Carrie (1976)

NIGHT 4

     "They're all going to laugh at you. "

 

Carrie (1976) is a supernatural horror film based on Stephen King's first published novel Carrie. It's directed by Brian De Palma and it stars Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie & John Travolta.

Carrie is a High School senior who just got her first period, then gets made fun of by all the other girls in her class. But that's not the only thing that's developing inside Carrie. Those other kids are going to be sorry they picked on her.

The acting in this film is really great. You really feel for Sissy Spacek as Carrie in the first half of the film, which is a very crucial part to why this film works so well.

And Piper Laurie is amazing as Carrie's relgious-nut mother. She evokes the most emotion out of me personally when watching this. The fact that some people still in the world today act this way sickens me inside. Ugh it's a bit hard to watch at times.

Since Carrie has a (then) contemporary setting and involves and has a focus on popular culture in the 70s' it can seem a little bit dated when viewed today (not that I think a remake will be half as good...). This is not to say that the film's meaning and point are lost, but I found myself constantly distracted by fashions and the way some of the high school kids acted. And a lot of the dialogue is some very cliché, high school dialogue (again, probably what they were going for but still annoying and nothing noteworthy). Regardless the film is an interesting time capsule into high school in the 70s'.

The film has these moments where focuses on somethings a little too long, the scene in the shower at the very beginning seems to go on forever! And maybe I'm missing the point, but I feel like any other director would have shown less blatant nudity in that scene, it's so unnecessarily erotic!

I don't love the ending resolve with Carrie, it seems like the film didn't know where to go with the story and to me this seemed all-together too simplistic (I'm talking about the the house caving in part) though the last scene at the very end almost makes me not care about how I didn't like that haha.

One of the things I really like about this film is some of the more subtle points of the story. I like how through the entire film it leaves you with some uncertainty to why Sue is having Tommy take Carrie to the prom, and you think she must be in on the other girls' plan until she gets to the prom and she discovers the rope and the bucket. It's a very delicate combination of things and I feel like another director wouldn't have been as successful with this very critical story point.

I absolutely love the direction in this film. Brian De Palma is a beast, he just knows how to toy with your emotions and play with your heart strings. But that being said, it doesn't stop him from being very "experimental" and trying new things with shots either. Some of these experiments are unsuccessful in my option, like there's a spinning shot while Carrie is dancing at the prom that I absolutely hated. However, often than not this experimental camerawork works very well, for example the split frame shots during the massacre are brilliant and add so much to the heightened mood of that scene!

You really can get a feel for his ability? No better example than with the scenes right before the blood drops. They seem to stretch on forever just toying with your emotions and making you cringe. Do you feel that? It's suspense done well.

Today Carrie (1976) is considered a horror classic and even almost 40 years later you can see why. It's very unique when compared to most other horror films but yet still deals with a lot of the classic horror themes you go in expecting. And from a technical standpoint, horror films this good are very hard to come by.

4/5 Stars.

Happy watching!




Do you like H.P. Lovecraft? The 31 Nights of Macabre Movies continue tomorrow with the first ever film adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story. Tune in tomorrow for Roger Corman's The Haunted Palace (1963).

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Blow Out (1981)

Intro
While pouring back through all the Tarantino films recently I realized a couple things:
1) There's not that many of them. I mean he's only one guy and he pretty much only works off of his own material that he wrote... which takes time, and thus this is very understandable.
2) His films make reference other movies constantly. Now call it what you want homage, reference or just plain theft but I'm thinking that a lot of people don't catch the majority of these references to other films because frankly, we don't have the film same exposure as a young Tarantino did going to the grindhouse theater constantly in his youth or working in a video rental store. However, hypothetically with the vastness of the internet and Amazon, Netflix etc. these films should be easier to get a hold of today, if you know what you're looking for that is.

So I figured there's probably more people out there, like me, who crave more Tarantino constantly and I could showcase some films that I'd consider essential viewing for Tarantino fans. And thus the 10 must-see films for Tarantino fans was born. Now let me warn you this is in no way a comprehensive list and there's no particular order to these either. There's probably hundreds of films that Tarantino references in his own films, and I found enough films I could write about to probably do this series again but that will have to wait until next time there's another big Tarantino release.

DAY 8: Blow Out (1981)

Blow Out is Quentin Tarantino's third favorite film of all time. This film is the reason he chose to cast John Travolta as a lead in Pulp Fiction (1994) and his performance in this film is uncannily similar actually. Brian De Palma does a lot of things in this film that Tarantino would later incorporate into his own "style" like the 360 shot to show confusion and this film also drops lots of references to De Palma's previous films but also to other films, sound familiar? Also Tarantino used a piece from this film's amazing score in Death Proof (2007).

"First it's a drink, then it's my place, now it's a hotel?" Things are moving a little fast, aren't they Sally?"

Blow Out is a conspiracy thriller film written and directed by Brian De Palma. When Jack Terry, a sound designer for low budget films, randomly saves a girl's life from drowning he finds himself wrapped in a huge conspiracy, and his job comes in handy more than you'd think.

This film has a really simple story and a great premise. I also like how the film starts like a neo-noir film, I thought this was an interesting spin on the typical noir film. The simple story makes it easy to follow and allows for a lot of suspense. There's some very suspense-filled parts in this film, and that's a sign of a good film.

The acting in this film is pretty good too. Nancy Allen plays Sally, who is actually a bit annoying but it works for the film. John Lithgow plays the killer in one of his earliest feature roles, and although this is against type for him retrospectively, it actually works pretty well in this film, you've just got to get over the initial shock the first time you see him. And John Travolta has this very dark and moody performance that really adds a lot of depth and makes the role a lot cooler than it would have been otherwise.

The film has some less-believable parts in the end: like the car chase though a parade, (SPOILERS:) the fact the killer hesitated to kill Sally and decides to take her to the roof of a building when he was going to do it in a subway in front of a lot of people only minutes before, and the fact that the cops believed the victim killed the killer while somehow still getting killed? I believe all of this could have been stronger if De Palma didn't let the neo-noir aspects of the film dwindle about half to three-quarters of the way into it only to turn into a more traditional thriller film.

And this last part is a nitpicky thing that most people wouldn't notice, but it bugged me so I'm gonna mention it, there's a part where Jack makes an animation of the car crash with the magazine pictures and he does it totally wrong, to play at a normal speed the pictures would have need to be photographed at least twice and they would have needed to be lined up a hell of a lot better than he did otherwise the finished film would have been very shakey. True this doesn't really matter that much, but it shows a lack of attention to detail and then made me wonder how truthful the sound design parts actually were!

If nothing else, this film is proof that Brian De Palma is an amazing director. The cinematography stands out with it variety of shots and beautiful shot choices. I especially liked the high angle shots and the split screen shots (like the image at the top of this post) and the use of lots of quiet moments combined with the (fittingly) good sound design show great skill.

(SPOILERS:) Also the ending really showed a sign of great skill, I thought "well this is predictable, he's going to get there right in time and save her," but when he doesn't this really made me like the film that much more. It kind of saved a lot of things I didn't like about the second half of the film.

And lastly I got to mention the great score to this film, every song in this film is really great! A tiny bit of it seems rather dated, but it still really helps achieve some great emotional parts and some very chilling thriller parts too.

Blow Out (1981) is an unexpectedly thrilling story with amazing direction, and a great score. 4.5/5 Stars.

Happy watching!





This film is part of my month-long Tribute to Tarantino in honor of his latest film Django Unchained (2012) and his 20-year career. If you've missed any of my reviews so far, be sure to check out his filmography and click on any film you've missed.

The 10 must-see films for Tarantino fans countdown continues tomorrow, so be sure to check back!



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Pulp Fiction (1994)

"Say 'what' again."

Pulp Fiction (1994) is Quentin Tarantino's crime anthology film. Pulp Ficiton is actually 3 different stories (about 40 minutes each) with a fourth story (the diner scene) that is split into a prologue and epilogue for the film. Each story crosses over at some point and characters from other stories walk in to other stories (primarily Vincent Vega). The stories are about a couple that decides to rob a coffee shop (prologue/epilogue), two hitmen that have a the strangest day of their lives (The Bonnie Situation), a hitman who has to take his boss' wife for a night out on the town (Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife), and a prizefighter that's trying to outsmart and escape gangsters (The Gold Watch). Each story seems to revolve around the craziest things that could happen on a otherwise seemingly normal day.

This film makes for a really great follow up to Reservoir Dogs (1992), it has the same bold style that I really liked about that film, but it all feels a little bit bigger and more comfortable. This is the first film of Quentin Tarantino's films that I think he really hits his full stride on his style. His quirky writing, great music choices, unique storytelling, and stylish scenes really all come to full bloom in this film. And much like Reservoir Dogs, some of my favorite things about this film are the simple but stylish little quirks he puts in that show he's really thinking about interesting ways to make a film, for example: Mia Wallace's "don't be a square" gesture complete with on screen diagram, I like how the camera moves over at the end of Zed's "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" to further show who his first victim will be, and who could forget the creativity of Jack Rabbit Slim's? ..."a wax museum with a pulse."

I also just really like the humor in this film, and not just the humorous dialogue there's lots of awesome viusal gags (like hitmen dressed in beach volleyball clothes!)

It's not bad so much, but I don't find Bruce Willis' story about a boxer named Butch trying to outsmart the mob really as strong as the others. It's still a strange tale, with a really weird couple of occurrences but it's just not as interesting as the other two (or even the diner scene) to me. The core story about a boxer trying to outsmart a promoter is also completely ripped off of one of the greatest boxing films of all time, Body and Soul (1947). That being said, it's no surprise then that this is the one segment of the film that Quentin Tarantino didn't write, I feel it shows.

I gotta mention how much I love the structure of this film. I feel like this is one of those films, that shouldn't have worked as well as it really does. Aside from being multiple stories (as I've already mentioned) the film also tells the stories out of order, characters die in one story and then their alive in the next! Although these are separate stories I love that they are somewhat circular and the things that are set up in the very beginning come full circle by the end. In fact, like how you wouldn't notice this on the first viewing, but the film sets up every single story and at least mentions each character in the first twenty minutes, some of them more obviously than others. Each story really works on it's own as a great short film, each with an amazing climax. But the way the film works together as a whole is a lot better than Tarantino's next anthology project Four Rooms (1995).

I love that the film has a great all-star cast but this doesn't get in the way of each of the characters really seeming like real people. Much like Reservoir Dogs (1992) I love how this film even makes dreaded hitmen argue and converse like your best friends do.

The film's writing is absolutely amazing to me. Tarantino's style is fully exemplified here and I love how he drowns exposition in so much minute and obscure detail that you have no idea what you are hearing is actually going to be very important later on.

Pulp Fiction (1994) is one of Quentin Tarantino's best films, it's very stylish, "cool" and probably one of his most creative storytelling-wise. 5/5 Stars.

Happy watching!

Check out this original minimalist poster design I did for this film, click through to buy prints/posters etc. OR check out other movie posters I designed here. :)

Want more Tarantino goodness? Check back all month for my Tribute to Tarantino in honor of his latest film Django Unchained.

Go back to Tarantino's first film with Reservoir Dogs (1992) or check out the first script he wrote (but didn't direct).



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