The Fury

The Fury

With 1976’s Carrie, many people felt that Brian De Palma had created a horror classic that would be the last word in the field of psychic and telekinetic ablity. But (aside from Sissy Spacek’s remarkable acting), a closer look reveals something else, a film that for ¾ of its running time played off like being a bad high school drama about a bullied teenage girl (and her mother) that at times even struck undertones of being like a lame ABC Afterschool Special until the admittedly spectacular finale when the bullied telekinetic girl (whose abilities were slowly revealed and explained throughout the film) finally goes haywire and pretty much ensures that almost everyone dies. Despite the film’s success, apparently even De Palma himself felt that this type of material was worth another try, only this time telling the story on a much grander scale about just how much these kind of virtual mutants would be worth to The United States Government. He even brought back Amy Irving (the sole surviving major character from Carrie) to this time play the lead female role of the beautiful, delicate, princess like teenage girl with the psychic power within her to possibly one day take over the world (keeping in mind that De Palma even went so far as to actually seriously consider SPACEK for the role, an audacious possible casting choice that would have been mindblowing in so much that it would have made the film a literal sequel). Released in 1978, it was widely considered in the long run to be one of De Palma’s lesser efforts, but in hindsight one can see its underrated qualities loud and clear even as it jumps back and forth from being a spy thriller, a drama about a misunderstood girl (whoops) and finally the horror movie that it was meant to be with plenty of gore to go around. De Palma also got to work with an exceptional cast here, starting off with a living legend in Kirk Douglas, playing (presumably) a close to retirement government operative highly trained and skilled in all matters of killing and national security. He also has a son (Andrew Stevens, the offspring of Stella Stevens who would later become a big name on the erotic thriller circuit) who just so happens to have a very powerful psychic / telekinetic ability of his own, so much so that the government has become very interested and have even compelled Douglas’ best friend (John Cassavetes, an underrated bad guy actor who should have played more such roles if he wasn’t so busy trying to be a director) to betray him by staging an assassination attempt to get him out of the way so that Cassavetes can take his son under his wing personally in order to mold him into whatever it is that he is meant to be. With his son spirited away and Douglas having survived the attempt on his life (albeit not until after giving Cassavetes a little “parting shot” with a machine gun that supposedly “kills his arm” and leaves him in a sinister looking black sling for the rest of the movie), we then get treated to the sight of the 60+ year old Douglas playing a man who is being hunted down action movie style, even disguising himself as an even older man all while making it a habit to be cordial and congenial to any civilians who happen to cross his path whom he takes any needed supplies from. Meanwhile, we soon afterwards get introduced to Irving’s character, a stunningly beautiful schoolgirl who has already been outed as being a “freak” at her upscale academy before being sent off to a “special” school for those with exceptionally gifted psychic powers (but which is also operating with close ties to both Cassavetes and the government) and is being run by Charles Durning in a commendably low key performance. Durning is genuinely interested in helping the young people with their abilities and their well being, but whenever Cassavetes drops by to check out the latest talent, Durning knows that it’s for a less than noble purpose. The connection between Irving and Douglas’ son starts when she begins having visions of HIS memories at the school (before Cassavetes took him away to a more private facility) and this causes her to start acting out more (including causing anybody who touches her to bleed) and in the film’s biggest contrivance, Douglas actually has a mole at the school (former Best Actress Oscar Nominee Carrie Snodgress, returning to acting here for her “big comeback” eight years after running off with musician Neil Young) who while being a much less powerful psychic, is also carrying on an affair with Douglas as well while telling him any information she can find out about his boy. When we rejoin Andrew Stevens’ Robin later on in the movie, it turns out that Cassavetes has now gotten him not only well honed in his psychic abilities, but also in being physically fit as well along with encouraging one of his more attractive female associates (Fiona Lewis) to start “connecting” with Stevens better by engaging in a sexual relationship with him in order to form a bond of trust all while she still answers to Cassavetes (a highly risky and dangerous move since the boy does possess the power to read minds). Unfortunately, the combination of the sex and the always being told just how special and important he is (combined with the shameless use of film footage of his father’s supposed death in order to trigger the traumatic pheromones in his mind and make him even more effective) have caused the young man to have petulant, emotional yet nearly God like tendencies, the type who would just gladly kill people on a whim if he was merely having a bad day (maybe some humility training should have been in order). But then again maybe that’s what Cassavetes had wanted all along, to cultivate an almost God like being that is in league with The United States Government and thus can make quick work in disposing of our enemies (or as Cassavetes says, “The Chinese don’t have one, The Russians don’t have one, nobody else has one, except us.”). That is until Irving comes along with the extent of her powers and even though her connection to Stevens has connotations resembling feelings of love, he almost feels threatened by her instead. So when Douglas and Snodgress bust Irving out of Durning’s school and track down Stevens and Cassavetes for the film’s final confrontation(s), a lot of possible emotional impact gets kind of muddled over, save for one, truly awesome fact, and that is: when you wind up getting one of the most powerful psychic beings in the world pissed off at you, that person is NOT going to just drop a roof on your head like Carrie White would. No, you’re more likely to have your blood vessels and internal organs compressed so that blood sprays everywhere while you slowly, painfully die and then if you’re really lucky, you might just explode into a million pieces in such a way that it would give Michael Ironside in Scanners a bit of pause. De Palma might love making movies, but in many ways he probably loves making entertaining B movies even more (probably the reason why he has never been nominated for an Oscar despite his stellar career) and for horror (and action) fans who want to see a top flight, suspense filled outing with more than enough gory violence in the final act, then this is something that’s worth seeing, with the stakes seeming to be ultra high at all times (and not just over who’s taking who to the prom or anything like that) and the tension ratcheted up considerably despite the occasional plot hole or oversight. We even get to see early acting roles for Dennis Franz (without his moustache) and Daryl Hannah even as we can fully realize and appreciate here Amy Irving in her absolute prime as being one of the most underrated and beautiful actresses of the 1970s. Spice that up with two old pros like Douglas and Cassavetes playing a classic game of cat and mouse with each other and one can find it pretty hard to entirely dismiss this film just because it isn’t exactly one of Brian De Palma’s calling cards, but rather instead a film that has its own rabid fanbase due to both the psychic / horror elements and also because of the ever popular concept of government conspiracies, postulating that our leaders will try to take on anything that might just give us some kind of unfair advantage in this world…

8/10

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