Lights Off

There have been countless comparisons to the original Stephen King based film, “Carrie” , a 1976 Brian Depalma project starring Sissy Spacek and the made for cable TV version starring Angela Bettis . Some horror fans say that the Bettis film was much more true to the King novel, offering a slightly better insight into the character of Carrie White. They also argue that Angela Bettis was more suited for the role. Although Bettis is attractive, she plays these types of roles with just the right amount of creepiness (check out 2006 “Sick Girl” from the Masters Of Horror series ). It is also argued that Ms Spacek was entirely too pretty for the role.

During my revisit to this film I noticed several interesting things. Spacek’s Carrie will always go down as the best in my opinion. When her eyes got big during the rampage scene it will go down in horror film history as one of the best performances ever captured on film. Her interaction with Piper Laurie’s Margaret White is solid acting. Laurie did a superior job. It is clear that these two carried the entire movie. Bad performances by John Travolta and Nancy Allen is probably forgivable, if not slightly better than B-movie quality. Camera panning, music cues, and overall direction raised this film to way above average classic horror status, on par with some of the best of Alfred Hitchcock, my personal favorite director.

The Angela Bettis Carrie film was pretty good, but by no means a classic. In fact, I don’t ever recall a remake becoming classic. At best it will do better at the box office, but never outshine the original. While I am not a big Stephen King fan, ‘Carrie’ is my all time favorite because it offers a character that is pretty familiar. In just about everyone’s past, you can envision a person who was considered an outcast, either during your school days or work life. Odd behavior, perhaps brought on by some weird upbringing (yes you can blame the parents). The so called horror films of late fail to address this type of connectivity. But then again most of the ones coming out now are remakes anyway.

“Carrie” gets a rare five out of five stars from me.

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