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Bookmark this pageCarrie (1976)
Director: Brian De Palma
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Unlike other Hollywood virtuosos, De Palma's central inspiration remains unashamedly the horror film and its thundering techniques of emotional manipulation. Carrie is almost an amalgamation of The Exorcist and American Graffiti, with Spacek as a religious maniac's daughter whose experience of puberty is so harrowing that it develops paranormal aspects. De Palma's ability to combine the romantic and the horrific has never been so pulverising. Here he contrives a wild juxtaposition of Carrie's freakish inner turmoil with the dreamy cruisin' mentality of her high-school colleagues. The style and imagery are strictly primary in the Freudian sense: menstrual blood and spotless ball dresses, Cinderella dressed up for the abattoir. But the fierce sympathy it extends to its unfashionable central character puts the film a million miles above the contemporary line in sick exploitation.Author: DP
User reviews of this film
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- joseph aisenberg said...
- Posted on Jan 06 2010 08:37 This review is glibly off the mark. It misses out on the remarkable subtleties, the inner coherence and extraordinary sophistication of the film, which goes far beyond a few overcooked Freudian touches, as this review would have it. Not to mention the critic seems to have been immune to the movie's laser-sharp strain of satirical irony, which is what's behind the gleeful combination of generic elements.
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Cast & crew
Director: Brian De Palma
Producer: Paul Monash
Cast: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, William Katt, John Travolta, Nancy Allen full cast
Genre(s): Horror
Duration: 98 mins
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