Brian De Palma’s follow-up to Carrie(1976) keeps the telekinetic kid but swaps tampons and girl power for a psy-spy caper.
CIA agent Peter (Kirk Douglas) has a mind-bending son, Robin (Andrew Stevens) who is seized by shadowy spooks from the Multiphasic Operations Research Group led by Ben Childress (a deliciously nefarious John Cassavetes), who has been a loyal assistant to Peter but betrays him on behalf of an organisation so secret that even the CIA doesn’t know of its existence.
While Peter is searching for his missing son he makes contact with Gillian (Amy Irving) – a girl who makes people bleed when she is seized by anger, fear or vision. A lot of nice people end up violently dead from trying to help with her problems.
De Palma stages superb set pieces, including a slo-mo foot chase and a man telekinetically exploding like a watermelon. Sadly, he doesn’t seem to care about the illogical plot and can’t match the low-rent grittiness of Cronenberg’s later Scanners (1981).
Peter
Kirk Douglas Ben Childress
John Cassavetes Hester
Carrie Snodgress Dr Jim McKeever
Charles Durning Gillian
Amy Irving Susan Charles
Fiona Lewis Robin
Andrew Stevens Dr Ellen Lindstrom
Carol Eve Rossen Kristen
Rutanya Alda Mrs Bellaver
Joyce Easton Raymond
William Finley Vivian Nuckells
Jane Lambert Blackfish
Sam Laws Robertson
J. Patrick McNamara Mrs Callahan
Alice Nunn
