Carrie (1976)

Composite Score: 82.33

Starring: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, John Travolta, William Katt, Nancy Allen, Betty Buckley, Priscilla Pointer, and Stefan Gierasch

Director: Brian De Palma

Writers: Stephen King and Lawrence D. Cohen

Genres: Horror, Mystery, Thriller, High School

MPAA Rating: R

Box Office: $33.8 million worldwide

Why should you Watch This Film?

                Carrie is the 1976 film adaptation of Stephen King’s story of the same title, which follows Carrie White, a high school student who discovers that she has supernatural powers after being bullied by fellow students. It features Sissy Spacek in the titular role, for which she received an Oscar nomination, along with Piper Laurie as her mother, Betty Buckley as a sympathetic teacher, William Katt as her potential prom date, Amy Irving as a bully who then takes pity on Carrie, Nancy Allen as the chief antagonist, and John Travolta as that character’s boyfriend. The cast helped turn the horror thriller into an instant success and cement Stephen King’s name in American pop culture, as this was the first film adaptation of one of his works.

Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?

                The film is all about a teenage girl’s sexual (and metaphysical) awakening and features multiple scenes of “teen” female nudity (all of the actresses were in their twenties at the time). On the one hand, nothing untoward is going on, as there is nothing underage, but the indication of underage nudity might be a problem for some who watch this film. The 2013 remake managed to tell the story without any nudity and still got most of the points across, so I maintain that this is a valid criticism (even though overall, the 1976 film is far superior to the 2013 one).

                Carrie also suffers from mixed messaging. On the one hand, Carrie is portrayed as the victim of school bullying and a highly repressive mother. At the same time, she is the one who uses her powers at the end of the film to kill virtually every one of her classmates and much of the school faculty as well, so she gets painted in a more villainous light. I think even the film’s posters weren’t quite sure whether to celebrate Carrie, mourn Carrie, or vilify her. As a result, the audience is left with the mixed message of “don’t bully people,” but also, “Sometimes weird people will kill you for laughing at them, but it’s not their fault.” I think that without the fanatical mother, this becomes a film that is a parallel for school shootings, but in the 1970s, it feels more like an anti-bullying film that seems to be a bit drastic in its consequences.

So wait, why should you Watch This Film?

                Sissy Spacek’s and Piper Laurie’s performances as Carrie and Margaret White are brilliant. Both women play their characters perfectly within the fiction of the film. Spacek’s Carrie is innocent when she needs to be, menacing when the scene calls for it, and hysterical when it makes sense – she puts out a strong horror protagonist performance in the titular role. In the same vein, Laurie’s Margaret is every bit the ridiculously religious (in an eerily familiar miseducated way) overbearing mother that could only have raised a daughter to end up like Carrie does. Laurie’s performance also garnered a supporting Oscar nomination, and she deserved it. Her sermon-like monologues chock-full of misquotes and bad euphemisms are so over-the-top that her ability to deliver with a straight face and stay in character is remarkable.

                Though its messaging may not be the clearest, Carrie’s themes of anti-bullying and anti-fundamentalism remain relevant to this day. The need to reach out and connect with the “weird kid” to help them break out from norms that were often imposed on them by forces outside of their control remains the core message of the film even if it gets a bit convoluted by the finale. At the same time, this is a film that does a good job of communicating the main character’s need to become only slightly more normal and the dangers of staying rooted in the indoctrination that made her so off-putting to begin with. The combination of reaching out and bringing about positive change that is shown over the film’s first two acts probably should be the takeaway from this film, while the final act provides more of the film’s horror entertainment value.

                Relevant themes and strong leading performances ground Carrie as one of the great Stephen King adaptations and help it cement its place among the Greatest Films of All Time. Convoluted messaging brought about by the need for a horror climax leaves this film’s messaging feeling somewhat hollow, but its entertainment value is high along with its performances. This film is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video and many other streaming services if you are interested, especially with the onset of “Spooky Season”.