Some very strong scenes, but as a whole Carrie isn't entirely successful

Rating: 6/10 (16 August 2015)

Carrie (Sissy Spacek) is a shy 17 year old girl who is bullied by her classmates for being a bit weird. This situation is exacerbated when she has her first period whilst showering at school. Out of the blue, Carrie discovers that she has telekinetic powers and is intent on using these powers to get revenge on those that are bullying her.
For me, Stephen King adaptations have always been a bit hit and miss and interestingly Carrie falls somewhere in the middle. Like other King adaptations such as Christine and Cujo, Carrie essentially is one long build up to the eventual crux of the story which takes place at the prom. Unfortunately, if you're going to set the story up in this way then you need to make sure that there are two key ingredients; a really strong pay-off or an involving story between point A and point B and again Carrie only partly succeeds in both areas...
What lets this film down slightly is that for the bulk of its running time it doesn't really explore Carrie's telekinesis particularly well. The majority of the run time seems to be spent on all the pretty people discussing the prom night. The side characters are rather bland and for me got a little too much focus. Thankfully some scenes are very effective throughout the middle of the film (most notably the scenes between Carrie and her mother - wonderfully portrayed by Piper Laurie). Whilst watching this film, it's very easy to feel for Carrie as a person as she not only has to deal with a gang of bullies at school, but she then goes home to her barmy mother who is some kind of religious nut. In some ways, I felt Carrie deliberately ostracised herself from everyone else for fear of bringing friends home. Reading between the lines, I suspect that there was definitely something of a 'daughter doesn't need any friends other than her mother' scenario with Carrie and her mother.
The moment where Carrie starts to unleash hell at the prom is very good and this is mostly down to Spacek looking so damn creepy. The problem again is that the build up to this moment was far too drawn out. I'm all for suspenseful build ups, but if you leave it too long you're in danger of losing your audience. I kept thinking to myself 'Oh just bloody get on with it'. The film ends quite strongly, but again is it good enough to make up for its shortcomings? Yeah I'd say it just about does enough to make it worthwhile.
As far as performances go then many may see Spacek as the star of the show and yes she was very good, but for me it was Piper Laurie that was the best thing about this film. She was a joy to watch here and her character did genuinely unnerve me slightly. Some of the other characters are rather bland particularly Travolta who shows his face a couple of times and collects his pay cheque.
Carrie is a passable and watchable film, but it's very uneven and whilst it's effective at times, many scenes that don't focus on Carrie and/or her mother are quite tedious. It's certainly not bad, but a classic? I don't think so.