THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
They say growing up to be an adult can be the best part of life. Sadly, that is not the same for everyone.
PLOT
Based on Stephen King’s first published novel, Carrie follows the titular teenager Carrie White who lives with her mother Margaret, a frantically religious who acts extremely unstable. Carrie has been picked on at school for being a loner and when she has her first period after a PE class, she panics due to never being told about menstruation before. Rather than helping her, the girls in the locker room choose to mock her for not knowing what to do. Thankfully, gym teacher Miss Collins tends to her and excuses her to go home early. When Carrie does, her mother believes menstruation is caused by sin and rather than explaining periods appropriately, she chooses to punish her by locking her in a prayer closet to pray for forgiveness. Miss Collins takes action by giving Carrie’s tormentors by giving them exercise detention and bans Christine Hargensen from attending senior prom when she refuses to participate. The only one who regrets her actions is Sue Snell. She would feel so bad that she asks her boyfriend Tommy Ross to take White to prom, to make her happy. When he asks her out, she worries of it being another prank, but Miss Collins assures that he is not trying to do so. Within the past days since her first period, Carrie has discovered telekinesis and is able to use it to an advantage by standing up to her mother to go to prom. On the night of prom, she seems to enjoy her time with Tommy, but she is unaware that Chris is plotting against her. The night before, she and her boyfriend Billy Nolan have collected pig blood to use to prank her again. On prom night, she is able to convince her friend Norma (PJ Soles) to rig the ballots that would elect Tommy & Carrie as prom king and queen. Just for a moment, White feels accepted until Chris pulls the bucket of pig blood from the ceiling with a cord and dumps it on her. She and Billy would sneak out before Miss Collins could spot them. The bucket would even knock Tommy unconscious when falling off the ceiling. Hallucinating that everyone is laughing at her like her mother predicted, when they were actually sympathizing the incident (minus Norma), she chooses to take revenge by trapping them in the gym and kill them all by setting the gym on fire with the use of her newfound powers. On her way out, she’d end her trail of blood by killing Chris and Billy who were driving towards her. When she heads home, she bathes herself to remove all the blood on her body. When she sees her mother again, Margaret would confess of guilt that she was conceived through rape which she simultaneously loathed & enjoyed. They would share another pray together, only for Margaret to try to kill her own daughter. She would stab her in the back, but Carrie would defend herself by using her powers to throw multiple knives at her. The conflict would cause her to lose control with her powers, resulting in her to crumble the house down, which would kill her and her mother in the process. The film would end with Sue having recurring nightmares of Carrie attacking her from the grave.
THOUGHTS
High school is not a pleasant experience for everyone, and this film told me that in bold fashion. Director Brian De Palma and writer Lawrence D Cohen shocked the world in making something so scary you would believe it to be real. Paul Hirsch's editing and Mario Tosi's cinematography were excellent factors in showing how claustrophobic it can be for some because it's harder than one would think to have the moment of attention that can be positively reflected. And with the addition of Pino Donaggio’s score, it further clarifies that a day in school can go from smooth to unpleasant in the blink of an eye. From the very beginning, you already know something is going to go wrong but you just couldn't anticipate how wrong it'll get, especially if you didn't read the book. All of that factored into the theme of how consequential things can be if you bully people. It doesn't matter if there is reason to it and it doesn't matter whether you know someone has psychic abilities, it will always worsen the situation before it would be possible to make things better. And if you're someone who can't understand that, then you are part of the problem. When you're able to get that, there is a chance of change in our society. The reason this message kicks in so well is thanks to the connection we build with the titular lead. Due to a phenomenal Oscar nominated performance from the young Sissy Spacek, we just relate to how naive she is due to the sheltered life she had up until her story truly begins with her period. There is a crowd wants to call her a villain because she reacted in such gruesome fashion, but that just proves they weren't paying attention. From the get-go, she is seen as a victim of abuse in and out of her home, showing that people are bound to have a breaking point when being pushed too far. Carrie has it the moment the pig blood lands on her. So once you see how big here eyes get before she kills everyone, you just couldn't blame her at that point. People look up to this character because she inspires them to take a stand to those who repress you for being yourself. You still couldn't be able to blame her when she bathes herself after what she did because she had no idea she was so strong all along. And if it wasn't so obvious, I don't think it would've ever went so far had it for the bad parenting she dealt with. Oscar nominee Piper Laurie is so fucking haunting as Margaret for being so twisted of a woman. I'm not one to judge religion, but if it is going to affect how you raise your child, that's where it's a problem. Margaret had such a deep conflict that drove her and she chose to take it out on her daughter. She hates herself for enjoying the pain she went through in her past and proved it when she died, but because Carrie's birth reminds her of pain she never wanted in the first place. When Carrie defends herself from her, you can say she was put out of misery, but you still wish everyone handled it in different circumstances. Carrie's death is the most tragic in the genre's history because it felt like happiness was never meant to be a part of life and her first taste of it goes extremely awry. As if the neglect from the mother wasn't enough to make her act irrational, she had one of the worst bullies ever. Nancy Allen was goddamn diabolical as Chris who had no shame in her cruelty at all. She refuses to see she is in the wrong and takes her punishment so personal she makes a prank that gets everyone killed. With a twisted boyfriend like Billy, played by Welcome Back, Kotter star John Travolta, he took his support for her too far by killing pigs for the prank. Even after seeing what Carrie does, they thought it was a good idea to run her over. So when that car flipped thanks to Carrie's power, I just said 'good riddance' since it was really her fault things went sideways. Considering how the focus is on Carrie as it should be, it can be easy to mistake she is the only one who had a pure soul. Since it's clear Chris & Norma had no shame until their dying day, it was a relief to see Sue show regret. Amy Irving shows her as one who starts out as a rebel who ends up redeeming herself with a huge act of generosity. William Katt also pleases us when playing Tommy as one who's kind from the start. He's aware that Carrie is different and respects her for being that. He was willing to kiss her because that is how much he wants her to be happy for once. Betty Buckley also gave us her own set of warmth within the role of Miss Collins, the movie's version of the novel's character Miss Desjardin. The whole time, she puts herself out there defending Carrie solely off of it being right and not that it's her job. I wasn't even mad when she slapped Chris because I don't think anyone else was gonna make it clear she was in the wrong. Sadly, being a good samaritan was not enough to survive the wrath of uncontrolled power. Sue was indeed the lucky soul as Miss Collins kicked her out of the auditorium, believing she was up to something. Snell is forever haunted because she wished the events never had to go so far. She tried to save Carrie and it was too late and for that, there is nothing but pity to feel by the end. There is no doubt on how impressive this movie is, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t issues to catch onto upon re-watching. For instance, Miss Collins and the principal do not pay attention to the ashtray shaking before it falls. Even if they couldn’t have guessed that was Carrie’s doing, there is no way to ignore that when it’s right in front of them. It’s more illogical than the principal forgetting Carrie’s name every time he gets reminded, which only makes a bad excuse to show her powers emerging. Also, where and how did Carrie hide the glass mirror she broke? It’s not easy to pick up such an object so she’s lucky she didn’t cut her hands. If we gotta talk about continuity errors, I thought it was weird Chris’ clothes were dry after the rain sequence whereas Billy was drenched. And let’s be honest, what was the whole point of having Norma go to the hair salon if she was gonna keep the red cap on afterwards. That’s a waste of money and runtime if you ask me. And what made Sue’s mom think she’ll get over Carrie’s death at the age of young adulthood? When people you know die, it sticks with you so it’s fucked up to think otherwise. Other than that, this will remain an stunning film overall. In conclusion, 1976’s Carrie is one of the best horror movies ever made for being realistically startling in every possible way. If you want to witness a different kind of high school experience, good luck with this.
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