"Carrie" (1976) - Director Brian De Palma Directs Sissy Spacek's Breakout Role - in the First Adaption of a Stephen King Novel

[DonRocks]

The connection between "Carrie" and "The Handmaid's Tale" is stronger than one might initially think - the difference in stifling oppression occurring between that of an insanely religious, psychopathic mother, and a falsely religious, psychopathic, male-dominated society. Both are tales of attempts at absolute female submission - Carrie by one, sick individual (while tormented by a Lord of the Flies-like hell-school); Handmaid by an entire, dystopian society.

Sissy Spacek distanced herself from the rest of the cast (hopefully via Director's decision) early on in the film, during her amazingly poignant and sad shower scene (interestingly, Brian De Palma used nearly the exact same, piercing sounds that Alfred Hitchcock used in "Psycho," shortly following the shower scene (if he had used it during, this film would have immediately descended into farce, and would have been ruined)). Has anyone else noticed this?

Some of the scenes in this film are so poorly acted that it nearly comes across as farce, despite itself.

PS - Remember Nancy Allen, the High School Bitch from Hell, that fellated John Travolta, and was the mastermind of the entire prom plot? Guess who married Brian De Palma three-years after Carrie was released? A classic chicken-and-egg mystery. 

Sissy Spacek was beautiful in this movie; not so much physically beautiful, as just a beautiful person -her "first kiss" scene at the prom was as touching as it was tragic to the viewers who knew something awful was about to happen.

Stephen King is a real prick for the ending, which I had completely forgotten about.

[NolaCaine]

There's no bad acting in the book. 😉

[DonRocks]

4 hours ago, NolaCaine said:

There's no bad acting in the book. 😉

This is one of about ten best-selling novels I've read in my lifetime - I liked it (but I was a teenager).