Good horror-drama by De Palma

Rating: 7/10 (11 August 2004)

Once again, I have not read the original Stephen King novel on which this film is based on, so I can't draw comparisons there. I have heard, though, that it's a fairly faithful adaption. I don't have too much faith in neither De Palma or the idea of novel adaption, but this one looked somewhat interesting, so I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did; it's definitely one of De Palma's better, and one of the better horror movies of that period. The climax is great, some of the best use of split-screen and instant zooming I've ever seen. The use of slow-motion also adds a lot. The plot is good; it deals with Carrie, a teenage girl who's constantly bullied by her classmates and just about everyone else, for that matter. Her mother is a dominating and very extreme Christian believer, so Carrie also suffers under that. The film has a pretty good pace; there wasn't really more than five minutes in total out of the 90 minutes the movie takes where I was bored. The film has a few light-hearted and humorous scenes, which are probably there to keep the viewer interested, and intensify the climax, which comes as a huge shock, like a crack of thunder. Some would say that it has too many humorous scenes, considering the theme, but I think it was a good idea; though I guess the film is a little hurt by the unintentional comedy, mostly brought on by the slightly overacting performances of Nancy Allen, John Travolta and Piper Laurie. This is evidenced by the trivia section indicating that they did, in fact, think they were there for comic relief, which did ruin some scenes(mainly those involving Laurie, as she was the psychotic mother, who provided a little too much comic relief, rather than instill fear in some instances), though it's easily ignored, and doesn't ruin the movie as a whole, nor does it lessen the value of the point. The acting is mostly good. Sissy Spacek was great as the mousy Carrie. The characters were well-written, though I guess many of them, especially the teens, were cliches and stereotypes. The score was good. The music almost always fitted with the scene. The special effects are great, and the atmosphere and shocks were chilling. All in all, a very good horror-drama, that could possibly have been better, but De Palma makes good use of various cinematic tricks and editing finesses, which takes the film to a fairly high level. I recommend it to fans of horror and teenage dramas, possibly fans of King, and fans of Brian De Palma. 7/10