CARRIE (1976) Blu-ray
Director: Brian De Palma
Scream Factory/Shout! Factory

Just randomly picking several website forums that have apparently new viewers commenting on CARRIE, as well as my having seen its subsequent small and big screen remakes and reboots over the past few years, it seems that De Palma’s little drive-in flick has morphed into a mythology and been adopted by a surprisingly large “school of resentment” crowd. For them, it’s been transformed into the ultimate “victim” opus, thanks to the convergence of two of the biggest SJW bugaboos going around today: bullying (they don’t like that) and Christian bashing (they like that). Fans of the movie prior to the internet and the resulting era of perpetual social outrage, liked CARRIE for its scares and its laughs, which were heightened and deepened by the personal, private tones the movie managed to touch amid the jokes and the blood. Now, for a large number of new viewers (and apparently some unimaginative screenwriters and directors, too), CARRIE is just another weapon employed for superficial sociological and political posturing, a familiar touchstone referenced in anonymous forums as a means to gain dubious moral high ground over perceived enemies of social enlightenment (i.e.: anyone who disagrees with them). The bullied have become the bullies (Carrie White would not be amused).

But self-perceived “losers” and “victims” don’t own the movie (“self-perceived,” because we used to be taught in school that you were only one of those, if you let yourself be one of those). CARRIE has remained a fresh-feeling classic because it has a basic, primitive, universal appeal to our good side...and our bad. Despite claims of exclusivity by an increasing number of social sufferers, everyone at one time or another has felt how Carrie feels: left out or misunderstood growing up; pushed around by an unsympathetic, uncaring adult; the pleasure and embarrassment of falling in love for the first time. And, like every child who sets up blocks only to knock them down, or who unknowingly role plays out their frustrations and aggressions with dolls or action figures, what kid—or adult, for that matter—hasn’t innocently fantasized about having the power to exact revenge on their tormentors, moving them around like puppets before smashing them to bits, just as Carrie does.

Critics and viewers have lauded De Palma and Cohen for “getting” high school down in CARRIE; I know when I first saw it at a drive-in re-release (with the dreary AUDREY ROSE), the characters, despite the actors’ ages, were recognizable from the halls of my high school. Having watched CARRIE so many times over the last couple of decades (it’s always a solid go-to title around Halloween), its scares are necessarily lessened, but that perverse, distanced De Palma humor is more appreciated. Who else but De Palma would give us that utterly brilliant opening. The cold, geometric lines of the volleyball court, shot from a pitiless Hitchcock “god’s eye view” P.O.V., are inhabited by predators and victims (Allen’s mean line reading, “You eat sh*t,” certainly seems out of proportion to Carrie’s “crime”), before De Palma immediately confuses us with a switch to gauzy, innocent, slo-mo eroticism, showing us these mean girls now happy and laughing—and totally nude—as Pino Donaggio’s sweet, sad remembrance music swells over their locker room frolicking. Frump-on-the-court Carrie White, momentarily released in the cleansing shower, is shown, in half-lit profile in the steamy spray, to surprisingly sensual effect, before her first period begins (like an innocent Eve discovering a bewildering sin) and De Palma discombobulates us further by switching to exceedingly uncomfortable sadism, as the girls taunt and terrorize a suddenly deglamorized Carrie. It’s a remarkable assembly of wildly opposing, clashing tones, and it puts the unsettled viewer on edge for the remainder of the movie.

The rest of CARRIE is just one more rug-pulling set-up after another for the viewer, through De Palma’s twisted, self-reflexive humor (past critics’ one-dimensional arguments about De Palma’s supposed misogyny are now quaintly moot: with today’s “film intelligentsia,” he’s guilty enough just being white, male and old). Repeat viewings only underscore how amusing CARRIE is—particularly at the moments when we’re most strenuously not suppose to laugh. In a transcendent, brilliant performance (she was robbed at the 1976 Oscars), Pipe Laurie manages to imbue Margaret White with a laugh-out-loud floridness that’s completely at odds with the horrible things she does to Carrie (even though Cohen and De Palma cut her some measure of understanding via her religious mania). We shouldn’t laugh at her adopting a deep, butch voice to make Carrie read, “Eve was weak!” but clearly De Palma was chuckling at Laurie’s insane twinkle in the eye. Travolta and Allen, hilarious together, are the movie’s overt comedy relief...at the same time they’re the movie’s most vile villains (sultry dream girl Allen’s memorable c*cktease scene with dumb oaf Travolta is both hysterical and sexy as hell). De Palma can’t even let us innocently swoon along with Carrie when she finds first love at the prom, as he counter-spins the camera to Carrie and Tommy twirling insanely on the dance floor: they laugh as we feel like throwing up.

As for the prom itself, it’s delightfully garish and cartoony, as De Palma has a ball crawling and swooping with the camera, setting up the bickering Travolta and Allen as sensation-seeking numbskulls who pull the ultimate sick-joke high school prank. Having Travolta pulled out from under the stage, only to hit his head on a cymbal for Looney Tunes “Ta da!” punctuation, is the real De Palma, as Carrie’s horrific humiliation becomes total. Having suckered the audience, De Palma turns on the Grand Guignol, looping Margaret’s insane, screeching “They’re all gonna laugh at you!” as he executes the giallo-lit bloodletting with cold precision (the split screens help remove any potential sympathy for the victims). Carrie’s final confrontation with her mother is even more baroquely deviant, with the utter sadness of poor Carrie reaching out to her equally emotionally wounded mother followed not by catharsis but by a literal backstabbing and laugh-because-you’re-scared combat, complete with twirling little knives that sound like huge samurai swords slicing through the air, and an elevator ride straight to Hell (to those who think it unfair that Carrie is condemned at the end...she did kill a score of innocent kids in the process of eliminating her tormentors). By the final twist, we know something is up when De Palma has Sue inexplicably trancing in dreamy slo-mo to Carrie’s final resting place: De Palma scares/cracks us up one last time...while giving no quarter to any of his characters.

Particularly when we’re in the controlled studio interiors (such as the prom), the new 4K scan of CARRIE’s original camera negative looks positively socko. Noted for its frequently gauzy 1970s cinematography (which tended to fog out in previous transfers), fine image detail in the new Blu-ray 1080p HD widescreen 1.85:1 transfer jumps significantly over the previous Blu release. Grain is very tight (except in a few scenes in the high school offices, perhaps due to the lower light levels and the slower film stock), while colors are correctly valued and skin tones more natural (the cartoony giallo colors at the prom sensationally pop here). Only during Sue’s walk to Carrie’s grave—particularly with that insert of the sign against the dark sky—did I see a noisy image. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack is full-bodied, with some impressive separate effects during the final conflagration. Volume levels are jacked up over the previous Blu release, but no distortion (dialogue and music sound exceedingly crisp and clean, with no hiss). The movie’s original mono track (split here) is included for purists. English subtitles are available.

As for the extras, they’re more than plentiful...but if you listen to them all, they begin to repeat the same info from one to the other. New to this edition are a series of interviews with many of the principle cast and crew members (sorry: no new De Palma or Spacek or Irving, and no Travolta at all). First up: “Writing Carrie” (29:05), has Lawrence D. Cohen discussing, in interesting depth, how the script for CARRIE was brought about, and the movie’s circuitous production timeline. Some context to what Cohen was doing prior to this assignment would have helped, while the extended discussion of the subsequent, troubled CARRIE musical wasn’t particularly interesting (and couldn’t someone have moved that camera to break up one half hour of Cohen staring at us?). “Shooting Carrie” (15:22) features cinematographer Mario Tosi giving his perspective on how he became involved in the shoot (kind of mind-blowing to hear him suggest De Palma didn’t actually frame the shots here). Tosi’s stories are fascinating...but subtitles would have helped us with his heavy Italian accent. “Cutting Carrie” (25:09) has editor Paul Hirsch giving his memories of the CARRIE shoot. Some cool insight to the problems they had shooting the prologue and the finale (despite what he says, there is one brief shot in the final cut where you do see stones rain on the outside of the house—the 5.1 really brings out their presence, too).

“Casting Carrie” (16:05), has casting agent Harriet Helberg tell some fun stories about old-school casting (telephone calls, not email), as well as some tidbits that help fill in the movie’s history (it doesn’t help she apparently forgot to bring to the interview her list of actresses that were considered for the Carrie part—she does mention Sondra Locke—while Louise Fletcher was on the short list for Margaret White). “More Acting Carrie” (20:19) has new interviews with William Katt, Betty Buckley, Piper Laurie, Nancy Allen, P.J. Soles, and Edie “Mrs. Marv Mendenhall” McClurg. A lot of repeat info from the older interviews included on this short, there are some amusing remembrances—Laurie says De Palma was the perfect director (“He told me nothing”), while Katt claims, somewhat dubiously, that De Palma told Tosi to keep shooting when the prom set fire went out of control. “Bucket of Blood” (23:53, in Italian with English subtitles), is an absorbing interview with composer Pino Donaggio, where he spends a lot of time talking about working with De Palma (the love theme from CARRIE is actually taught in Thai schools?). Unfortunately, the last of the new stuff is John Clark in one of those embarrassingly broad location revisits, “Horror’s Hallowed Grounds”. Movie location “expert” Clark hilariously shows us a real gym where he believes the prom sequence was shot (it was actually all shot on a soundstage set). Whoops.

Old stuff (shot full frame in 2001) from an earlier release of CARRIE include “Acting Carrie” (42:42), which features interview clips from Sissy Spacek, Brian De Palma, Amy Irving, Piper Laurie, Betty Buckley, Nancy Allen, William Katt, P.J. Soles, Priscilla Pointer, and art director Jack Fisk. Excellent background on the movie (watch this one before you watch the new actor interviews), including Spacek using the fact that De Palma didn’t want her for the role, and Laurie confirming that De Palma was really shooting for satire, not straight horror. “Visualizing Carrie” (41:32) had De Palma, Fisk, Cohen and Paul Hirsch giving detailed info on pre-production (good stills of the cut prologue scene, the construction of the house model). “A Look at Carrie: The Musical” (6:23), only goes so far as declaring the troubled musical dead in the water (it apparently came back). An original trailer (2:06), as well as trailers for the subsequent CARRIE sequels and reboots are included on disc one with the feature. On the bonus disc with all the other interviews, there are also TV and radio spots (3:05 and 1:29, respectively), a still gallery with rare behind-the-scenes photos, posters and lobby cards (4:54), and finally a text gallery (17:03) detailing Stephen King’s writing Carrie the novel. (Paul Mavis)

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