Great Films - Carrie

Few horror movies actually provide any sort of real feeling of danger. Many use quick gags to get a reaction, similar to many comedies, but few really get to an idea that is truly terrifying and inspire fear within us. Carrie is one of those great movies.
The subject matter seems almost normal at first. A teen girl who is unpopular and bullied is taken in by the popular crowd only to end up betrayed and humiliated at the prom. This scenario removes an important part of the equation where Carrie discovers that she has telepathic abilities and gets revenge on the entire school, which ends up in a lot of fire and death. That isn’t even the scary part.
The true high point of the film is the scene with Carrie and her mother after this big devastation as they fight between Carrie’s acceptance of her difference and her mother’s intense religious beliefs. I won’t give away any specific details though because I don’t want to ruin the true horror that one feels towards religion at this point and earlier in the film.
Of course, the key to this film, other than the fact that it is a true horror film, is the performance by Sissy Spacek. She plays the titular character and gives a truly bizzare performance in the best possible way. Her character is just weird but she plays that so well. Her mother’s over-protectiveness makes her naïve and an easy target for bullying. However, her ascent to the top due to forgiveness is such a pleasant tale although we can constantly feel the trouble brewing.
There’s a lot of great things an actress can do to make a performance above average. But one of the things that an actress can do to make a performance truly fantastic is just to go completely crazy. In the final revenge portion of the film, Spacek does just this and does it so well that we become terrified of her yet we empathize with her at the same time. That the film has the ability to do that proves the strength of Stephen King’s story and depiction of this girl.
Carrie is a rare horror film but truly a necessary one to anybody interested in the genre. I don’t recommend it if you scare easily but otherwise, it’s a great revenge flick as well as a typical teen movie that turns to religion based horror in an instant.