Carrie (1976)

Director Brian De Palma delivers an early success with Carrie (1976). His use of clever shots, close ups, tracking shots, moody lighting, image matching, and metaphorical visuals make Carrie a delight to watch. De Palma goes through every trick in the book for maximum horror and effective direction. He builds such gripping suspense as you are constantly worried for what is about to happen to Carrie. Carrie is certainly one of De Palma's finest films.The chilling and gorgeous score from Pino Donaggio sets up the atmosphere with haunting suspense and frightening jumps. The sudden edits from Paul Hirsch are quite brilliant unto themselves as he takes you from scene to scene with a crescendo of hurt.As is usual for De Palma's movies, Carrie is filled with female nudity that does not feel exploitative, but rather De Palma's clear influence from Italian Giallo films. His love and reverence for Alfred Hitchcock's mastery of suspense is apparent as De Palma creates long panning shots that explode in terror and shocking twists.Stephen King's writing is timeless as he addresses the never-ending horrors of bullying, cruelty, fanaticism, parenting, trauma, and consequences. The teenage girls are as cruel as any movie villain or real life high school girls hellbent on making one meek girl feel worthless. The monstrous cruelty and inhuman lack of empathy from these girls is the real horror. King's writing is all the more realistic in how mean spirited the main bullies can get. The girls go from mockery to outright depravity. I hope people that watch Carrie better understand how their actions can affect others.Speaking of the cruel women in Carrie, I should point out the particularly excellent performances from Carrie's supporting cast. Piper Laurie is breathtaking as the raving religious mother to Carrie. She is perhaps even more frightening than the teenage girls. Amy Irving is the mean girl turned sympathetic figure trying to do the right thing with a believable change of heart. Lastly, Nancy Allen is the most despicable irredeemable bully out of the teenage girls. You never feel pity for really as she continues to do wrong out of her own ego and hatred.Finally, I must mention the lovable Sissy Spacek. You feel so bad for her and her plight. Carrie just wants to be loved and held, but she only receives grief. Spacek portrays Carrie with a clear kindness and timidity that transcends the film as you feel awful for how she must feel. Spacek deserves all the praise she has gotten for Carrie over the years. She demonstrates a scared modesty and genuine terror in her quiet tears and embarrassed screams. Spacek is quite moving in Carrie.Overall, you must watch Carrie! It is a classic of filmmaking technique from Brian De Palma. Carrie contains a brilliant performance from Sissy Spacek. The score is mesmerizing. The scares are more like a helpless inability to help Carrie through your screen. Carrie is just a classic film with impeccable craftsmanship.

Forget the prom scene, because the real money shot is wide-eyed, dazed Carrie returning home to her mother -- the house is littered with holy candles, Carrie carefully rubs the blood off her body, and her mother pets Carrie's hair with wild arm motions like she was starting an old car engine. And quietly they both wonder: who's cracked first?The movie is about as subtle as a bull in the china closet: growing up as a sheltered girl in high school is ROUGH. Even her English teacher is a dick when she speaks up in class and calls a poem beautiful. It's all a big parable about puberty, and how one act of kindness can bring out Carrie's warmth, friendliness, and smiles-- and umpteen years of cruelty will bring a psychotic meltdown crashing down on your head.But there are some great shots brought to life by tremendous actors. Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie run away with the whole show, bringing to life a horrific but believable mother-daughter relationship with the constant gaze of a yellow-eyed crucifix in their house. The movie is pretty brisk and doesn't dwell on much of anything, but any scene these two share is never enough.

I disliked this movie entirely. Forty years have passed since I first saw the original in a theater. I used to find it amusing. I still think it a good parody. But I can't watch it. The ridiculous teenagers, the maniacal mother, the vicious teachers, the absurd conformity...it is all there. It is human nature at it's most vile. Given the current reality of the true evil in human society, this movie is nonsensical, derivative and unwatchable. Don't bother. If you want horror, turn on the news.

While there are subthemes of this film that are blatantly untrue, the broad swaths of this film's plot, though hyperbolically presented, are hard not to identify with for anyone who has ever been a teen. From the feelings of isolation, to the wonderment of not knowing who your friends are, to the desire to respond in kind when that one final line is crossed - the vast majority of us have been there for it all. And sometimes, like teen years, the movie is not so much horrifying as it is overwhelmingly sad.Seeing this years later, after having seen it as a teen and having read it as a child, certainly gives me a different framework from which to interpret it than I originally had. It was good to see it again from that perspective. I don't appreciate the over-the-top attack on Christianity at all any more. On the other hand, I do appreciate that, for those of us who can see the plot develop (which, unfortunately, doesn't include Carrie), there really was a time when teachers and school personnel cared about students more than they cared about Marxist ideology. Too, it is good to acknowledge a time, pre-Clinton and pre-Obama, in which morality was so prevelant in American society that even high school students could be expected to set moral wrongs right all by themselves. But still, the nature of the movie as a thriller, and the constant expectation that something is about to go wrong, is there, and permeates the film. My wife, who had never seen the film before, on several occasion whispered, "Oh, no!" seconds before the next shoe dropped. So it still works, forty-some-odd-years later, as a suspenseful thriller that leads you into the expectation of disaster.And disaster it is.The sound quality of this copy of the film is exceptionally poor. Even with an external speaker, it was impossible to find a setting that would fit the entire movie. If you don't have an external speaker, you may want to try the paid version of this movie just to get better sound quality. You won't regret paying for it if you take that route. It is an American classic and a movie well worth seeing.

4K restoration, as previously released in the US by Shout! Factory, including lobby card style art cards, double sided poster and, despite what it says on the box, a 38, not 60 page booklet. All in all, a nice set and definitely one for fans of this iconic De Palma masterpiece. Worth thirty quid? Probably.... but wait! Don't expect a fantastic upgrade in picture quality. It's better (especially in naturally lit scenes) than the previously released MGM DVD, but it's still grainy and in one place (while Carrie is waiting to see the school principal) slightly pixelated. And the 5.1 surround? Again, don't expect the 5.1 surround experience of recent movies, with discernable sounds coming from individual speakers, because as far as I could tell, that simply isn't the case here. But for sure, the sound is more immersive than the original mono track. I have to be honest and say that compared to the Arrow limited box set of "The Apartment", which goes to the nth degree in its (superb) mastering, and includes a gloriously lavish promo only hardback book, this edition of "Carrie", even with the poster and art cards, just doesn't seem as, erm, desirable. Some sections of the book with this box set aren't even discussing "Carrie", but other films in the Depalma canon. Again, I think it's one for collectors.

I love this film, having watched both this version and the more recent modern version have to say that this is definitely the original and the best. Even after all these years since it's release it's still jumpy, creepy and AMAZING. 10/10 - brilliant film one of my ultimate favourites

I have watched this film many times and it's one of my favorites I have always been fascinated by supernatural powers and stuff like that and this is a very good film to add to your collection and it's also about bullying as well really in a way but won't give too much away cos I don't want to spoil the film but it's worth having I've watched it many times and thoroughly enjoy

Super fast delivery, i love Sissy Spacak in this film, excellent performance, have watched the remake, and preferred this, so added it to the collection,great quality in both sound and vision.

The film looks and sounds great. I haven't been too impressed with the extras - the commentary is enthusiastic but doesn't actually impart a lot of information and many of the interviews are so-so. But I bought it for the film, and this bluray does it more than justice.So I'm recommending it for that.