The Film
Brian De Palma took Stephen King's first published novel and turned it into a slow building, often thrilling yet campy psychological character study with one of the most shocking and horrific endings in cinematic history. The entire story acts as an assault on religious fundamentalism as well as the dangers of school bullying left to run out of control.
In De Palma's vision of King's novel, Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is an awkward, mousy high school senior kept apart from normal society by her fanatically fundamentalist mother Margaret (Piper Laurie), whose religious beliefs are so far outside of the mainstream she's practically a one woman sect. When Carrie experiences her first period while having a shower in the girls locker room, the other girls ruthlessly tease her, throwing tampons and sanitary napkins at her. Being that she was never popular to begin with, things only get worse for Carrie after this incident and the kids at school really pick up the teasing.
The very fact that Carrie is being ridiculed by her peers for menstruating should be enough, but then we have John Travolta's character slapping his girlfriend around with her reacting like it's just foreplay is downright offensive. Even Carrie's mother, with her religious beliefs that all sex -- even that between married people -- is dirty, is ultimately given the misogynistic treatment, when she recounts the night Carrie was conceived. She tells of how her husband got drunk, and stank of roadhouse whiskey, and "took her" with his dirty hands all over her body, and she liked it. I'm quite certain if they made this film today, instead of 1976, a lot of people would be in an uproar over these things.
Apart from the unnecessary female bashing, Carrie is a good character study, and seems to be a case where, as a horror film, it has unintentionally comedic elements. Some of the acting and scenarios are so over the top one is sometimes more amused than frightened. However, it's always nice to see these classic films that relied so much less on endless floods of blood and gore to shock people into fear, yet still managed to be very unsettling by simply focusing on the moist frightening element of all -- the human psyche.
The Picture
Carrie's 1.85:1 MPEG-2 1080p/24 encoding on Blu-ray Disc from MGM will hardly impress anyone. The film is soft, noisy, lacking in detail and washed out. The source has obviously been cleaned up a tad for this high definition release, but there are still plenty of instances of dirt, scratches and other deficits to be found. Perhaps it's a byproduct of the original production, but do not expect to be blown away by this BD. Contrast is a little hot in places and black levels are more grayish than inky, although colors for the most part are vivid and natural. Ultimately, however, it is highly unlikely that this film will ever be reference material.
The Sound
Although Carrie comes with a lossless English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 option (in addition to French Dolby Digital 5.1 and English and Spanish Mono) its sound mix is almost as disappointing as its picture quality. The mix is relatively front heavy and dry, with very little ambience in the rear channels, but it is amply dynamic in the film's climactic scenes. There are occasional moments where the soundfield opens up, such as when the fire engine is racing towards the high school, but the sound is mostly stagnant. Dialogue is also a bit thin and has a tendency to distort occasionally, although it is always intelligible.
The Extras
The extras offered here are meager and are limited only to the original theatrical trailer for Carrie (1.85:1/HD) and trailers for the Blu-ray releases of The Amityville Horror (1.85:1/high definition) and The Terminator (1.78:1/high definition).
Final Thoughts
Carrie has its moments of terror, suspense, humor and sheer campiness. As both Stephen King's first published novel and the first to be brought to the screen, it exhibits all of the classic earmarks of a Stephen King adaptation along with that trademark Brian De Palma style. Carrie on Blu-ray Disc is a fine film for the Halloween season, just don't expect to be dazzled by the presentation.
Where to Buy
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