a review of 魔女嘉莉

Shocking pop culture admission: Even though I read the book in college, it's taken me until now to actually watch the original movie. And holy cow, it's really good, with a bunch of interesting filmmaking flourishes that enhance the material. There were a few times in the first hour where I wondered when the horror would kick in (even though I knew exactly when it would) because De Palma makes an intentional point of overplaying the high school melodrama and underplaying Carrie's dawning awareness of her powers. The way Sissy Spacek plays the turns of the character is masterful, and fully deserving of her Oscar nom. That said, there are a couple of choices in the movie that didn't entirely sit right with me. The slow-mo softcore girls' locker room opener seems weirdly gratuitous, even though I thought the film's handling of teenage sexuality was just about right. And I'm not sure I was on board with the broadness of some of the acting early on, even after I recognized that De Palma was deliberately going for something big and operatic. But these are minor quibbles, because that last half hour completely makes the movie, and is still completely shocking even today.