Sunday, October 26, 2008

Carrie

     This is Brian DePalma's movie adaptation of the #1 best-selling novel by renowned author Stephen King. In fact, Carrie is the first book that King ever wrote. Actually, we have his beloved wife Tabitha to thank for saving this masterpiece. You see, during the course of writing his first novel, King had no confidence in his abilities as a writer. Believing that it was a badly failed attempt, he threw the manuscript into the fireplace. His wife on the other hand (probably because the novel's subject matter is very empathetic among women in general) saved it from total destruction, sent it in, and a deal was made to publish it and henceforth we have the fantastic future works of Stephen King. Proving that behind every successful man there often lies an intelligent woman. I've read a lifetime of King's books and seen a lot of terrible screen adaptations of them, but the first film version of Carrie was pretty close to the book. A miniseries remake was later made under Stephen King's "strictly by the book" direction.  And even though the miniseries remake of Carrie was very well made and adheres to the book even more faithfully than the original film version, it still doesn't really compare to this masterpiece. 

      Even though the actors at the time were generally unknown, most of them have all since gone on to make many more successful movies. Of these is Sissy Spacek, whose portrayal of the lonely misfit Carrie White was truly exceptional. And even though she's gone on to have a truly extraordinary resume of films to her credit, I believe that most people will think of Carrie when they hear the name.  Piper Laurie, who was a veteran actress who'd already made many wonderful films was practically drawn out of retirement to play Margaret White, Carrie's maniacally religious and abusive mother who occasionally locks Carrie in a "praying closet". Nancy Davis plays the evil bully Christine Hargenson and John Travolta, in his very first major movie role after leaving the television show "Welcome Back Kotta" plays Christine's boyfriend and willing stooge Billy. Amy Irving plays Sue Snell, the only girl in school who feels terrible after participating in humiliating poor Carrie in the shower. And let's not forget William Katt who plays Sue Snell's boyfriend, the school's top jock with a sympathetic heart. 

      The plot is very simple and most people know the story by now and anyone (most of us) who was ever picked on in school and made to feel terrible for being different, all for the amusement of other students can closely relate to it. The story begins when after being picked on all day in gym class, during an otherwise relaxing shower, Carrie White gets her first period. Since her mother never told her about menstruation, she naturally assumes that she is actually somehow bleeding to death. Terribly frightened she asks for help from the other girls in the class, who end up humiliating her by cornering her in the shower and throwing tampons at her. The girls who assaulted her are all punished, which doesn't sit well with Christine (school hottie/total bitch) who thinks that Carrie White deserves to be picked on because she's just so damned weird. 

      The Prom is quickly approaching and it's all anyone can talk about. Feeling horrible about participating in the tampon assault, Sue asks her boyfriend Tommy to take Carrie to the Prom. At first, he refuses, but after some coaxing from his girlfriend, he reluctantly agrees. Apparently, he's gotten more agreeable since they started having sex. 

      Another issue that should be brought up is that Carrie is also telekinetic, and at first, strange things seem to happen whenever Carrie is scared or upset. During the shower assault, the gym teacher slaps her because she's hysterical and an overhead light bursts into sparks. While walking down the street, a young boy on a bike peddles by screaming "Creepy Carrie, Creepy Carrie". She glances at him and he instantly crashes to the ground. As the intensity of her mother's overly religious cruelty increases, Carrie has noticed that the objects around her are beginning to react according to her emotions. 

      Tommy does finally ask Carrie to the Prom. At first, she refuses, but after some sweet talk, she agrees. Christine still has it in for Carrie, so along with her boyfriend Billy and his minion of teen followers, they concoct the ultimate practical joke, a prank to purposely humiliate Carrie to the extent that will satisfy Christine's hatred for her. A prank that she thinks will appropriately fit the ridicule of having your first period in front of everyone and being subsequently degraded in the worst way. 

      They decide that it would be really fun to rig the vote for Prom Queen and King so that Carrie and Tommy win. Once Carrie is on stage, they will dump pig blood all over her in front of everybody. The plan goes off without a hitch. She is voted Prom Queen and poor Carrie thinks that a truly nice thing may have actually happened in her miserable life.  Once she takes the stage, with tears of joy streaming down her face, suddenly a bucket of pig blood falls from the ceiling and completely drenches her. Carrie is once again totally humiliated in front of everyone and all the rage that had been inside her since the shower room incident is unleashed. Her humility is soon taken over by pure anger and an act of telekinetic revenge unparalleled in human history begins to take place. 

     With her powers increased tenfold by this heinous prank, she uses her telekinesis in ways that make sure no one at the Prom survives. With the high school burning to the ground with everyone in it, Carrie calmly walks out of the Prom in a daze. While walking home, Christine and Billy attempt to run her over, only to feel the wrath of Carrie's glance. Their car swerves around Carrie goes tumbling down the street and soon explodes. 

      When she gets home, she takes a bath and washes off all the blood, and even though her mother is a tortuous individual, Carrie seeks out her motherly embrace, but instead of love, she is stabbed in the back by her mother, all because her mother believes that Carrie has gone so far astray and "obviously" has the devil's powers and that she is a witch, and after all, the Bible does say "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live".  

     She tumbles down the stairs, bleeding from her mother's stab wound, while her mother slowly lurches toward her with the knife to finish her off, creepily using the knife to make the sign of the cross.  In defense, Carrie telekinetically starts causing knives to be thrown at her mother, who is eventually pinned to a door frame in a likeness that's basically an appropriate replica of Christ on the Cross. 

     With her mother now dead, the devastating events of the Prom, and probably an entire life consisting of school bullying and religious onslaught by her maniacal mother, Carrie's mind is now irreparable and her surroundings act according to her diminished mental condition causing the entire house to crumble and collapse, killing her in the process.

     There are several versions of this story. The book, the original movie discussed here, a miniseries remake according to the book, and another major motion picture remake with all the expensive special effects not afforded in the first film. All versions are wonderful, and as always I recommend the book first. But if you haven't got time to read it, even though it's not that thick of a novel, but still want a version that adheres to the book "almost religiously", I suggest you watch the miniseries remake.  Only the last ten minutes stray from Stephen King's original written word. Angela Bettis plays Carrie with amazing genuineness, You may remember Angela as "May", if not you can look it up here on Cultarama, a great movie, a stellar actress. Or you can just sit back and enjoy the first movie in a mere hour and a half and witness one of the best stories ever written, told by some of the world's foremost actors and actresses before anyone knew who the hell they were.


Wednesday, October 22, 2008

The Food of the Gods

     Once again, a brilliant H.G. Wells novel (The Invisible Man, War of the Worlds, The Time Machine) has been turned into an extraordinarily cheap film. Some of his film adaptations like "War of the Worlds" did indeed turn out well, even though it varied quite a lot from the novel. I can safely say that "The Food of the Gods" was an excellent novel, that was turned into a really laughable movie. It's funny for all the wrong reasons. I believe that the special effects department meant well, but just really made the movie look rather ridiculous. 

      This film was made at a time when science fiction was actually making a comeback. Giant creatures of some kind or another, mostly created by modern means and mistakes like bombs, radiation, pollution, and nuclear waste, once again dominated mainstream cinema. The giant villains this time are mostly rats. Anyway, the story follows a famous football player who needs a little vacation before an important game. He takes along a few friends, his coach, and some teammates to an island getaway. 

      A narrative theme begins with a man talking about how nature will someday rebel for all the shitty things we do to it, unfortunately, the victims are innocent people who only suffer the wrath of the actual polluters. They arrive on an island only to be met with giant wasps. The crappy special effects begin here... the wasps are transparent, you can see right through them. There's one close-up of the attack which shows a most obvious big plastic bug. One fatality... more to come. 

      The group comes across a chicken coop that looks like it's been partially torn apart. Our main protagonist peeks inside only to be met with a giant chicken (well, a big plastic chicken head that someone is thrusting toward the actor). This scene is sidesplittingly funny. The plastic head doesn't move its mouth or blink or anything, pretty pathetic. The owner of the chicken coop is located in the nearby farmhouse. It's an old lady that explains how some weird chemical started bubbling up in her backyard. She feeds it to the chickens (Yeah, that would've been my first choice too). The chickens grow and Grandma thinks she's got the solution to hunger. The problem is, other creatures are grubbing on this chemical that Granny has now spread all over the place, resulting in large bugs, large worms, and mostly large rats. 

      The pests reign supreme and kill most of what's left of a forgettable cast. The big plastic rat heads are as funny as the big plastic chicken heads, so obviously fake and totally laughable. When a giant rat is shot with a gun, the special effect used for this was simply shooting real rats with a paintball gun. The problem is, those things shoot really hard, maybe not much for people, but these poor rats were looking mighty stunned and rendered completely unconscious upon impact. Really cruel treatment for an animal just for the sake of making a movie when you think of it.  

     One of the last people left alive theorizes that even though rats are really good swimmers, the fact that they have been enlarged, the same rules of gravity do not apply, and that if the rats are submerged in water they will sink and drown. This is absolutely not true by the way. Does anyone know what a hippopotamus is? Four tons of rats then float along the water like a swimming pool of floaties. Anyway, these two guys plant pipe bombs on a nearby dam (on an island?). The damn blows and the rats drown.  

     You would think or hope that it would end here, but it doesn't. Creepy aftermath is hinted at. Some of the growth chemicals make it into a nearby stream and out into freshwater areas where cows drink from. You then see a cow on a milk machine, then some schoolchildren enjoying their afternoon milk and cookies. I guess it's hinting that we can soon expect large ravenous children, not to mention larger-than-life cows (now maybe a good steak won't cost so damn much) and whatever other life that the chemical will now come in contact with while in the water. I predict a much scarier sequel with giant crabs and crawfish.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Don't Look in the Basement!



     This movie is cheaper than cheap. It was shot in a mere 12 days at a cost of about $10,000. But even with the odds against them, I believe this movie is actually quite well made. It has a very ominous atmosphere, an asylum in the middle of nowhere, where the patients are free to move about the property.  The head doctor at this facility has hired a new nurse to replace one who is leaving because she can't take the potential danger of being harmed by one of the inmates. 

      First, let's meet the patients: There's Jennifer, who is, for the most part, catatonic, but now and then enjoys attacking people with knives. An army sergeant who stays glued to the window with binoculars because he's convinced that the beastly hun is just around the bend. Sam, is a sweet guy, probably the most stable of the bunch, yet is a bit mentally challenged in that he has the mind of a child. A judge who still thinks he's in front of a jury. Harriet is a sad woman who lost her baby and is now seriously overprotective of a baby doll. Let's not forget Allison, who for the most part seems very sane, but actually has a love obsession with EVERYBODY, constantly repeating "I know you love me". 

      On with the story. The movie begins with the head of the asylum Dr. Stephens teaching the judge how to release aggression by chopping wood. Giving an ax to an asylum patient just spells disaster, and the judge eventually turns on the good doctor and whacks him in the head with the ax. An apparent head nurse tells everyone to calm down, that she knows just what to do. This apparent head nurse takes control of the asylum in the doctors' absence. She seems to be next in line and is in complete charge now. 

      A newly hired nurse named Charlotte arrives and is informed of the doctor's untimely passing and the nurse who's now in charge introduces herself as Dr. Masters, Dr. Stephens's assistant. Dr. Masters isn't particularly thrilled about having a new nurse around and tries to send her away. Desperate for a job though, she pleads with Dr. Masters and is eventually allowed to stay. 

      Many of the patients forewarn Nurse Charlotte that danger lurks around every corner, but who can tell if an insane person is telling the truth or just being, well...insane.  An old lady that has been warning Charlotte from day one apparently has cut her own tongue out. Dr. Masters doesn't seem too bothered by it and writes it off as the mere act of a lunatic. Someone has apparently cut the phone lines as well, making the isolation all that much more ominous. Dr. Masters is beyond aggravated that a telephone repairman shows up and gives him a thorough bitching and tells him never to return. He explains that he's just doing his job and is reluctantly shown the phone lines by Dr. Masters. Soon we see that the repairman has been killed, throat slit wide open. All the while Dr. Masters is starting to get weirder and definitely crankier. 

      Sam tells Charlotte that he actually talks to Dr. Stephens and that the doctor is very concerned about Nurse Charlotte, which doesn't make sense since we previously saw the good doctor take an ax to the head and is presumed dead. Sam is also carrying Dr. Stephen's watch. Again she doesn't know what to believe because, after all, these are asylum patients. Before his demise, the telephone repairman encounters Allison who is convinced that the repairman loves her. Upon finding him dead, she tells Charlotte that Dr. Masters killed her eternal love (the repairman). She also tells Charlotte that Dr. Masters is a patient as well who likes to pretend to be a doctor. Again, Charlotte can't believe it could be true. The old lady can't exactly tell Charlotte anything because she no longer has a tongue, but when asked if Dr, Masters was the one who cut out her tongue, she nods yes... obviously because she was trying to warn Charlotte from the beginning that all is not what it seems. 

      Sam gives Charlotte a note saying that the doctor is alive and very worried. Nurse Charlotte has decided that it's definitely time to go, and begins what seems like an endless search for a way out. What's wrong with the front door is anyone's guess. She goes down to the basement and finds Dr. Stephens barely alive. Of course, since she's never met him, she doesn't know it's the doctor and smashes his head in, finishing him off. Sam saves Charlotte while the other inmates attack and kill Dr. Masters with various sharp objects. 

      While Charlotte runs her ass off getting out of there, Sam goes back and kills the rest of the inmates. Covered in their blood, he sits and enjoys his favorite treat, grape popsicles. The acting really isn't all that bad and a creepy little flick where the inmates are running the asylum while an unknowing nurse is just trying her best to keep it all together is a scary enough idea to keep you on the edge of your seat and totally makes up for the overall cheapness of the film.