Carrie – Blu-ray Review

By Frankie Dees Oct 14, 2008, 15:53 GMT

Based on the best-selling Stephen King novel, Carrie "catches the mind, shakes it and refuses to let it go" (Time)! Starring Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie (in OscarÂ(r)-nominated* performances), John Travolta and Amy Irving, this ultimate revenge fantasy is "absolutely spellbinding" (Roger Ebert), "outrageously witty" (Los Angeles Times) and one of the all-time great horror classics! At the center of the terror is Carrie (Spacek), a tortured high-school misfit with ...more

Based on Stephen King's first novel, 'Carrie' is still one of the best film adaptations of King's work to this day despite being the first of what must be hundreds by now. This Blu-Ray release marks its high-def debut and video/audio is competent but the complete lack of extras save for a trailer is extremely disappointing. 

Highly regarded with horror and film fans alike, Brian De Palma did a fantastic job capturing the unease and atmosphere of the novel. With a script by Lawrence D. Cohen (who would tackle more of King's work later with TV miniseries 'It' and 'The Tommyknockers'), the film has a dream-like, hazy quality that fits the subject matter well.

The opening sequence in the girls’ locker room is a doozy and will slap the audience out of their comfort zone right away. 

Sissy Spacek stars in a difficult performance that drives the film stars as Carrie White - a senior in high school who generally keeps to herself and is regarded as an outcast. Awkward and uncomfortable around people, this social anxiety stems from the very, very (have I said very yet?) strict religious upbringing of her mother (Piper Laurie) who has more than a few screws loose.

This religion-obsessed villainous role is fairly common in King's work looking no farther back than last year's 'The Mist' where Marcia Gay Harden's character is essentially more of the same. 

The opening scenes have Carrie first discovering her period in the locker room where she only assumes she's bleeding to death. Reaching out to the other girls for help, they cruelly tease her until gym teacher Miss Collins (Betty Buckley) comes to rescue her.

Sent home early, Carrie's mother, not the maternal type apparently, proceeds to slap with Carrie with a bible and then drags her into a closet so she can repent for her sins to a creepy crucifix. 

Along with a disturbing home life, we also learn that Carrie has some telekinetic powers that could get dangerous if provoked – gee, I wonder if she gets provoked? Miss Collins gets all the girls together that teased Carrie and punishes them through her own after-school boot camp detention - that or they get denied the prom.

Two popular girls take opposite paths in dealing with Carrie; Sue Snell (Amy Irving) genuinely feels bad for Carrie and convinces her boyfriend (William Katt - Greatest American Hero!) into taking Carrie to the prom in an effort to get her out of the house. 

Chris Hargensen (Nancy Allen), however, is a real nasty piece of work and blames Carrie for all her punishment BS. Talking (so to speak) her own boyfriend Billy Nolan (John Travolta) into helping her out in a grand scheme to humiliate Carrie at the prom in what would be one of her most memorable moments, these events set up a fiery climax where both good and bad intentions get punished in equal measure. 

In addition to solid performances across the board and slick, stylized direction from De Palma, I also like that De Palma doesn't pull any punches and isn't afraid to let the camera linger in an almost voyeuristic way.

That opening sequence is a perfect example of this which sets up the scene to make the audience feel uneasy and almost sleazy for looking and then pulls into Carrie White where matters take an even uglier turn and D. Cohen's script sets these characters up in a real manner that by the time the climax rolls around, their fates mean something. 

The film gets a MPEG2 1080p 1.85:1 transfer on a 25 gigabyte BD disc and the results are acceptable to good. Not really a great catalog release to show off in high-def anyway as the film always intentionally had a very soft picture, there are no print damage or compression issues to speak of but there is some moderate film grain appropriate to the age of the film.

Detail is fine in the close-ups and it's overall a good transfer but certainly doesn't contain any 'cool' moments that you can sometimes get watching a classic in high-def. A DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio Track is also provided. 

The lone special feature is the original Theatrical Trailer with none of the 'Special Edition' features from the DVD release carried over for mystifying reasons (my guess being that Fox didn't want to pony up for the dual-layer 50 gig BD, a common problem these days as a nice 1080p transfer pretty much fills up 25 gigs...). 

The flick definitely comes recommended but this Blu-Ray release, at an estimated $30 dollar price tag, in all honesty wouldn't justify an upgrade from DVD.

A competent transfer but the film is shot in a way that the DVD is still perfectly acceptable and with the comprehensive docs and featurettes on the 'Special Edition' DVD that didn't make it to Blu - I would have to say pass unless you have money to spare and don't have the old DVD. 

Carrie [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon. Visit the DVD database for more information.