Carrie

Year: 1976 Director: Brian De Palma

The plot of Carrie centres around the character of Carrie White (played by Sissy Spacek) a high school student that doesn't fit in at school, and who at home lives with her mother, who is a religious fanatic who constantly berates Carrie for the inherent sin that she has. Carrie discovers that she has special (telekinetic) powers that allow her to move objects with the power of her mind. During showers at school Carrie starts to menstruate for the first time and due to her strict upbringing she doesn't know what is happening and thinks she is bleeding to death. The other girls tease her until the teacher Miss Collins (played by Betty Buckley) steps in to help her and explain what is happening. The teacher punishes the girls for their behaviour towards Carrie and they in turn plot revenge against Carrie. When Carrie attends the school prom the girls have a cruel surprise lying in wait for her.

Carrie's adapted screenplay, from his own novel, was horror meister's Stephen King's first story to be made into a movie. Already some of King's trademark touches are here in the story. The special powers in Carrie are much less prominent in the story than in the next project The Shining (where it is a major part of the film) and is much more a study of cruelty and outsiders than it is about the supernatural. The film has some stunning and original set pieces which show Brian De Palma's forte in invention. Spacek fulfils the promise she had shown in Badlands (1973) and plays the title role magnificently. Making up a decent cast was TV teen idol John Travolta, Piper Laurie and in her debut Amy Irving.

Carrie almost has a feeling of being a prototype teen horror (albeit an extreme one). The story and plot are nothing very complicated and have the feeling of a stretched short story, but as whole package it works particularly well benefiting from some imaginative direction and a committed lead actress.

Carrie features in our Interactive Haunted House of Horror guide to horror films and scary movies.

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