...suspenseful, scary, and humorously cunning by turns.
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Given that Stephen King publishes about two new stories a month and a week later they´re made into motion pictures, it may seem surprising that King´s earliest film adaptations, "Carrie" and "The Shining," are still the best film treatments of his works. Or maybe not so surprising when you consider what "Carrie" has going for it. It is not only suspenseful, scary, and humorously cunning by turns, it boasts superb acting, excellent pacing, good production values, and, something most thrillers don´t have, serious characterizations and a thought-provoking premise. It´s a potent combination that easily elevates "Carrie" to the top ranks of all-time great horror films. It was only fitting that MGM celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary with a bonus-laden DVD Special Edition.
Sissy Spacek stars as Carrie White, an innocent and naive high school senior who is treated as an outcast and mercilessly taunted by her classmates. And it´s no wonder her fellow students find her odd; Carrie´s mother is a sexually repressed religious fanatic, wonderfully played by Piper Laurie, and Carrie lives in a house worthy of Norman Bates.
But Carrie has a secret that puts her one step ahead of the dimwitted crowd that surrounds her--she has telekinetic powers, the ability to make things happen by will of her mind alone. It´s a power she discovers coincidentally upon reaching womanhood. In a misguided effort to be nice to her, one of Carrie´s friends (Amy Irving) resolves to help her "fit in" by getting her own all-star boyfriend (William Katt) to take her to the school prom. But when a couple of cretinous teens (John Travolta and Nancy Allen) decide to pull a horrendous joke on her at the dance, Carrie gets even with terrifying results. The last thirty minutes of the picture are as frightening as anything ever filmed.
"Carrie" owes its spiritual parentage to Hitchcock´s "Psycho." As a homage to the master, director Brian De Palma does everything but resurrect Hitchcock himself. The cinematography, camera angles, sets, themes, motifs, and most especially the music (by Pino Donaggio) are taken almost directly from the older film; but not without credit and not without their own effective twists. Needless to say, knives play an important part in the story. Even Carrie´s school is slyly named Bates High. De Palma would go on to make a number of other good films, but none so clever or so hair-raising as "Carrie."
Video:
For their Special Edition MGM appear to have remastered the film, but from the same print they used in their previous DVD release. The picture is presented in 1.74:1 ratio, as usual a little less wide than its original 1.85:1 theatrical dimensions. The screen preserves most of the film´s images pretty well, but the overall picture quality, while being a bit deeper and richer than before in this new transfer, is still slightly soft and grainy, with the same age spots and occasional vertical lines appearing in the same places. The colors are vivid and stand out, yet they are not quite so well defined as on many more-recent films.
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