After turning Stephen King’s debut novelCarrieinto one of the most iconic horror movies ever made, Brian De Palma turned John Farris’The Furyinto an equally riveting supernatural chiller. The first of more than 100 screen adaptations of King’s work,Carriewas the movie that put De Palma on the map. Some of his earlier films, likeSistersandPhantom of the Paradise, would go on to become cult classics, butCarriewas an instant success with both critics and audiences. The only downside of making a universally adored movie is the pressure of starting from scratch to follow it up with something new. De Palma followed upCarriewith an adaptation of a different tale of telepathy from a different thriller novelist.
Although it bears Farris’ name in the byline,The Furycould easily be a Stephen King story. Kirk Douglas stars as an ex-CIA badass who teams up with a teenage psychic to liberate his telekinetic son from the terrorists who want to use his power for evil. This pulpy sci-fi thriller premise could’ve easily belonged to a King novel.The Furyhasthe telekinetic teen protagonist ofCarrie, the men-in-black paranoia ofFirestarter, the curse of clairvoyance fromThe Dead Zone, and the race-against-time adventure of11/22/63.
RELATED:What Made Brian De Palma The Perfect Director To Adapt Stephen King’s Carrie
WhereasCarriewas scripted by Lawrence D. Cohen, retooling King’s epistolary bestseller into a visual narrative,The Furywas adapted for the screen by its own author. Farris’ script cuts right to the chase, opening in the Middle East with ex-CIA operative Peter Sandza narrowly escaping death in the midst of a terrorist attack staged to abduct his telekinetic son, Robin. After her supporting turn as remorseful high school bully Sue Snell inCarrie, De Palma promoted Amy Irving to a lead role inThe Fury. Irving plays Gillian Bellaver, the clairvoyant Chicago teen that Peter teams up with to save Robin. Douglas and Irving both give terrific performances as a pair of captivating protagonists who are easy to root for, opposite John Cassavetes as Ben Childress, Peter’s colleague-turned-mortal enemy.
De Palma can never resist an opportunity to homage Hitchcock.Body Doublerevolves around a voyeur spying on his neighbors likeRear Window,Dressed to Killkills off its A-list star at the midpoint likePsycho, and De Palma included sinister shower scenes in both of those movies, as well asCarrie,Blow Out, andPhantom of the Paradise. InThe Fury, De Palma uses a sequence set in an indoor amusement park to recreate the climax ofStrangers on a Trainwith a paranormal twist. In this version, the antihero pushed to his breaking point uses his mind to unscrew the bolts holding together a fairground ride.
BothCarrieandThe Furyhave great music. Pino Donaggio’sCarriescore duplicatesBernard Herrmann’s piercing violin strings fromPsycho(another Hitchcock reference) every time Carrie uses her telekinetic powers. The music forThe Furywas composed by none other than John Williams. After being Oscar-nominated forStar WarsandClose Encounters of the Third Kindat the same ceremony (winning for the former), Williams had as much of a burden to follow up the best work of his career as De Palma did afterCarrie. In her bookWhen the Lights Go Down, renowned critic Pauline Kael lauded Williams’Furymusic, calling his work on the film “as apt and delicately varied a score as any horror movie has ever had.” In the same year that he provided the mesmerizing orchestrations inThe Fury, Williams also scoredSupermanandJaws 2.
With the explosion of John Cassavetes,The Furyculminates inan even bigger and bloodier climactic sequence thanCarrie. As Gillian uses her powers to blow up Childress, blood and guts fly in every different direction and his severed head soars up into the lens of an overhead camera. This shocking moment of body horror is seen from a dozen different angles before crashing into the end credits. The death of Childress is one of the most glorious final shots in cinema history, paired with a Williams track that’s just as triumphant as his score forthe destruction of the Death Star.
When a filmmaker releases an untouchable masterpiece likeCarrie, following it up with a satisfactory successor is a near-impossible feat. Directors usually follow up a groundbreaking opus with a more intimate story on a smaller scale. Francis Ford Coppola followed upThe GodfatherwithThe Conversation;Quentin Tarantino followed upPulp FictionwithJackie Brown. De Palma faced the challenge of following upCarrie, still frequently listed alongside the greatest and most influential horror films ever made, by going the other way. He went back to the psychic subject matter with a larger scale, a bigger ensemble, and a more action-packed narrative.
The Furyisn’t quite as technically masterful or emotionally resonant as De Palma’s heart-wrenching Stephen King adaptation, but it’s just as much fun. LikeCarrie,The Furyis full of unexpected twists and turns, genuine frights and thrills, and memorable performances by perfectly cast actors. It’s a must-see horror gem, not just for De Palma fans, but for supernatural thriller fans in general.The Furywill make the wait forthe next season ofStranger Thingsa little easier.
MORE:This Underrated 1970s Slasher Is Brian De Palma’s Ultimate Hitchcock Tribute
