Review of The Fury (1978) by Richard D — 20 Aug 2016

Brian DePalma's follow-up to Carrie was another adaptation of a novel, this time the novel was by John Farris who also wrote the screenplay. Kirk Douglas plays Peter, a U.S. government agent who plans to retire from the shadowy agency he works for so he can move back to the States and see that his psychic son, Robin (Andrew Stevens) gets the help he need in controlling and understanding his powers.

A supposed terrorist attack on the Israeli resort they are staying at separates Peter from Robin and Peter learns that his good friend and fellow agent Childress (John Cassavetes) was behind the attack and that he wanted Peter out of the way so Robin can be turned into a weapon.

Presumed dead by his son, and hunted by Childress' agents, Peter seeks aid from an employee of the mysterious Paragon Institute, Hester (Carrie Snodgrass) but it is a psychic as gifted as Robin, Gillian (Amy Irving) who can help Peter contact his son but Childress wants Gillian as well.

So this film takes the psychic powers of Carrie and adds in a Political Thriller dimension to a Science-Fiction/Horror scenario. The result is one of DePalma's often overlooked Thrillers. Why DePalma was convinced to follow up a Horror film about psychic powers with a Science-Fiction/Horror film about psychic powers is unknown, probably the studio said "hey, this worked; lets do it again.

" The budget is larger but this allows DePalma to do more and the film is a pretty exciting ride from start to finish as DePalma brings all his main characters together for the final denouement. Along with Irving, who had been in Carrie, DePalma regulars William Findley (as a psychic) and Dennis Franz (as a Chicago cop) are along for the ride.

Also look for Daryl Hannah in a very early role as one of Gillian's schoolmates.