Bitterly disappointing horror film

Rating: 4/10 (26 October 2012)

When I first heard about how good Carrie was and how it set a standard for horror films, I was expecting a great film experience. However, Carrie to me was not only not a great film, but an extremely overrated one at the very least. My issues with the film lay more towards the storytelling where for 60 minutes of the hour and a half film it was like watching a 1970's version of Mean Girls. Shy loner girl is made fun of, humiliated by the popular girls and the storyline revolves around that in a very boring and pathetic pace. Sissy Spacek who is one of my favorites did do a good job in the film, especially in the final sequences of Carrie going mad at the prom, but there wasn't enough of a back story into the full range of her powers and the "terrifying" scene had none of the spine-tingling or heart-stopping elements of Halloween, or Jaws. Also people say Spacek was the first actress to be nominated for an Oscar in a horror film, which is incorrect as 3 years prior Ellen Burstyn was nominated for her role in what's been called the scariest film ever The Exorcist. Piper Laurie was also surprisingly good even more so considering it was her 1st film role in nearly 20 yrs. and is able to portray Margaret in a somewhat humorous, yet also unsettling way and really deserved her nomination. The rest of the cast is good, and De Palma's direction is decent Carrie just doesn't have any sort of real horror and is not the best adaptation of a Stephen King novel.
4/10