Brian De Palma has been growing better and better. Each time a new film of his opens, everything he has done before seems to have been preparation for it." In his review of "Femme Fatale", Roger Ebert wrote about the director: "De Palma deserves more honor as a director. Consider also these titles: "Sisters", "Blow Out", "The Fury", "Dressed to Kill", "Carrie", "Scarface", "Wise Guys", "Casualties of War", "Carlito's Way", "Mission: Impossible". Yes, there are a few failures along the way ("Snake Eyes", "Mission to Mars", "The Bonfire of the Vanities"), but look at the range here, and reflect that these movies contain
Brian De Palma in, respectively, film and episodic sitcoms. "Carrie" became a hit, the first genuine box-office success for De Palma. It garnered Spacek and Piper Laurie Oscar nominations for their performances. Preproduction for the film had coincided with the casting process for George Lucas's "Star Wars", and many of the actors cast in De Palma's film had been earmarked as contenders for Lucas's movie, and vice versa. The "shock ending" finale is effective even while it upholds horror-film convention, its suspense sequences are buttressed by teen comedy tropes, and its use of split-screen, split-diopter and slow motion shots tell the story visually