Carrie (1976) - Review

Stephen King is known for having less-than-stellar film adaptations and an even worse record when it comes to miniseries.  The obvious exception to this is The Shining (the movie – dear God, not the miniseries), which is a near perfect film.  But make no mistake, the original Carrie is a very well-made movie, especially for its time.  While it is a bit dated, it’s actually more ahead of its time than anyone in 1976 could have given it credit for.

Everybody knows the story of Carrie, so I’ll not waste your time by going over it.  But seeing as how Carrie is both the heroine and the villain(ish) of the film, as well as the focal point of just about every scene, the movie only works as long as the titular character is engaging.  It certainly helps that Carrie is written very sympathetically, but the true star of the show is Sissy Spacek, who very naturally brings both a creepiness and vulnerability to the character.

The whole movie is a slow build – you KNOW the gist of the film, that outcast weirdo Carrie is going to go nuts at a prom and kill some fools, but you don’t know how the film is going to get there.  Wisely, and somewhat surprisingly for the time, the film also chooses to focus on Carrie’s crush on Tommy, who is a genuinely nice guy who feels really bad for her.

The photographic inspiration for Disco Inferno

It would so easy to write this movie as Carrie Vs. Everybody, but there are a few people at her school who are legitimately trying to help her out.  This makes it all the more heartbreaking to see these characters get hurt and more tragic that Carrie ends up the way she does.

Being King’s first novel, this movie displays a lot of tropes that he would later become known for, such as an extreme vilification of religious characters (which borders on silly at some times, and I say this as an atheist), incredibly evil and persistent bullies, and character archetypes that will later become very familiar to other King novels.  The only one it’s really missing is the self-inserted “drunk writer” character.  Despite some of these trappings, however, the film works due to the very strong performances, slow but deliberate pacing, and intense climax that actually manages to be rather memorable.