Carrie

Rating:
Summary: The First Stephen King Adaption, and Still One of the Best.
Review: Now, Stephen King's adaptions are mostly famous for being bad, but if you watch some of his earlier adaptions, it's a shock to see how good they are. It seemed like the filmmakers were actually putting some effort into making a faithful adaption. For the last thirteen years or so, King has been obsessed with making all his novel adaptions TV-movies, but I feel theatrical presentation is still the best way to display King's books on the big-screen. King is a great writer, and when you get a good screenwriter and a respectable director, you have success.

And what I mean by 'success' is Carrie. Wow, what an amazing movie. This is the only King adaption that I like better than the book. much better, in fact. I liked the book, sure, but this movie really hightened the emotions, thanks to fabulous acting and great writing. And, also very important, the directing is astounding. Brian de Palma injects a lot of style into the film from frame one, a great crane shot of a volleyball match, all the way to the final scene, one of the most famous JUMP scares ever.

King's stories, and King himself, are famous for being horror stories, but I think that's a gross misjudgement. Carrie is NOT a horror story. Sure, the prom scene is pretty dang scary, but overall this story is a great tragedy. The movie really made this work well. You look at Sissy Spaceck, so brilliant as Carrie, and see the way everyone treats her, and how she reacts, and your heart pours out in pity to her. She's really a nice person. It seems everyone thinks of her as that girl at prom night, killing hundereds of schoolmates, but I think of her as a quiet, shy, sweet girl who never hurts anyone but is still treated like a complete joke. And I can totally understand why she snaps, in the end.

Words can't describe my feelings for this, but it's one of my favorite movies, and I'm actually watching it right now on MGMs glorious Special Edition. You should, too.

Other recommedntations: The Dead Zone, The Shining (strays totally fron the book, but has great visual style and is pretty scary) and The Stand (only good King TV-adaption).

Rating:
Summary: really goood film
Review: this film is really good!!!!!!!!!!!! even tho its old its such a good film!!!!!!!!! it is worth buying! & dont worry it ent that scary LOL!

Rating:
Summary: Without A Doubt, Brian DePalma's Masterpiece!
Review: Not only is Brian DePalma's adaptation of Stephen King's first novel CARRIE one of the greatest American horror movies ever made, but it is one of the most beautiful horror movies ever created. Everything about this movie (the writing, the camerawork, the music score, the performances, and the production design) comes together like the greatest works of art ever created, mainly from the Renaissance. I just fell in love with this movie and the way it was executed by all involved. With CARRIE, Brian DePalma, a man constantly compared to Alfred Hitchcock in various extremes, is in a class all his own; he's right up there with Dario Argento and Mario Bava in visual style and camerawork. I almost cried at certain points, but was on the edge of my seat most of the time!
This Special Edition has everything for the diehard fan of DePalma, King, or CARRIE. Two brilliant documentaries provide a wealth of enlightening trivia, one on the actors and the other on the production. There's also a great animated photo gallery with the gorgeous score playing in the background, a bit on the musical, and comprehensive notes on the differences between the novel and the movie, differences that Stephen King even liked! I am so happy I bought this DVD for my first viewing of CARRIE in its entirety (I saw it on TV a few times).
Have you noticed that there is no plot synopsis in my review, like there was none in my review for DRESSED TO KILL? Well, that's because I find that Brian DePalma does these movies in such a way that I don't even want to give away any of what happens in these movies. I only want to tell you about how gorgeous and how scary these movies end up being because DePalma does them so lovingly every time. If you haven't seen CARRIE (whether you read the novel or not is irrelevant), then please kick yourself, run out and rent this movie on video or DVD, and then feel free to add it to your collection! You won't regret it!

Rating:
Summary: Very well done
Review: The acting in this movie is good, and the plot stays true to the book, more or less. Sissy Spacek does an excellent job at playing Carrie, the scapegoat of all the students in Chamberlain and the telekinetic girl whose powers destroy the town forever.

For an old horror movie, Carrie is well done and will produce the same emotions inside you as the book did, which is mostly sadness, and some horror. The story is unforgettable and classic. There is absolutely nothing like it.

I especially loved the scene when Chris and Billy try to crash their car into Carrie and she sets the car on fire with her eyes. I don't necessarily like that scene because of the violence, but I think it was very well done and very much reminiscent of the book.

Carrie's mother and Miss Desjardin could have been played differently, because they weren't exactly what I saw in the characters when I read the book. But I'm not complaining. Generally the acting was very good.

All the scenes evoked emotion just like the book and since that's the most important thing to me in a movie version, I'm happy with it.

Rating:
Summary: Tragic and Effective Horror Drama
Review: This film launched the career of Stephen King as one of the writers whose work has been most assiduously plundered by Hollywood. Not to mention a supporting role for an utterly unknown actor in his early twenties by the name of John Travolta. It was by no means Brain de Palma's first movie but it was the breakthrough movie that got him on the A-list. And it's highly de Palmaesque: imagine Alfred Hitchcock but with any capacity Hitchcock had for subtlety and understatement taken away and de Palma is pretty well what you get as this movie abundantly illustrates.

It's about a schoolgirl, Carrie White, beautifully played by the extraordinary Sissy Spacek. She is bullied by her classmates but school is not half as bad as her home life where she is tormented by her insane religious fanatic mother. This dreadful woman played by Piper Laurie who reads to her daughter from a big book called "The Sins of Women" and thinks menstruation is evil is, for my money, the least satisfying aspect of the film. Are there really people this bonkers? Well probably I suppose: modern America must be pretty close to plenitude when it comes to the possibilities of madness. But still I think a more interesting movie would have located someone like Carrie in an adolescent environment that was hellish in more ordinary, less wildly over the top ways which, let's face it, can still be extremely hellish.

By someone like Carrie I mean someone who can do telekinesis, that being the film's central idea. It's a horror movie in virtue of the mayhem these powers of hers let loose at the end but in fact the first hour and a bit isn't horror at all, just a drama about Carrie and her tribulations with her cruel classmates and insane mother. The telekinesis does manifest itself in these early stages but in decidedly tame and unterrifying ways like knocking over ashtrays.

The most striking - and notorious - scene in this early, dramatic part of the movie is the very first, set in the school's girls' shower room. And as you'd expect with that setting and this director it's a scene with an atmosphere of considerable voyeurism. Then suddenly there is blood and terror from Carrie whom nobody has told about periods and her conviction that something is horribly wrong with her prompts immediate cruel hilarity among her classmates which then obviously makes her all the more distressed. Punishment results for this cruelty which a teacher has witnessed, punishment which leaves one of the perpetrators with a guilty desire to help Carrie integrate and another which a vindictive desire to spite her yet further. The playing out of these contrasting determinations is what drives most of the ensuing plot.

A dimension in which the film is particularly successful is in conveying a genuine sense of tragedy. The destructive rage of the climactic scenes when everything goes horribly wrong results from Carrie's confused and panicked overreaction to a vicious prank at a point when she really seems well on the way to sorting out her problems. She seems to have learned how to stand up to her horrible mad mother. And although the invitation she gets to the school prom is motivated, unknown to her, by pity and guilt, it's caused her for the first time to make enough of an effort with her appearance to make it suddenly apparent to everyone that she is easily the most gorgeous girl in the school. Acceptance and normality seem to beckon. And then... Lots of blood, lots of fire and suddenly everybody (well more or less everybody) is dead. And these final scenes of mayhem and horror, it must be said, are orchestrated and directed by de Palma with considerable brilliance.

Rating:
Summary: classic!
Review: I love this movie! it's a classic! the ending is so awsome...the slow motion ties ur stomach up in a knot and then it almost bursts when the climax happens! awsome! recommnded to any horror/drama/revenge movie fan! The "Special Edition" DVD is awsome, it has great bonus features!!

Rating:
Summary: Here's to the Devil with false modesty...;)
Review: Released in 1976, "Carrie" is a disturbing horror film that's generously fueled by psychological tension and religious iconography. Unlike the decade's other two occult works, "The Exorcist" and "The Omen," this is not a tale about the Devil's chicanery. Although it overlaps ominous images of Christ with the raging feminine hormones of teenagers, the film actually decrys the tragic reality of school bullying; as an underrated form of child abuse, this so-called "rite of passage" involves a youth culture so cruel and thoughtless that it drives its victims to suicide or murder.
Actress Sissy Spacek portrays Carrie White, a shy and lonely misfit who is constantly harrassed by her classmates. After another strenuous game of vollyball, she begins to mensturate in the girls' shower. Terrified at seeing the blood running down her fingers, Carrie hysterically cries to the other students for help. But instead, all of the girls corner her in the locker room, jeering and tossing tampons at her. From that moment on, viewers are introduced to the appalling ignorance of the high school staff; not only do the teachers refuse to take Carrie's word seriously, but even Principal Morton (Stefan Gierasch) can't seem to remember her first and last name. The only official to pity her is gym teacher Miss Collins (Betty Buckley), who realizes that she was never taught how to deal with PMS. Fiercely determined to protect Carrie's well-being, Miss Collins punishes the class with a week's worth of brutal, boot camp athletics; anyone who refused to attend detention was excluded from the senior prom.
Meanwhile, behind closed doors, Carrie is tortured and chastised by her Mother (Piper Laurie), a straitlaced Christian fanatic who corrupts every passage in the Bible, blatantly accusing her daughter of being sinful. After hearing about her first period, Margaret White assumes that Carrie is inflicted with the curse of blood, and that she's tempted by the Antichrist's lust. Forcing her to pray for strength, Margaret drags her helpless daughter into a tiny closet, where a gaunt effigy of Jesus stares into a dark void of nothingness. It seems that all hope is lost for this little girl, but that mood eventually changes. Through library research, Carrie discovers she possesses telekinetic powers; whenever she gets angry or afraid, she can flip an ashtray off a desk, shatter a mirror, or make doors open and close unaided. Eventually, this is the weapon she uses to fight back against her Mother's assault.
Seeking revenge, one of Carrie's most hateful bullies, a spoiled and nasty girl named Chris (Nancy Allen), cajoles her drunk boyfriend Billy (John Travolta) to play a sadistic prank on her. On prom night, after Carrie and poet Tommy Ross (William Katt) are crowned King and Queen, Chris dumps a bucket of pig's blood on her head. Drenched and degraded, she is surrounded by a kaleidoscope of laughing spectators. In an act of murderous rage, Carrie unleashes her telekinetic anger upon the crowd. With her cold and blank stare, she showers water from a firehose, electrocutes the microphone, and engulfs the entire school in flames. In perhaps the most shocking split-screen sequence in history, this unforgettable night of terror is shot through multiple perspectives, while glowing a grisly, hellish red.
If you are seeking a horror classic for your DVD collection, I strongly recommend this film, as well as "The Exorcist," "Evil Dead," and "Nightmare on Elm Street."

Rating:
Summary: This film is dedicated to the Devil...with false modesty.
Review: Released in 1976, "Carrie" is a disturbing horror film that's generously fueled by psychological tension. Unlike "The Exorcist" and "The Omen," "Carrie" is not about the Devil's chicanery. Although it does overlap ominous images of Christ with the raging feminine hormones of teenagers, the film actually decrys the tragic reality of school bullying; as an underrated form of child abuse, this so-called "rite of passage" involves a youth culture so cruel and thoughtless that it can its drive victims to suicide or murder.
Actress Sissy Spacek portrays Carrie White, a shy and lonely misfit who is constantly harrassed by her classmates. After another strenuous game of volleyball, Carrie begins to menstrate in the girls' shower. Terrified at seeing the blood on her fingers, she hysterically screams at one of the other students for help. But instead, all of the girls corner Carrie in the locker room, jeering and throwing tampons at her. From that incident on, viewers are introduced to the appalling ignorance of the high school staff: Not only do the teachers not take Carrie's word seriously, but even Principal Morton (Stefan Gierasch) can't remember her first and last name. The only official to pity her is her gym teacher Miss Collins (Betty Buckley), who realises that Carrie was never taught how to deal with PMS. Determined not to have Carrie's feelings hurt again, she punishes the rest of the class with a whole week of brutal, boot camp athletics. If any girl refused to attend detention would be excluded from the senior prom.
Meanwhile, behind closed doors, poor Carrie is tortured and chastised by her mother (Piper Laurie), a straitlaced Christian fanatic who corrupts every incident in the Bible, blatantly accusing her daughter of being sinful. After hearing about her first period, Margaret White automatically assumes that Carrie is inflicted with the curse of blood, and that she is tempted by the Antichrist's lust. Forcing her to pray for strength, Margaret violently drags her helpless daughter into a tiny closet, where a gaunt effigy of Jesus stares into the dark void of nothingness. It seems that all hope is lost for this little girl. However, that changes later on. Through library research, she discovers that she possesses telekinetic powers: when she's angry or afraid, she can flip an ashtray off a desk, shatter a mirror, or make doors open and close unaided. Eventually, this is the weapon Carrie uses to fight back against her Mother's assault. Seeing Margaret as a horrible hypocrite, Carrie knew that her psychic ability has nothing to do with Lucifer's charms.
Seeking revenge, one of Carrie's most hateful bullies, a spoiled and nasty girl named Chris (Nancy Allen) cajoles her drunk boyfriend Billy (John Travolta) to play a sadistic prank on Carrie. On prom night, after Carrie and poet Tommy Ross (Willliam Katt) are crowned King and Queen, Chris pulls a string and dumps a bucket of pig's blood on her head. Filled with murderous rage, Carrie finally unleashes her telekenetic hatred upon the crowd of laughing spectators. With her cold and blank stare, she showers water from a firehose, electrocutes the microphone, and engulfs the entire school in flames. In perhaps one of the most shocking split-screen sequences in history, this night of terror is displayed through multiple perspectives while glowing a hellish red.
If you are seeking a horror classic for your DVD collection, I strongly recommend you purchase this movie, as well as "The Exorcist" and "The Evil Dead Trilogy."

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: A perfect prom horror flick! An excellent story of an unpopular high school girl's ultimate revenge on her classmates. Guarenteed to send shivers down your spine!

Rating:
Summary: Amazing revenge movie to rock the ages!
Review: I ( like carrie ) was a social outcast ( until I got into highschool now I'm populare ) and as a way to escape my anger I would watch this movie. It made me feel so good that the geek got the revenge!!! But seriously, I have loved this movie since I saw it when I was 9! I always thoguht it was an interesting story and I just loved it! As we all know Carrie is a social outcast and has a seriously religious mother who puts so many restrictins on her life! And one day during PE Carrie has her first period and thinks she's dieing and all the girls in her gym class make gun of her and throw tampons at her and Carrie is devistated. And when she gets home her mom goes wildly insane that her daughter has had a period and only "bad girls" have periods and "dirty pillows". Then we get to know about how Margret is a crazy woman and so the story goes along. So as a prank, Chris and Billy put a bucket of pigs blood over the stage where the prom queen will stand when prom comes and Sue Snell gets her boyfriend, Tommy to take carrie to prom, to show she's sorry. Ands the votes are rigged where Carrie and TOmmy win prom king and queen. And so as a surprise, Carrie is crowned in blood and lets her telekinitic powers over take her and kill everyone at prom. And so the story goes and I wont' give any more away even though most of you have already seen the movie. It is a very good movie with great acting!! It's no surprise that it has become a classic and will never die ( sin never dies ) and this is how hollywood should make horror movies now, not to say that movies now aren't good ( Freddy Vs. Jason, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2003 ) but they are drenched too much in sex and drugs, and all people want from a horror movie is to be truely scared, which this movie does...to a point! It's still great!!!