In 1976, innovative filmmaker Brian De Palma teamed up with the master of modern literary horror, Stephen King, in an adaptation of King’s first novel, Carrie. Like the book, Carrie was a massive success (it's being remade this year by Mike Flanagan), both financially and critically, skyrocketing both men’s careers; King would go on to write horror classics like The Shining, The Green Mile, and IT, while De Palma would become one of the most notable directors in Hollywood, helming films like Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission: Impossible.
While the King-De Palma partnership would end with Carrie, just two years later in 1978, De Palma would adapt another novel about telekinesis-wielding teens, titled The Fury, by author John Farris. The film stars Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes (Rosemary’s Baby), Carrie Snodgrass (Wild Things), Charles Durning, Andrew Stevens (Night Eyes franchise), and Amy Irving, who also starred in Carrie.
The Fury follows Peter (Douglas) and his son, Robin (Stevens), who, while on vacation in the “Mid East,” are attacked by local militants, and Robin is taken to safety by Peter’s friend Childress (Cassavetes). What Peter doesn’t know, is that Childress is kidnapping Robin as part of a CIA shadow operation in order to take advantage of Robin’s budding telekinetic powers.
Over the next year, Robin is growing scared and frustrated while being treated like a test subject by the CIA, and Peter is on the search to find his son, enlisting the help of a young woman named Gillian (with a hard G - played by Amy Irving), who has uncontrollable psychic powers of her own.
In just premise alone, The Fury feels like it belongs right in the vein of Stephen King’s psychic powers-focused stories of that era, including Carrie, The Dead Zone, The Shining, and especially Firestarter, where a shadow government agency tries to use a pyrokinetic’s powers for their own gain. That’s not to say John Farris shouldn’t get his due for writing the story; he’s no one-hit wonder. Farris has written more than 40 novels over the course of his literary career.
The Fury isn’t just good because of its strong, classic horror-sci-fi feel. It’s great to see Brian De Palma’s early fingerprints all over the screen. He has simply always thrived with mystery thrillers, using the camera’s zoom and lighting to increasingly build intensity throughout the scenes.
His split diopter shots and superimposing to showcase Gillian’s psychic abilities are unique and reminiscent of late Hitchcock films, and an early teaser into his best films, like Blow Out and The Untouchables.
At its core, The Fury is just a solid, if not slowly paced, government mystery movie. But peppered between some of the moments that lag are awesome displays of telekinesis, like Robin causing carnival rides to spin apart, or Gillian going full Johnny Smith from The Dead Zone.
Everything is accompanied by an unusually uplifting musical score by John Williams (who had just composed Star Wars). The ending is solid gold, too, with a showdown final act that shows Robin and Gillian fully displaying their powers in a bloody, over-the-top, gloriously explosive finale.
The Fury may not be Brian De Palma’s best film, or even close to the top, but it’s certainly underrated, and most likely has flown under your radar. If you’re a fan of De Palma’s movies and you’re jonesing for a Stephen King-esque supernatural thriller, I can’t recommend this film enough. The Fury is available to rent on Amazon Video or Apple TV.