HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE A TEENAGER SCORNED 

 

 "The Fury" (1978)

Directed by Brian DePalma

   How does a filmmaker follow an experience as exciting as the adaptation of Stephen King's "Carrie"? How about another film about telekinetic teens? Surely no one would think they could capture lightning in a bottle twice with such a specifically unique premise? Tell that to director Brian DePalma. Yes. Brian DePalma followed up his telekinetic teen film with another telekinetic teen film. Sounds like a risky idea. For a less talented film maker, perhaps.
   

   I love "The Fury" and applaud Brian DePalma's  decision to re-enter the same supernatural waters that he just finished swimming in. If "The Fury" had turned out poorly, I would agree that it was a bad idea to revisit the same concept, especially so soon after "Carrie". "The Fury" does not feel like "Carrie" at all. Even though there are moments of terror, this film does not feel like a horror film, it feels like an action thriller. I do think it mostly appeals to horror fans. The scenes that are like a horror film are so intense, that it feels like this movie was made for horror fans.

  
   Here's a brief synopsis of the film: After a failed assassination attempt on Peter Sandza, a former CIA agent played by Kirk Douglas, he and his son Robin are separated. Peter spends the rest of the film looking for his son. Amy Irving plays Gillian, a telekinetic teen living at a school for young people with unique mental powers. While she's there, she discovers that Robin had stayed there before her and ran away. Peter finds out about Gillian and comes up with a plan to get her to help him find his son. When Peter and Robin reunite things aren't so loving though, as Peter's son is now in with some bad people and he's not the same. He's a telekinetic time bomb!

  
   This film features a death scene that is so remarkable that it's shown from every angle you can think of. If you're one of those people that goes: "Wow! That was so awesome. Let's rewind that scene and watch it again", you won't have to with this one, the movie does it for you. The entire time the scene is being played over and over, my jaw dropped the first time I saw it. I'm still impressed with it and regard it as one of the greatest death scenes in cinema history. It's the last death in the film, so it makes one hell of a finale.

   In order to like this film, you must not compare it to "Carrie". They are two very different films. I hope that one day Brian DePalma makes one more film that features telekinesis as the plot. That way he can have a Telekinetic Trilogy. I can't think of any film director that has a trilogy like that and Brian DePalma is just one film away from completing it. It's either that or complete his "Al Pacino plays a Hispanic gangster" Trilogy.

(Artwork by Isaac Keith Martinez)