The Salt Lake Tribune
November 23, 1976
By Bill Cosford
Knight News Writer
November 23, 1976
By Bill Cosford
Knight News Writer
NEW YORK — Carrie White is a high school girl, a very unhappy one. To begin with, she's not so pretty. And she lives in the creepiest house on her street — maybe in her whole, small town. But that's hardly the worst part. Carrie's mother is a Bible-totin' religious fanatic. She makes the rounds of the other kids' houses, badgering their parents to bear witness to The Lord, flashing those wild, Holy Roller's eyes like a creature possessed.
Which, of course, she is — but not by demons. Her mother has been careful to build into Carrie a great wall of fear concerning the sins of everyday life; sins like making friends, like dating, like laughing. When the child is ornery, Mrs. White throws her into the "prayer closet," where she can ponder the terrors of her/inherited faith for just as long as it takes to repent. And when Mrs. White confronts the sure signs of her daughter's successful emergence from puberty, it's into the closet with her one more time, for the worst sin of all: Carrie's incipient womanhood.
Which, of course, she is — but not by demons. Her mother has been careful to build into Carrie a great wall of fear concerning the sins of everyday life; sins like making friends, like dating, like laughing. When the child is ornery, Mrs. White throws her into the "prayer closet," where she can ponder the terrors of her/inherited faith for just as long as it takes to repent. And when Mrs. White confronts the sure signs of her daughter's successful emergence from puberty, it's into the closet with her one more time, for the worst sin of all: Carrie's incipient womanhood.
Champion Wallflower
But what's hardest on Carrie is that she dresses funny, and that she is easily the champion wallflower in the entire history of Bates High School. It is hard to tell who has more contempt for her — the Bates High boys or the Bates High girls — but it is the girls who finally push things too far, launching the tale of horror that is "Carrie," which opens Wednesday at Midtown Trolley, Trolley Square, Century, Highland Drive-In and V. A. Fashion Place Theatres.
For Carrie is a telekinetic. She can move things. With her mind. She just thinks, and things move. The bullying of the Bates girls and a bizarre act of vengeance committed at the climax of the high school prom act to push Carrie over the edge she's stood near for so long. She takes her own revenge, using her "gift." It is one of the most effective plot devices for a horror film used in a long time; just effective enough to redeem the film's occasional, violent excesses.
Director'Brian De Palma has made a film about as different from-his last ("Obsession") as possible. The moodiness, the layered plotting and heavy dependence on the score of the latter are all missing here. So is the relentless heavy-handedness of his gruesome "Sisters." In their place De Palma has used a slick, "contemporary" style, full of tricks and gimmicks and camera angles that seem to be competing for "most novel" honors.
But De Palma knows his material in this case, knows a horrifying story when he finds one and lets his taste for the macabre run free. The result is at times quite stunning, at others mindlessly violent. In the end though, "Carrie" is the horror movie of the year, of the last several years'.
As the unstable telekinetic, Sissy Spacek is a perfect combination of inarticulate loser and gifted child, wallflower and demon. She becomes — so rare for this kind of melodrama — a character of some depth. When, as the beneficiary of a classmate's sympathy, she comes up with a Cinderella date to the high school prom, we are involved, no matter how hokey the prospect.
The prom scenes are oddly poignant, searching out our sentimental weak spots and twanging at heart strings, all gauzy and soft. But the horror is inevitable, and we can only squirm in prospect. It is not a film one wants to translate fully — else where's the horror? — so suffice to say that among the shock scenes is one guaranteed to propel you from your seat with very little effort — there has been none like it since the fabled leap of "Wait Until Dark."
For Carrie is a telekinetic. She can move things. With her mind. She just thinks, and things move. The bullying of the Bates girls and a bizarre act of vengeance committed at the climax of the high school prom act to push Carrie over the edge she's stood near for so long. She takes her own revenge, using her "gift." It is one of the most effective plot devices for a horror film used in a long time; just effective enough to redeem the film's occasional, violent excesses.
Director'Brian De Palma has made a film about as different from-his last ("Obsession") as possible. The moodiness, the layered plotting and heavy dependence on the score of the latter are all missing here. So is the relentless heavy-handedness of his gruesome "Sisters." In their place De Palma has used a slick, "contemporary" style, full of tricks and gimmicks and camera angles that seem to be competing for "most novel" honors.
But De Palma knows his material in this case, knows a horrifying story when he finds one and lets his taste for the macabre run free. The result is at times quite stunning, at others mindlessly violent. In the end though, "Carrie" is the horror movie of the year, of the last several years'.
As the unstable telekinetic, Sissy Spacek is a perfect combination of inarticulate loser and gifted child, wallflower and demon. She becomes — so rare for this kind of melodrama — a character of some depth. When, as the beneficiary of a classmate's sympathy, she comes up with a Cinderella date to the high school prom, we are involved, no matter how hokey the prospect.
The prom scenes are oddly poignant, searching out our sentimental weak spots and twanging at heart strings, all gauzy and soft. But the horror is inevitable, and we can only squirm in prospect. It is not a film one wants to translate fully — else where's the horror? — so suffice to say that among the shock scenes is one guaranteed to propel you from your seat with very little effort — there has been none like it since the fabled leap of "Wait Until Dark."
Forgive Those Excesses
Ultimately, we are scared just enough to forgive De Palma those excesses, in particular the wholly gratuitous impaling of a woman with an entire kitchen cutlery set. Though he may be making cinema history — first to dispatch a character with a carrot peeler — De Palma need not have used the scene at all. The horror comes from other corners altogether: the wounding of the psychic girl, the dread in her new-found talent, her pitiless revenge.
Still, this is the year's scariest. And that counts for a great deal in a time when so much of the screen violence we see is without any emotional coloration at all, merely hung out as a reminder that perversity still exists. As the raving mother, Piper Laurie is intriguing. She brings her beauty to an ugly role and the combination works. There are others in the-competent cast — notably teen personality John Travolta (from television's "Welcome Back, Kotter").
Like the Western, the horror-film has fallen on bad'times-in recent years. The genre has lacked humanity, which was always the key to successful, filming of the macabre. But it is here, in "Carrie." You will care something about this film, even as you cringe.
RATING: "CARRIE" is rated R. It contains considerable violence and some scenes of female nudity.
Still, this is the year's scariest. And that counts for a great deal in a time when so much of the screen violence we see is without any emotional coloration at all, merely hung out as a reminder that perversity still exists. As the raving mother, Piper Laurie is intriguing. She brings her beauty to an ugly role and the combination works. There are others in the-competent cast — notably teen personality John Travolta (from television's "Welcome Back, Kotter").
Like the Western, the horror-film has fallen on bad'times-in recent years. The genre has lacked humanity, which was always the key to successful, filming of the macabre. But it is here, in "Carrie." You will care something about this film, even as you cringe.
RATING: "CARRIE" is rated R. It contains considerable violence and some scenes of female nudity.
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