What is there to say that hasn’t already been said about
this film? Not much. I’ll just go through some items. And I
guess, spoilers? Look, if you haven’t
seen it by now or don’t know anything about it then I don’t know what to tell
you.
·
The evil mother was a nice touch. She was over the top and therefore fun to
watch. This character also gives you a
hint as to where Carrie’s telekinetic power might have come from. It’s a good theory that Carrie was abused so
much by her extremely religious mother that she developed this thing to defend
herself. Or she could’ve been born with
it. Whatever.
·
No less than five slaps are handed out in this
movie. Three of them are delivered to
Nancy Allen too. I don’t understand all
the slapping. Sometimes the folks in
this picture act like it’s a big deal and other times they don’t care.
·
The split screen towards the end doesn’t really
work. They didn’t use it earlier in the
film to help set it up (like it would’ve made sense to employ this technique whenever
Carrie uses her telekinesis) so it abruptly comes out of nowhere for a few
moments and then goes away. The split
screen didn’t look cool enough in my opinion to warrant using it for a brief
minute.
·
This is one of those movies where it feels like
it should’ve ended a bunch of times.
There were several points where I thought they were gonna wrap it up but
the thing kept going. I don’t think
that’s a good feeling to have while watching something. The length and real ending should all seem
appropriate and not tacked on.
·
It’s pretty edgy that Carrie kills just about
everyone that attended the prom (except the one survivor). It’s kinda crazy that they all burn up or get
killed some other way. I was pretty
shocked that they went for it. Good for them.
·
Actually, now that I’m thinking about this there
were probably other survivors of the school.
There must’ve been a whole slew of people that didn’t even go to the
prom. So they probably felt pretty good
that they didn’t get caught up in that mess.
Or wait, no they felt awful because almost everyone that went to that
school died in a horrible fire. Uhh…yea,
they felt bad about it and not good.
·
When Carrie crashes the car I chuckled to
myself. It looks very cartoony and they
should’ve found some other way of shooting that instead of speeding up the
film.
I can see why this is a classic. It’s really all about that iconic prom scene
with the blood and the fire and the hoozy whatsy, etc. That was definitely the best part of the
movie but of course you need all that build up for it to payoff. The shot of Carrie walking out of the burning
gym covered in blood with that bug eyed expression on her face is some
fantastic imagery.
But overall it was just ok for me. Some of the emotional points are a little off
I think. For example, some high school
kids kill a pig just for its blood (they probably could’ve gotten it easier
ways or even used fake blood which would’ve been just as devastating), the
overuse of slapping and the entire thing with Tommy asking Carrie out to the
prom. I think Carrie knows what’s going
on but she goes along with it anyway.
It’s a bit confusing. Does she think
that this is just a one off date that’s supposed to make her feel good or does
she think that this guy is really going to be her boyfriend?
It’s strange that the asking-Carrie-out-to-the-prom joke is
uncovered immediately. Wouldn’t it have
made more sense if no one knew what was going on? Carrie should’ve gone out to the prom with no
knowledge that Tommy was asked to by his girlfriend and the gym teacher
shouldn’t have gotten wind of it. It
would’ve been clearer that way. But then
again, did Carrie actually not know? I
don’t know.
What it really comes down to is Brian De Palma kinda stinks. Sure Scarface
and Carlito’s Way are fun and the
first ten to twelve minutes of Snake Eyes
is great but man, he’s made a lot of movies that don’t work very well. The only picture of his that I like a lot is The Untouchables which I can chalk up to
being a fluke because none of his other films came together as well as that one
did. Carrie
falls in with most of his pieces. It has
some cool moments and interesting camera work but in the end not great.
Is it worth checking out?
If you’re a horror buff like me then yes, at some point you should see
it. I’m a little ashamed that it took me
this long to get to it. It’s still a
classic whether I like it or not. If
you’re more of a casual fan or you don’t care for telekinesis horror films then
this might not do much for you.
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