OVP: Carrie (1976)

Film: Carrie (1976)

Stars: Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving, Betty Buckley, Nancy Allen, William Katt, John Travolta, PJ Soles, Piper Laurie

Director: Brian De Palma

Oscar History: 2 nominations (Best Actress-Sissy Spacek, Supporting Actress-Piper Laurie)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

All October long, The Many Rantings of John is running a marathon dedicated to the Horror classics of the 1960's-90's that I'm seeing for the first time this month.  If you want to take a look at past titles from previous horror marathons (both this and other seasons) check out the links at the bottom of this article.

One of the things that you're not seeing a lot of this month as we profile horror classics from this era is Oscar nominees.  In the long history of the Academy Awards, only six horror films have been cited for Best Picture: The Exorcist, Jaws, The Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense, Black Swan, & Get Out, all of which I have seen (in some cases, many times) so they wouldn't qualify for our "new to me" theme.  Despite making boatloads of cash at the box office & occasionally getting major hosannas from critics, horror films rarely get into Oscar categories, even in tech fields like Makeup or Visual Effects where horror has been on the cutting edge for decades.  Today, though, we're going to get into the rare horror film that did get some major Oscar nominations, though perhaps they got them in part because the film, for much of its run, isn't really a horror film at all.

(Spoiers Ahead) Carrie is definitely a film that eventually becomes a horror picture, but for much of its run it is less a traditional "monster" movie and more a film about a young woman named Carrie (Spacek) who is put in an impossible situation in life.  Her religious zealot mother (Laurie) is vicious to her, basically scolding her for existing, and beating her for getting her period (which she says is a mark of shame, something that she gleans from her own pregnancy).  Carrie is treated viciously by most of the girls at school, including cruel Chris (Allen), who works with her boyfriend Billy (a young John Travolta) to ensure Carrie is elected the Prom Queen at the prom (she's been taken by her crush Tommy Ross, who looks exactly like you'd expect a 1970's heartthrob to look), and then is doused in pig's blood.  The film's ending turns into a proper horror movie, with Carrie's telekinetic powers turning her into a blood-soaked villain, enacting revenge on everyone who has been cruel to her all movie, though in the process a number of the people who were kind to her, like her crush Tommy & gym teacher Miss Collins (Buckley), also die.

The movie is an adaptation of Stephen King's first published novel, and is generally considered to be one of his best adaptations.  I have not read the original book, not because I'm not curious after this movie and more because I struggle with King as a novelist (he's a very good writer who frequently is in desperate need of an editor).  Unlike something like The Shining or Misery, the bulk of the horror here is more psychological & relegated to the final twenty minutes, which works well.  You get to see the world that Carrie inhabits, that she's not so much a villain of intention but one who cannot handle the world around her.  The scene where she has feminine care products hurled at her while she's bleeding in the shower, unaware of what is happening to her, is scarier than anything else.  I don't know if you could make a film like this today with this much sensitivity (particularly considering how much violence has emerged in the past 25 years in public schools), but it does make Carrie one of the rare iconic "villains" of this era to be more in the vein of Frankenstein or the Wolf Man, a misunderstood monster, as opposed to a killing machine like Leatherface or Jason Voorhees.

The performances are very good by the three lead women, two of which won Oscar nominations.  Spacek is extraordinary as the damaged Carrie.  I liked that the film plays with our expectations along with Carrie.  For example, you spend much of the picture wondering whether or not Tommy & Amy Irving's Sue are part of the prank or are actually good to Carrie, which lends some caution to Spacek's performance that I thought was really smart.  Piper Laurie, who hadn't been in a film since 1961's The Hustler (meaning that she got back-to-back Oscar nominations for these two movies despite a 15-year gap), has a part that could've been just a bananas, crazy-to-the-rafters performance (and sometimes, let's face it, it is), but it largely works as a religious zealot who gone mad both with overzealous readings of scripture and with using it as an excuse to abuse her daughter.  Rounding out the trio is Betty Buckley, totally underrated as a kind, if occasionally immature gym teacher (look at the glee she gets tormenting Carrie's bullies-that's some good, layered acting even if Oscar wasn't paying attention).  There are moments in Carrie that don't work (the score is too derivative of Psycho, some of the side plots involving Chris & Billy are so cruel to as be unbelievable), but overall this is a controlled horror film featuring fine work from Spacek, Laurie, & Buckley.

Past Horror Month Reviews (Listed Chronologically): The Golem, The Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, Frankenstein, Freaks, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, The Invisible Man, The Black Cat, The Bride of Frankenstein, Mad Love, The Raven, Werewolf of London, Dracula's Daughter, Son of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man Returns, The Mummy's Hand, The Invisible Woman, The Wolf Man, Cat People, The Ghost of Frankenstein, Invisible Agent, The Mummy's Curse, The Mummy's Tomb, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, Phantom of the Opera, Son of Dracula, The House of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man's Revenge, The Mummy's Ghost, The Uninvited, House of Dracula, She-Wolf of London, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, It Came from Outer Space, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy, Revenge of the Creature, The Creature Walks Among Us, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, The Blob, Village of the Damned, The Innocents, The Masque of the Red Death, Night of the Living Dead, The Wicker Man, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre