Halloween Horrors- CARRIE (1976)

CARRIE  (1976)
Directed by Brian De Palma
Starring Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, William Katt, Nancy Allen, Betty Buckley, John Travolta
R for unspecified reasons (contains some sexual material involving teens, some graphic nudity and intense terror/violence.) 
SCAREmeter: 7/10
GOREmeter: 4/10
OVERALL: 3 out of 4 stars 

The name of Stephen King is one of the most recognizable names in the modern horror genre, if not the most recognizable name in the modern horror genre.  From his vast bibliography of works have been spawned dozens of adaptations to film, including bona fide classics such as THE SHINING, MISERY and THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION among others, but it all started with CARRIE.  His first published novel (but fourth that he'd written), Carrie has continued throughout the years to shock, horrify and generate tremendous controversy, ranking has one of the most frequently banned or challenged books in public schools across America.  It was also the very first King story translated to the screen, and the small production proved to be a smash hit and became one of the most influential horror movies ever made.
The story is a devastating one, focusing on the high school experience of one Carrie White (Sissy Spacek), a shy girl in her senior year and a severe social pariah.  The trauma begins in the girls high school locker room, in one of the most harrowing scenes on film, as the students hit the showers following their P.E. class, where Carrie get her first period.  Remarkably still innocent of such knowledge, Carrie panics at the sight of blood, provoking her cruel peers to pelt her with tampons and sanitary pads as she cowers in the corner, naked.  The gym teacher, Ms. Collins (Betty Buckley), witnesses the harassment and intervenes, just as Carrie's stress peaks, causing a light bulb to explode.  Here, and after a visit in the principal's office flips an ashtray into the air (remember when school principals had ashtrays on their desks?), Carrie begins to suspect that she possesses telekinetic powers.
Carrie's mother, Margaret (Piper Laurie), is an emotionally unstable Christian fundamentalist, who receives a phone call from the school about the incident.  When Carrie returns home that day, distraught that her mother never told her about menstruation, her mother describes it as the curse of Eve, "the curse of blood," as God's punishment for impure thoughts and then locks Carrie away screaming her "prayer closet."
Ms. Collins collects the girls who bullied Carrie, for an extended detention which they must fulfill or be denied from the upcoming senior prom.  Carrie's neighbor, Sue Snell (Amy Irving) is guilt-ridden and requests that her blonde jock boyfriend, Tommy (William Katt), ask Carrie to the prom.  Bitchy queen bee Chris Hargensen (Nancy Allen), stands on the opposite end of the spectrum, severely resentful toward Carrie for her punishment and schemes with her sleazebag boyfriend (John Travolta, in an early role) to humiliate Carrie at the prom.

Meanwhile Carrie occupies the library to learn more about telekinesis, and with great reluctance, accepts Tommy's invitation to the prom, against her mother's extreme opposition.
It's hard to "spoil" CARRIE for anyone who knows anything about it, given that the climactic prom scene is one of the most recognizable images in cinema, and makes up the vast majority of the marketing for both the 1976 film, and the upcoming remake.  If, somehow, you've remained utterly oblivious, but have made it this far, and even care, be warned that this essay will discuss such potential "spoilers" at this point.
Any movie fan can recognize the image of a blood-drenched Carrie White standing at the center of a fire-engulfed high school dance.  The scene is actually more at the center of the movie, rather than a traditional third-act climax, but it's the pinnacle of the terror, laced with dreadful irony.  As the result of a rigged prom royalty election, Carrie is brought to the stage and crowned Prom Queen, alongside her date, who's proven to be surprisingly sincere.  Sue, noticing Chris hiding beneath the stage, runs to stop whatever she has planned, but Ms. Collins, suspecting Sue of some planned mischief, pulls her away out the door, just as Chris pulls the rope in her hand.  At presumably the happiest moment of her life, Carrie is suddenly doused by a tipped bucket of pig blood.  The student body begins to laugh, and in a frozen wide-eyed rage, Carrie proves her powers, locking every door shut and manipulating a fire hose, spraying the electrical wiring to all the lights, sparking a fire which consumes the gym.
It's a very simplistic movie, made on a paltry budget of $1.8 million, following only a few closely-tied, thin plot lines, over the course of a few days, but it thrives on its ability to shock and horrify.  Despite the pig blood-involved prank, there is relatively very little blood or other violent detail, and so the moments where there is blood, including a character crucified to a wall by several kitchen knives, are even more startling and well-picked.

De Palma is not a director whose work I typically like, and he has a distasteful tendency to gravitate toward exploitation.  Despite the sometime lurid material, CARRIE rarely becomes excessive in the way that a film like De Palma's SCARFACE does, but there is one stand-out scene early on when Carrie is in the shower just before she menstruates.  Spacek seems like an unconventional choice for a such a scene, but the camera lingers uncomfortably, and almost pornographically, across her soapy body.  It's probably best that this was gotten out of the way early in, rather than distracting from the film later on, but the scene feels blatantly exploitative and inexplicably so, where it should have been matter-of-factual.
The film is also a victim of dating, feeling very much like a product of the 1970s.  Don't mistake me; the material is as relevant as ever, but the craft and look of the film feels a bit like FREAKY FRIDAY from hell.  Even as CARRIE remains a certified classic, it isn't impenetrable.