"Breasts, momma. They're called 'breasts' and every woman has them." (Carrie, dressing for prom)

Rating: Null/10 (30 August 2002)

A movie doesn't have to be great to be a classic. "Carrie" is not great, but it IS a classic, a film from Stephen King's first novel, and the break-out performance by Sissy Spacek. The newest DVD release has a very impressive 16:9 anamorphic video transfer for an old film, and a pretty decent 5.1 pseudo surround sound. It also has several nice extras, the most interesting being the clips and interviews with most main cast members. John Travolta was still fresh in TV's "Kotter", and two years before his hit films. William Katt was TV's "Greatest American Hero." And Amy Irving is about the cutest actress who never went anywhere with her career. Jack Fisk, art director, had been married to Sissy for two years. Sissy was 27 in "Carrie", although she really did look 16. The girl from little Quitman, Texas still looks good today at age 53.
"Carrie" is about a high school girl who is "different", and all the others make fun of her. The best of the worst starts when she unexpectedly starts her period during an after-practice shower and all the girls taunt her. ((The locker room scene, in slow motion with flute and piano music, and naked young bodies in and out of the cover of steam is very sensual.)) Trouble for all the others is that Carrie has telekinetic powers that she is just beginning to realize. She is walking home and a kid on a bike taunts her, and she promptly throws him to the ground, without ever touching him. In the library she is reading a book "Secret Science Behind Miracles."
some SPOILERS - Carrie is caught between two extremes and there is no escaping. Her mother is a religious fanatic who thinks Carrie's father was a possession of the devil. At one point she says, " I should have given you to God when you were just a baby." She now thinks Carrie is possessed. At the other extreme are the insensitive students who plot to embarrass her by rigging the King and Queen contest at the prom, having Carrie and Tommy win, only to dump a bucket of pig's blood onto her as she stands on stage.
Carrie's telekinesis takes over, doors are locked, fire hose begins to spray, a fire is started, only Carrie walks out after Amy Irving's character also escapes. On her way home, bloody, a car tries to run her over but she sends it tumbling, and exploding. Back home, all she wants after her bath is a hug from mom, but mom stabs her with a large knife. But telekinesis sends several implements into mom, who dies, and finally Carrie sends her whole house down, burning, on both of them. Irving has dreams that a bloody arm is pulling her down to hell.
Stephen King admits that "Carrie" was not his best work. It was actually inspired by several disconnected experiences, but the catalyst was cleaning a girls locker room as a janitor and encountering a dispenser of feminine products. In total I cannot see this film as a great work, probably not even as a very good one. But it is a very interesting one, especially for the careers that received a kick-start with film.