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| Carrie (1976) |
Studio: MGM |
| Director: Brian De Palma |
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Cast: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, William Katt, John Travolta |
| Running Time: 98 mins |
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Rated: R |
| Region: 1 (NTSC) |
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 |
| Street Date: 10/07/08 |
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Review by: Head Cheeze |
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Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is an oddball high
school introvert whose a constant target
for cruel jokes and abuse at the hands
of the other girls, boys, and even some
of the faculty members. As if her school day
wasn't bad enough, Carrie has to contend
with her psychotic mother ( a brilliant
Piper Laurie) who attributes everything
wrong OR right in Carrie's life to the wages of
sin. Carrie, however, harbors a secret,
and that is her recently developed gift
of telekinesis. She handles the gift with
innocence, until a pair of well meaning student's plan to
give Carrie a memorable senior prom is
thwarted by the school's queen bitch Chris
(Nancy Allen) and her dimwitted boyfriend Billy
(John Travolta), who, in turn, hatch a plot that pushes Carrie over the edge,
taking everyone with her.
King's horrific coming of age story makes
the leap to screen in a way that none
of his novels have since. De Palma and
screenwriter Lawrence D. Cohen faithfully
and lovingly recreate the world of Carrie
White, from it's most poignent moments
(her first dance with Tommy (Katt), the
most popular boy in school) to it's most
terrifying (Carrie's final confrontation with her mother).
Of course, De Palma adds much of his own
vision to King's, and when these two minds
in their prime team up the results are
electrifying! De Palma's split screen
finale remains one of the most effective
and satifying moments in horror history,
and holds up as well today as it did over
25 years ago.
Spacek
and Laurie both deliver Oscar calibur
performances ( both were nominated) and
the terrific
supporting cast reads like a who's-who
in the world of horror! Carrie is more
than the finest adaptation of a Stephen
King horror novel, it is, quite simply, one of
the best horror films of the 1970's. From the stand-out performances
and bravura direction to a story that
runs the gamut from touching to terrifying,
Carrie is a film that both genre fans
and non-genre fans can appreciate as a
motion picture classic.
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MGM presents Carrie in a somewhat spotty 1080p MPEG2 encode that only proves to be a slight upgrade over its DVD cousin. The transfer lacks the depth and detail BD affords, which is a shame given that Carrie is a fascinating looking film, and would have been a knockout if more time and care were taken with the transfer. Grain, flecks, and fluttering mar
The 5.1 DTS-HD soundtrack is decidedly better, offering a fairly robust representation of the film’s haunting score, crisp dialogue, and lots of wonderfully subtle surround effects that fill the room. Like the video transfer, it’s nowhere near reference quality, but still an upgrade over the DVD. |
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| Sadly, MGM has opted not to include the great special features recently made available on DVD, like the two 45 minute featurettes, “Acting Carrie” and “Visualizing Carrie”. Those featurettes made double-dipping on Carrie (MGM originally released it as a barebones DVD) well worth the expense, but, here, all we get is the film’s original trailer (HD), as well as a pair of trailers for other releases. |
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Carrie is a classic flick more deserving of the "catalog title" treatment it gets here, but, unfortunately, sports just a marginally better video presentation than the Special Edition DVD, and lacks any of that release's quality extras. This makes it impossible for me to recommend purchasing this title as an upgrade over the Special Edition DVD. For those of you who don't already own the film (or care about supplemental features), this is still the best the title's looked and sounded, but it could have been so much better.
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