katt and Travolta all play their parts with absolute conviction , a fact that is reflected in two of the cast being Oscar nominated and how often do people receive Oscar nominations for being in a horror movie ? Still it's best to bare in mind that this is a horror film because if it was a straight laced drama involving teenage angst on the battlefield of adolescence I would have probably have switched it off before the end credits due to the distressing narrative . But CARRIE is a horror film and a bloody good one which gets eight out of ten from me