Master technical filmmaker
Brian De Palma’s adaptation of Stephen King’s coming of age/horror novel of
psychic telekinetic wrath Carrie achieved
the director’s first brush with mainstream critical and commercial success and
cemented the auteur’s status in the film scene as a formidable visual artist
unafraid of taking chances or daring to press taboo buttons with
moviegoers. Two years later, De Palma’s
next project The Fury would
inevitably mingle with those pesky and dangerous telekinetics once again, this
time adding two troublemakers to the arena of visual effects wizardry,
high-camp with shock and a sense of pure cinematic fun that needn’t always make
complete logical sense to be thrilling or entertaining.
Based on the novel by John
Farris, who adapted his own screenplay, The
Fury follows Kirk Douglas giving an astonishing physical performance in his
60s as Peter Sandza, a former CIA agent whose telepathic son is kidnapped and
imprisoned by Sandza’s evil former colleague Childress (John Cassavetes)
channeling even more villainy than his playwright in Rosemary’s Baby. The Fury finds
De Palma stabbing at the same apple twice though with less cohesion and focus
than Carrie. If Carrie
was the hard and heavy horror film version of female adolescence, The Fury feels somewhat like a goof on
that film’s success and the results aren’t nearly as effective or frightening
but it has more than a few wild and even wacky tricks up it’s sleeve.
A precursor to David
Cronenberg’s Scanners more than
anything, The Fury partially
functions as a conspiratorial espionage chase thriller when it isn’t a half-baked
second fiddle to Carrie. Despite the obvious similarities including
utilizing some of the same cast members (notably Amy Irving fresh off of Carrie) The Fury is all over the map and features some of De Palma’s most
gleefully over-the-top horror imagery in his oeuvre including a scene that
rivals the basketball murder scene in Wes Craven’s Deadly Friend. Unique to
this De Palma effort is the original score by John Williams who more or less
channels the great film composer Bernard Herrmann, although I have to wonder
what The Fury would have sounded like
if Pino Donaggio scored it instead.
All the hallmarks germane to
De Palma’s distinctive visual technique (save for the split screens) are here,
from elaborate crane shots, key use of slow motion, split-diopter lens work and
rapid fire editing simulating a zoom into a close up. The cinematography by The Andromeda Strain cameraman Richard H. Kline is of course
dynamic and complex with several carefully planned sequences involving rear
projections, working to bring De Palma’s fluid cinematic vision to life. And yet The
Fury when compared alongside Carrie for
all it’s stunning visual effects by Rick Baker and splendid technical merits
doesn’t hold nearly as much water or old fashioned scares.
In the years since, De Palma regarded The Fury as one of his lesser efforts
and seen within the context of his filmography it tends to be overshadowed by
the infinitely stronger film that preceded it. As a whole, it doesn't help that Carrie in one scene is scarier than anything in the director's follow up to it. Still, The Fury like the
director’s eventual Femme Fatale displays
De Palma having fun with the material, sometimes even firmly planting his
tongue in cheek. Not one of De Palma’s
finest hours but certainly an engaging lark with more than enough surprises to
make it worth your while.
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki