#tbt Carrie review

A good and realistic example of what happens when bullying pushes a girl to the edge. She goes insane and uses telekinesis to murder everyone. That's realistic, right?
I never saw Brian De Palma's 1976 adaptation of the Stephen King novel. For a few reasons. I never read the book, I was never a huge De Palma fan, and it just never jumped out at me as something I needed to watch. After watching it, I could see how it's a pretty good horror flick, but I can't say I was missing a whole lot. The plot of Carrie starts out as what seems to be a high school drama about a girl with an abusive Catholic mother. It soon turns into what is basically a slasher movie, with less slashing and more telekinesis mind-power murdering. Carrie White is a very shy, but generally pretty, high school girl. She is teased and bullied for many reasons, one of them for her menstrual issues. When she comes home, her mother bullies her into being a perfect Catholic; hitting her with a Bible and making her go to her "prayer closet". Carrie's got a tough life, when a popular guy asks her to prom, she has reason enough to be suspicious. At the prom, there's a incident involving pig's blood and a young John Travolta. This "incident" leads to Carrie killing a crap load of people. The reason I watched this is because I know that the remake of Carrie is coming out this October and I felt like I should be somewhat  familiar with the original. I'm certainly glad I watched it, but I don't know if it deserves all the acclaim it got back in the 70's. Granted, it's still enjoyable and even frightening at times. The biggest problem I have with this film is it's direction. As I mentioned earlier, I don't love Brian De Palma. I really liked Scarface, but that's about it. He's made some okay movies since then like Mission Impossible, but he's never wowed me and the good parts of his movies are never the direction. His direction here isn't great. It seems very cliche for a horror movie. Lots of shots of peoples reactions with cheesy "horror movie music". This may be partially at fault to how old the film is. It certainly seems dated, but if you look past that it's really nothing bothersome. The rest of the movie I actually liked. Sissy Spacek (who played the title role) and Piper Laurie (who played Carrie's mother) both got Oscar nominations for Carrie. I don't think that was completely deserved for Piper Laurie, especially since her acting seemed so over the top, but Sissy Spacek did a great job portraying the meek and scared Carrie White. As Roger Ebert said in his review of Carrie, We all probably knew girls like her. (Except less murder-y) That's why this movie shocks you so much. The realism of the beginning makes the supernatural element seem real. The writers aren't afraid of anything here. They don't stick to some sappy ending or set up for a sequel like we see now. It's not uplifting, but it's exciting as hell. After seeing this, I almost want to read the book. I am a big Stephen King fan, so I'm sure it's good. As for the movie? It's not perfect. But it's exciting and well-acted. Believe it or not, I'm looking forward ti the remake to see what they can do to improve on the original. Anyway, you should see Carrie, but don't put it first on your list. Happy Viewing and Happy Throwback Thursday! Remember, you can follow me on Twitter @WhitsMovies and like me on Facebook at Facebook.com/WhitsMovies!