Carrie

Rating:
Summary: GREAT DVD EXTRAS!
Review: If you're reading this reveiw, you don't need to be told this movie rocks. Just that the DVD extras are great; 2 45-minute documentaries, one about the talented cast (including interveiws with Spacek and all of the principals) and the other with the equally talented crew & cinematographers. Nice widescreen edition is gorgeous and the extras just push it over the edge into Carrie heaven! You'll love it.

Rating:
Summary: The blood will be on your hands........
Review: 'Carrie' has always been my favourite Stephen King novel, i have read it numerous times. I was a little annoyed that Brian De Palma saw fit to deviate from the book as much as he did. But, back then when films were based on novels, the two always looked vastly different.
In this movie, the main character is a girl named Carrie White. She is unpopular largely due to the fact that the whole town thinks she and her mother are freaks. In all truthfulness, her mother is deeply religious as well as psychotic. Carrie is in a constant struggle between the old world and the new world (ie. the need to please her mother for fear of enraging her, and the need for acceptance by her classmates). Carrie wants to live like her classmates, but the slightest sign of recalcitrance sees her locked in tiny closet to 'pray for forgiveness'.
But what nobody knows is that Carrie is telekinetic, meaning she has the ability to move objects by simple thought.
One day at school, Carrie gets her first period in the shower at school. Her classmates laugh at her and throw pads and tampons, not thinking that she has no idea of what's going on. When she is sent home early the school principal keeps getting her name wrong, proving just how unimportant she really is to others. One of the girls in the class Sue Snell (Amy Irving) feels badly about the prank and asks her boyfriend to take Carrie to the prom to make it up to her. But there is another girl, Chris Hargenson (Nancy Allen), who is hellbent on ruining Carrie. And the best chance to do that is at the senior prom, so she plots with her boyfriend (John Travolta) to humiliate Carrie in a bizarre, but very ugly way.
This was a fair adaption, but I feel that there was a lot of excellent material that should have been used. Concepts such as the old world versus the new world, the struggle that all teenagers face of wanting to make their parents happy but wanting to be 'cool' to their classmates. The metaphor of blood, God versus Satan, and the destruction of the world (ie. Armageddon).
Brian De Palma was also an Alfred Hitchcock alumni, he changed the name of the school from Ewen High School to Bates High School (as in Norman Bates).

Rating:
Summary: Started great but ruined at the end
Review: This could be a masterpiece really. From the opening and most of its running time, this movie shines with stella performance by actresses/actor. Especially two leading actress (Daughter and Mama surely) have done fantastic gobs. I consider this as a sad life story of a girl rather than horror movie. I enjoyed it but as it comes to the ending, it's ruined quickly. She harms 'everyone' so that finally she proved she was a creepy monster indeed? There were some good peoples around her at least.

BTW, there were some flaws. If you put blood somewhere overnight, you will have a loaf of coagulated blood rather than 'liquid'.

But overall, this movie is worth watching due to the fantastic performances. The voice of Piper Laurie is...wow!

Rating:
Summary: Great movie, but...
Review: This is definitely one of the classic horror films in history. It's too bad the movies today do not measure up. I loved this movie except one thing: what's the deal with the tuxedo scene? There is a scene where the William Katt character is trying on some tuxedos with a couple of guys. During the fitting, the film appears to be sped-up or fast forwarded, making the actors sound like chipmunks. What's surprising here is that the DVD special edition does the same thing. Was this intentional by the director? Does anyone have any info on this? What was the dialog between the actors? I would like to hear from anyone on this.

Rating:
Summary: "I pray you find Jesus!"
Review: Carrie is probably the strangest horror film I have seen and that is saying a lot. Sissy Spacek does a very good job as Carrie as does Piper Laurie as Carrie's crazed religious mom. I think there a few funny instances in this movie and a lot of funny lines (probably none of this was supposed to be funny). It takes a long time to climax but when it does you'll see this movie has the most drastic turn of any movie I've ever seen.(I don't want to give anything away). This sin't a scary film though in my opinion. Scarier Stephen King books that are films are The Shining and It. In general this is a solid rental however i wouldn't buy it unless you find it for under about [price]. "We'll burn it together and pray for forgiveness!"

Rating:
Summary: not too scary
Review: this movie is ok but what i liked best was the songs they played at the prom. i bought the soundtrack because the song I NEVER DREAMED SOMEONE LIKE YOU COULD LOVE SOMEONE LIKE ME was excellent. that is a very nice song.

Rating:
Summary: Carrie
Review: Carrie

Do you remember High School as a time of ridicule and scorn? If so then Carrie is the movie for you. Based on Stephen Kings first novel published in 1974, "Carrie" is a relentless thriller that is filled with the kind of shocks missing from most of today's so called shockers. Carrie White (A superb Sissy Spacek who was Oscar Nominated for her performance) is a teenager attending High School. She lives with her religious fanatic mother Margaret White (Piper Laurie also receiving a well-deserved Oscar Nomination). Her mother slept with a man named Ralph White and after they married Margaret and Ralph tried not have sex with each other as she thought she was sinning against the Lord. They did for a while abstain from the illicit act but one night she gave in to Ralph's urges and she had sex thus producing a child. Now Ralph is gone and Margaret is left to raise Carrie in her own way. Carrie has no friends at school and at home suffers scorn from her mother when she comes home one afternoon feeling terrible after having her first period in the girls change room during a shower after gym. The other girls chant cruel words like " Plug it up" and throw tampons at her in utter disgust. After being spoken to by the teacher, She takes Carrie to the principles office where he decides to send her home for the day. Her Mother reacts by saying that it is the Lord's way of chastising her. She even calls Carries breasts "Dirty Pillows." Carrie is upset that her mother never told her about puberty. Her mother simply shrugs it off and locks her daughter in a small closet where she is told to pray to the good lord and beg for forgiveness. At school one of Carries tormentors Sue Snell (Amy Irving) feels upset at what happened and decides to coerce her boyfriend Tommy Ross (William Katt) to take Carrie to the prom as a sign of good will toward her. After much discussion he accepts and thus a date to the prom for Carrie is assured. As Carrie prepares for the biggest night of her life, one of her enemies plans retaliation against Carrie for getting her into serious trouble. Her boyfriend and his cohorts hatch a plan so sick and twisted that no one will ever forget it. Oh my did we forget to mention that Carrie has developed a power so strong and dangerous that nothing can stop her dangerous powers of telekinesis form unleashing a hellish fury of blood and carnage. What makes this 1976 classic so good is how well the filmmaker's have adapted king's excellent book of the same name. As well the direction By Brian De Palma (Mission Impossible) and the performances by the entire cast are magnificent. But most of all the movie has one of the best climaxes in film history. It features a scene so scary and gory that it will scare the heck right of you. You have to see it to believe it. Carrie has everything you could ask for in a horror movie. It is smart, scary and even funny. And it still holds up today as one of the best horror movies ever made.
Review: ***** out of five

Rating:
Summary: Scary 70's Attire!
Review: A great performance is determined when you turn the volume all the way down on your TV and just watch the actor perform. If the actor can convey their role, using only body language, then the viewer can grasp the plot without any dialogue. If this is accomplished, then you will know that you have just witnessed something extraordinary. So is the case with this thriller by Brian DePalma. Sissy Spacek IS Carrie White. The actress doesn't see her performance so much as a task, but an embodiment. We understand exactly what the teenager is going through in her eyes, her movements, her actions and re-actions. Piper Laurie is every bit as good too as her mother. What's even more frightening is the wardrobe on ALL of the actors. I'm sure that in 1976 this clothing was normal, but today it only adds the horror and tension of the prom scene. Watch again and you'll see what I mean!

Rating:
Summary: "I can see your dirty pillows. Everyone will"........
Review: CARRIE, Brian DePalma's masterpiece of horror, gets its well-deserved treatment in this new Special Edition DVD containing several featurettes as well as trailers and text screens.

Young Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is a loner. She has no friends, and lives a life of fear and repression. Her Bible-thumping momma (Piper Laurie) also chooses to reject and abuse her. However, her pent-up anxiety causes her to get a form of telekineses, that lets her move things. At first she is frightened of this all-new strength, but soon she realises that this could be the key to getting her long-overdue revenge on those who would torment her.

Sissy Spacek gives a heart-rending performance as the title character. Piper Laurie is delicious as Carrie's fanatical mother (and is given all the best lines). The fantastic supporting cast includes Amy Irving, Nancy Allen, P.J. Soles, John Travolta, Betty Buckley, Priscilla Pointer, William Katt and Edie McClurg.

Rating:
Summary: It happened when we were kids...we were all just kids...
Review: Ok, we all know the plot to Carrie, some of us know the script word for word. I have loved this movie since I first saw it in a movie theatre in 1976.

This is an excellent DVD for fans of this film. The three documentary pieces, photo gallery, and other information are what I was waiting for (that I didn't have on the regular DVD). All very interesting stuff. But still wondering where Mr. Travolta was in the documentary interviews?

Things I would have liked to see on the DVD as well? The deleted scenes - definitely. I think the scenes of a younger Carrie and the stones falling should have been included in original cut of this movie (but an explanation IS provided in the 45 minute documentary of why it was abandoned), as well as all the other deleted scenes/behind-the-scenes section. A third documentary with Stephen King and Tabitha King on the birth of the novel would have been better than the text version on-screen.

Perhaps a 30th Anniversary edition of Carrie on DVD in 2006? An anniversary screening in the movie theaters in 2006 would be great too (with the deleted scenes added!) I'd go twice.

Buy this Special Edition, it's worth it.