Carrie
-Based on the novel by Stephen King.
-The movie tells the story of Carrie White, a bullied, social outcast who discovers she has telekinetic powers which arise when she becomes angry or distressed. Her powers become seen by her classmates, teachers and abusively religious mother, which ends in death
-The movie stars Sissy Spacek as Carrie, Piper Laurie as her mother Margaret, Betty Buckley, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen as Chris Hargensen, William Katt, John Travolta, P.J. Soles and Priscilla Pointer.
-Was one of the most watched films during Halloween
Did You Know?
-The blood Sissy Spacek had dumped on her was only corn syrup and food coloring, even though she was fine with real blood being dumped on her
-Sue Snell and her mother are played by real life mother and daughter Amy Irving and Priscilla Pointer
-The fake blood on Sissy Spacek kept drying and adhering to her skin because of the hot lights, so they had to keep hosing her down to keep it from getting gluey
-Many of the girls were hesitant to appear nude in the movie, but when Brian De Palma showed them nude shots Sissy Spacek did, they became more confident
-In real life, Sissy Spacek was named homecoming queen at Quitman High School
Plot
-Carrie White(Sissy Spacek) is a friendless, severely shy teen girl abused by her fanatically Christian fundamentalist mother Margaret(Piper Laurie). The girls at Bates High School also harass Carrie, with Chris Hargensen(Nancy Allen), being the leader and the cruelest
-Carrie gets her first period in the shower after gym class and because she is innocent to the concept of the menstrual cycle, she gets hysterical, thinking she is bleeding to death. Popular girl Sue Snell notices Carrie's horror, leading to all the girls pelting Carrie with tampons and sanitary pads at her before Miss Collins comes in. As Carrie gets more distressed, a light bulb above her bursts. Miss Collins brings Carrie to Principal Morton's office, where he constantly gets Carrie's name wrong by calling her Cassie or Wright instead of White. When she finally has to correct him, the ashtray on his desk flies off. When Carrie is walking home, a neighborhood boy crashes his bike after taunting her
-Her mother Margaret is walking from door to door spreading the word of God, when she gets a call from Miss Collins about the locker room incident and tells Carrie about the "curse of blood" is punishment for sin. She locks Carrie in a closet and forces her to pray. In her room that night, a disheveled Carrie stares at her mirror until it explodes
-Suspecting she is telekinetic, Carrie is in the library one day looking at a book about telekinesis. Tommy confronts her in the library and asks her to the prom, with her fleeing, fearing another trick. After a talk from Miss Collins, Carrie accepts Tommy's invitation when he approaches her at home. When Carrie tells her mother she is going to the prom, her mother declares the prom an occasion of sin, refusing to let her go. However, Carrie causes the windows to break, revealing her telekinesis. Margaret is now convinced that this is Satan's power and hesitantly lets her go.
-Miss Collins berates all the girls responsible for harassing Carrie and subjects them to a week long boot-camp style detention until she can run them ragged. They are threatened with suspension and refusal of prom tickets. All the girls show remorse except Chris, who throws a fit with Miss Collins smacking her in the face and banning her from the prom. Chris tells her jailbird boyfriend Billy Nolan that she wants to get payback on Carrie and Miss Collins. They all go to a local farm to kill a pig. There Billy drains some of the blood into a bucket, which Chris has planned to put above the stage above the king and queen throne
-Chris makes a deal with her friend Norma Watson and Billy's friend Freddy to rig the election of prom king and queen so Tommy and Carrie win. As Carrie gets ready for the prom, her mother tells her that everyone will laugh at her. Carrie angrily tells her that she is going. Though she is at the prom, the people treat her as an actual human being only temporarily. Sue, who was unable to attend due to no date, sneaks in to see to it that everything is going okay for Carrie
-Carrie is shocked when her and Tommy are elected as the king and queen. As they approach the stage, Sue sees Chris hiding behind the stage holding the rope attached to a bucket filled with blood above the stage. Miss Collins sees Sue there, thinking she is there for problems and forces her out. As the crown is placed on Carrie's head, Chris pulls the rope and the blood is dumped on Carrie. As the crowd is shocked, Tommy is knocked out and Carrie sees the whole room laughing at her, when it's only implied that a few of Chris's friends are doing so in reality while everyone else is horrified. Carrie's telekinesis takes over, closing the gym doors and turning on a fire hose. Norma is knocked out by the fire hose along the floor, and Carrie kills Miss Collins with a falling rafter. Principal Morton and Mr. Fromm are electrocuted, which causes a fire in the gym. Leaving her classmates inside as it burns, Carrie walks home, covered in blood. Chris and Billy, who got out of the gym, catch up with her, intending to run her over, but Carrie uses her powers to flip the car over and explode, killing Chris and Billy
-At home, Carrie breaks down in her mother's arms after taking a bath to remove all the blood. Under the impression the Devil has taken over Carrie, Margaret brings the girl to her knees and stabs Carrie in the back. She falls down the stairs and is cornered in the kitchen by her mom, but sends kitchen knives flying at her mother, killing her with a stigmata pose all too reminiscent of Christ on the cross. Using her powers, Carrie causes the house to collapse upon her and her mother.
-Later on, Sue, being the only survivor of the prom, dreams of visiting the plot where the White bungalow stood and as she places flowers down on the ground, she sees a sign that says "CARRIE WHITE BURNS IN HELL!" Then a bloody hand reaches out, grabbing Sue's wrist. This wakes her up, screaming in her mother's arms.
Cast
- Sissy Spacek as Carrie White
- Amy Irving as Sue Snell
- Piper Laurie as Margaret White
- Betty Buckley as Miss Collins
- William Katt as Tommy Ross
- Nancy Allen as Chris Hargensen
- John Travolta as Billy Nolan
- P. J. Soles as Norma Watson
- Priscilla Pointer as Mrs. Snell
- Sydney Lassick as Mr. Fromm
- Stefan Gierasch as Mr. Morton
- Michael Talbott as Freddy
- Doug Cox as The Beak
- Harry Gold as George Dawson
- Edie McClurg as Helen Shyres
